It’s rare that you’ll encounter a home owner today who says that if they had the option, they wouldn’t want to reduce their carbon emissions or reduce their energy consumption, and in turn, the costs of home ownership. The problem is, that in many cases, greener home technology is just out of reach of many North Americans because of the high costs that are still associated with the options available on the market. This has been the case with voltage optimization technology that can accomplish the above goals, but until recently, it’s only been attainable to large organizations looking to optimize their energy use because of cost. A UK company has decided to address this lapse in the industry by introducing the VPhase, an affordable voltage optimization technology for home owners.

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This year’s Solar Decathlon at the National Mall has come to a close, and the winner has been crowned! Germany, for the second year in a row, has taken the gold for it’s Net Zero, solar powered home after a week long competition that brought many innovative ideas to light.

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At the 11th annual Greenprints Conference and Trade show in Atlanta, Georgia this past Wednesday and Thursday, the overall message was loud and clear; building and retrofitting green is and will be the only way forward for commercial real estate and home owners.

As I made my way into a crowded conference room at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta, you could feel that finally, people are taking green seriously. This wasn’t a room full of tree hugging hippies and global warming activists preaching to save the planet, but a room full of professionals who are bringing a smarter way of living to a world that has up til now, quite frankly, lived vicariously through excess consumption.

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Mrs. Obama took the opportunity to speak on the importance of both community service and building green:

“The work you’ve done here is quite impressive, and the evolution of your work to include green building, something that we’re talking more and more about as a nation, energy-saving practices, and environmental awareness, it demonstrates how YouthBuild has endured as a leading non-profit organization, keeping up with the times, making sure that the training and education that you get is current.”

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Stimulus Bill Increases Rewards for Energy-efficient Remodeling

Energy-efficient remodeling replaces painting your bedroom walls as the most significant home improvement project of 2009.

We all know that green is the talk of the town these days, but we’re not talking about paint color any more when it comes to home remodeling. The word ‘green’ now holds it’s weight in eco-friendly, money saving home improvements.

To add to the wave, the government has now stepped in and made stimulating your home a great way to stimulate the ecomomy by giving back a 30 percent tax credit for homeowners who install energy-efficient windows, insulation or heating systems in 2009 and 2010.

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With all the talk of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the news these days it seems to me that having an energy efficient home is the way to go.

So why is there a need to improve your home’s energy efficiency?

A lot of homes these days are beyond energy efficient. In fact, if your home is over 10 years old, it was more than likely built with NO energy conserving features.

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According to the survey, which polled 800 registered voters about how important certain features would be in their decision to build a green home or remodel their current home to be more green, 64% said that energy efficiency would be the most important feature, the healthier environment of green homes came in second at 55%, and 49% percent believed it would be the right thing to do for the environment.

Home builders and designers who can provide energy efficient homes will have a better chance of surviving the recent housing slump.  While general home sales are down, recent studies have shown that the sale of green homes is remaining steady.  Green houses also tend to be worth more.

The one concern most consumers have is the cost of green homes.  While tax credits and rebates help, home owners should be looking at the long term benefits of owning green.  With lower energy and maintenance costs over time, the additional premium is worth it.  Also, as technology and building techniques evolve, construction costs will come down.

In today’s volatile fuel market, energy efficient buildings are going to be all the rage, and delivering quality homes at a reasonable price will help many builders rise above the slumping market.

Smaller buildings are potentially more affordable, are better suited to livable neighborhoods, and serve the needs of smaller families (while our houses have more than doubled in size since 1950, the size of the average family has actually decreased in that same period). There are already developers who understand this, but sometimes, the municipalities make it impossible to build smaller homes.

Marty Pieroni, a developer in Kuna, Idaho was turned down on his request to build some houses smaller than the 1,400 square foot minimum set by the city. With rising energy costs and the current housing credit crunch, there is an increasing demand for smaller, more efficient houses. But the city government (whose tax base is determined by the value of the developed property within its bounds) does not want to allow smaller properties and has turned down the request.

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