SanJoseGreenHome.com

Let’s face it, no home is truly green without supporting the health of its inhabitants.  With a rise of cases where more and more people, and especially our children, are developing allergies, asthma, and chemical sensitivities, many are looking for solutions in the the quality of their indoor air as never before. 

Want to hear some awesome news?  We have an abundance of options to keep our in-home air as fresh as the Amazon rain forest.  OK ok, maybe not like the Amazon, but close.  Come with us on a tour of non-toxic and sustainable materials to learn some things you can do to give your lungs a break that they deserve. 

PART II

If you have learned something new here, please share it with your family and friends.  They will thank you for it.

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Some say that remodeling green is an incredibly joyful adventure.  Some feel that planning, choosing, and fighting with one’s spouse over the colors and materials is more painful than waxing ears.  Whatever your position is, these tips will make your experience more enjoyable.  Most of this advice comes from experience or friends in the community.  

When remodeling green, avoid making these mistakes: 

1.  Getting excited about eco-chic materials first and busting your budget.  It’s hard to resist starting with items like recycled glass countertops  or FSC  certified cabinets but do focus on upgrading you home’s energy efficiency first.  Start with things like water tightening you walls, insulation, windows, furnace and solar water heater.  If you have money left, go for the updates that make your nest more fun and cozy.

2.  Going overboard on upgrades for the neighborhood.  Significantly over-improving only feels good until you’re trying to sell your home.  If you only knew how often an overpriced home simply sits on the market because the homeowners are trying to recoup their fortune that they spent on remodeling…  Depending on the price range, few buyers will likely pay extra $30,000 – $50,000 above neighborhood market price, even if your home is a model of energy efficiency.

3.  Failing to take a holistic approach.  Often, when you change your home’s one component, it affects all others.  For example, (more…)

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Homes in Mexico built from garage doors salvaged from Bay Area and LA. Photo is a courtesy of The Reuse People. http://thereusepeople.org/

You’ve heard the saying: “One man’s trash is another one’s treasure.”  Nothing can be more true when speaking about the actual parts of your house.  We reuse and recycle things like plastic to paper without giving it a thought so why should it be any different when it comes to our home?  Various parts and systems of the house can be often reused in other properties and often re-purposed for building homes for the less affluent ones in Bay Area or even across the border.  Amazingly, deconstruction can even be more cost effective than plain demolition. 

The questions abound… If you are tearing down an old home or a part of it do you demolish or deconstruct?  Do you take it to a landfill or would you rather have someone else enjoy your “trash” as their treasure?  What’s more cost effective and what’s more reasonable for the environment?  Most people believe plain old demolition is the way to go but hold your horses; you may be up for a surprise.  

Salvaging means deconstructing the house piece by piece to keep the materials and systems in tact.  The advantages can be enormous: 

• Salvaging saves embodied energy – the energy that was used in the work of making a product. This lifecycle of each product includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacturing, assembly, installation, disassembly, etc. 
• Salvaging can actually improve a standard of living – allows low income members of society to buy materials at a fraction of the cost.   This can really mean the difference between a straw barn or a functional house, like in the case of homes in (more…)

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Did you know that your roof color can actually affect your energy bill, your comfort in the house and even contribute to climate change?  It’s true.  Our usually dark colored composition roofs contribute to what is called an “urban heat island.”  The problem with most of home roofs is that they absorb the heat of the sun, the temperature of the area rises and our air conditioners have to work much harder to keep us all cool and cozy. 

What’s a Heat Island? 

No, it’s not an island in the Bahamas.  The term “heat island” describes built up areas that are hotter than nearby rural areas.  According to the EPA, the annual air temperature of a city with 1 million people or more can be 1.8–5.4°F warmer than its surroundings. In the evening, the difference can be as high as 22°F. 

Source: EPA Website

Heat islands are no joke.  They can affect communities by increasing summertime peak energy demand, air conditioning costs, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and heat-related illness.    

What Can Home Owners Do? 

Very simple.  Next time you are replacing your roof, opt for a (more…)

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If going solar would cost you nothing would you consider it?  A few weeks ago I attended a small Green Business Show in San Jose, where our local vendors had a chance to present their services to the community.  These shows are always a great fun because green vendors pack a good punch of specialized knowledge. 

That day, one of my inquisition victims was Jeremy, a solar design consultant with Solar Technologies.  So I started as usual… “How are you”, “How’s business?”, and then “Why in the world don’t we have more solar panels in our neighborhoods?” 

After quite a few minutes of warm exchange of insights we realized we haven’t come up with anything that much revealing except for one awesome fact – affording solar energy is not as hard as most home owners think.  In fact, it makes total financial sense.  We parted by sharing one last sentiment  – most home owners simply have not taken a chance to look at this opportunity. 

So why most of us have not embraced the sun as a source of energy? 

1.  The main reason home owners have not adopted solar technology more widely is because of initial cost.  These days it’s in the range of about $25,000 -$28,000 for an average 1,600 square foot home.  Big price tag indeed. 

2.  A secondary rationale is esthetics – some folks feel that having big solar panels on their roof hurts the curb appeal of the property.  

3.  A third reason most folks have not gone solar could be one or a combination of these simple reasons: they are not sensitive to environmental issues of today’s world or they are simply waiting for a kick in the (more…)

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All the TV shows, all the magazines and all the advice from our environmentally conscious friends about green living can really make our heads spin.  Is your floor off-gassing VOCs, do your cleaning supplies have endocrine disruptors, what’s the carbon footprint of your German Sheppard… Oh my goodness, some of this can sound like a brand new language!

