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What does it mean: Building a green home

What does it mean when people say that they are building a green home? Features of most green homes include utilizing the sun and land for natural heating and cooling, lessening waste produced by construction, making using of sustainable resources, and employing energy efficient fixtures and appliances. These features can be implemented in many ways both in building a green home and in updating an existing home.

So, how can you go about building a green home? There are really some very simple steps you can take to improve the home that you have now or to take into consideration when building a green home. A huge step you can take on the road to greenness is to update fixtures and appliances, most importantly, those which use water.

An essential step to take is to update your toilet. Older toilets use a lot more water than new ones and are relatively easy to replace. It is also important to check your faucets in your home. Gallons of water can be wasted each day from leaky faucets and you may not even realize it! I realize that replacement is expensive, but top-loading washers do use more water than do front loading washers. I am not saying that you should run out and buy a brand new washing machine, however, you should keep that in mind if you find that you are going to be purchasing a new washing machine.

Another thing to keep in mind for either building a green home or updating an existing structure is the type of windows and insulation that you are using. When building a green home, energy efficient windows can really help cut heating costs, especially with fuel costs the way that they are. Also, having your home properly insulated can cut heating and cooling costs.

I do know that it isn't always possible to spend a lot of money on updates for your home, but there are inexpensive updates that can make a big differences. The cheapest, easiest update that I have done to make my own home more green is to purchase a water-saving showerhead. I only paid seven dollars for it, and it uses half of the water that my old showerhead did. Building a green home is pretty simple and doesn't have to be expensive.

Renewable & Alternative Energy Resources: http://www.alternativeenergybase.com

Find more information regarding green home plans, visit www.greenhomeguide.org.

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