One of the reasons this blog was started is to help you simplify things and take the burden of interpreting all the “green” jargon out there today.  I’ll take the joys of staying on top of all this and you, my green partner, enjoy and implement some of these concepts when you can… deal?

You’ve heard the term “Green Home” by now; probably many times if you’ve visited this blog or browsed the internet on the subject before.  Have you ever asked yourself what that really means?  Chances are you have. 

Essentially, living green implies being aware of the environment around us.  Not just locally, but also globally.  We do our best to consider results of our actions when it comes to our bodies, health and nature around us.  Green homes are no different.  An environmentally friendly home is a home that—compared with a standard home—uses less energy, water, and natural resources; creates less waste; and is healthier for its inhabitants. These homes can either be built green from the start, or they can undergo some eco-conscious alterations or remodels later down the road. 

5 KEY COMPONENTS

Nearly all eco friendly homes will consider the following key principals essential to green building and (more…)

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One of the best perks of making your home more green is that it makes a ton of financial sense.  Windy, rainy and cool weather is already here.  For the amount of money you may spend on candy and Halloween decorations this year you could winterize your home, reduce your carbon footprint, be more comfy and save some money as a result. 

Regardless whether you rent or own – these nine great tips apply to everyone and makes financial sense.  Why 9?  Chinese say it’s a lucky number.  We can use as much luck as we can these days, especially when it comes to saving a few bucks or preserving the environment. 

1. Plug that Draft from Your Outlets
There are several places in your home where you may be losing heat and may not even realize it. One that most people overlook is the electrical outlets.  Remedying this is extremely cheap and simple: Use AM Foam Outlet and Switch Gaskets(just $0.10 each) to stop drafts around your outlets and light switches. Just remove the cover plates using a screwdriver, place the precut foam seal over the outlet or switch, then (more…)

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For obvious benefits, many home owners will remodel their home before putting it on the market for a better re-sale value. Being a busy Realtor, my job requires touring a lot of home listings. What I notice is that following the advice of their agent, the majority of folks pick granite counter tops as the choice to update their kitchens and appeal to the modern buyer. But is granite a true must when it comes to style?

Mining of granite so that our kitchen counters can look just like everyone else’s is not only becoming boring but is also blight on the environment. You see, most of it is quarried from an open-pit mine, which then just becomes an open pit that is often used as a landfill. Plus there’s the issue of how far the granite has to be transported and the carbon footprint it leaves behind. Some of the mines are in desert areas of the United States, but others are in China and India. That’s one long way for it to travel before it reaches our kitchen. That is not necessary.

If you are in a mood for a chic new look and a much more sustainable product check out recycled glass counter tops. You may be absolutely stunned by how great this product looks (I sure was). Your friends will always inquire about it and drop their jaws when they find out how it’s made.

At the West Coast Geen 2009 I interviewed Ryan Bloom. He works with IceStone products for Cerami Inc. In this video Ryan briefly discussed environmental impacts of granite mining and provides an overview of the new recycled glass countertops. It’s only 3 minutes long so enjoy!

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West Coast Green 2009 was as informative and inspiring as ever.  Hundreds of vendors and thousands of people have gathered once again in San Francisco to check out world’s latest cutting-edge green building technologies. 

I anxiously waited for this event and when the day finally arrived, I jumped out of bed full of enthusiasm, grabbed my mini HD camera and “went to town”.  In this video I interviewed a few vendors that offered some clever and innovative solutions on how to go “eco friendly” at home.  They were asked to give their “green” pitch in 20 seconds and describe the product or a service.  I had some fun at the end so make sure to watch the entire video…  Enjoy.

Keep your eyes out for two more videos where I interviewed a lovely lady from PG&E asking her why PG&E cares about sustainability.  Considering the usual behavior of big corporations all these incentives to “save energy” and spend less money on gas and electricity just didn’t make sense.  Normally businesses want us to spend more don’t they?  Well I got some answers and some of them will surprise you.

Stay tuned and make sure to subscribe to our updates.  This way you’ll stay on top of the local events and latest developments very effortlessly.  In addition, you’ll get an informative manual on how you can Go Green and $ave Green at the Same Time.  You may love the fact that living a more eco friendly life actually makes financial sense!

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Whether you live in San Jose or any other part of the world, energy is an essential part of our lives. Our bodies need it to function and stay focused, and our homes need it for lighting, powering appliances, electronics, heating, cooling and even charging our cell phones. Most of us don’t even think about energy until a power outage occurs and we find ourselves reading our favorite novel under the candle light.  Yet another punch of reality may settle in when we are faced with that ever bigger utility bill. 

Did you know that residential buildings account for nearly a quarter of the worlds carbon emissions (21%)?  Nationally, energy prices in the residential building sector have maintained the highest in relation to other well known sectors such as transportation, industrial, and commercial buildings. The state of California is ranked among the top states in the nation for highest energy costs – only coming in lower than some east coast states and Hawaii.  

So what can we do to lower the pain on those energy bills and go easy on the environment?  Well, one way is to start being mindful of it and applying some “controlled conservation.”  It is easily one of the best methods of reducing high energy costs.  It includes shutting off lights, taking shorter showers and using energy at off peak hours.  This just the tip of the iceberg for energy conservation but most of us don’t do it.  Why?  Well, controlled conservation can (more…)

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