10 Things You Should Put in Your House in 2010

The last thing home builders should want is a reputation for turning out substandard houses loaded with the cheapest materials they can find. Sure, the company might make money for a while, but in the end, the negative word-of-mouth will spread faster than you can say “class action lawsuit,” and everyone knows where that could lead.

Conscientious builders, instead, try to turn a profit but looks for ways to make houses more energy-efficient, more durable, more attractive, and cheaper to operate. Simply put: They look for ways to make houses better.

There are different ways to build a better house, of course. Using tried-and-true techniques that work should be the first option. But because building scientists and manufacturers have learned much in the last 25 years, there are a variety of ways builders can improve their products.

Last year, BUILDER Online wrote about 10 ways to improve the perceived value of homes in “10 Things You Must Put in Your Next House.” This list recommended items such as inexpensive butcher block countertops, but it also included products that could be deemed “green” such as dual-flush toilets and tankless water heaters. “Is it me or were 9 of the 10 of these green-oriented products?” one reader commented. “Maybe the title should have been ‘Go Green in 2009.’”

You can call these products green if you like, but that’s not our intent. People mistakenly associate products that improve performance or save money with the green movement. In the old days, it was merely called Yankee thrift, good building practices, or simply common sense. Sometimes a better product is not about green; it’s simply about being, well, better.

Having said that, we’ve compiled another list of products. It does contain products that will help homeowners lower their energy bills, but it also consists of offerings that will last longer and perform better than conventional choices.

As is the case with many high-performing products, some of these will have a higher initial cost, but they save money in labor, maintenance, energy, or replacement. Use one or use them all if your budget allows. Feel free to call them green if you like. But regardless of what you call them, any of these products will improve your houses and your reputation with your buyers in the New Year and beyond.

Credit: Georgia Pacific

Radiant Barrier
A radiant barrier is simple: It’s just a structural panel with a reflective material (usually aluminum) laminated to one side that installs foil side down on a roof deck to reduce heat gain in warm climates. Manufacturers say the panels can block up to 97% of heat transfer through roof sheathing, which lowers attic temperatures and consequently reduces cooling costs by 5% to 10%. Studies say the material ranges from 15 cents to 75 cents per square foot, but you have to install roof sheathing anyway, so why not get one with the foil attached?

Credit: Dow Building Solutions

Foam Board Insulation
Insulation on the interior is a no-brainer, but a house also will see additional benefits from rigid foam board insulation installed on the exterior wall or roof deck. In addition to boosting thermal resistance, the product adds to a house’s structural strength and reduces conduction through elements such as joists and studs. Boards range in R-values from 3.8 to 8 per inch of thickness.

Credit: Marvin Windows and Doors

Better Windows, Better Placement
Energy Star-qualified windows were more than adequate a short time ago, but with the development of better glazing technology, they are no longer good enough. If the budget permits, get the best climate-specific window you can. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 offers homeowners a tax credit for using replacement windows with a 0.30 U-factor and a 0.30 solar heat gain coefficient. And remember, where you put the windows (and their shading) is just as important as the products themselves.

Credit: ARXX Corp.

ICF Foundation
It’s pointless to improve the energy efficiency of your houses only to neglect the basement walls. Houses leak here too. Building with insulating concrete forms (ICFs) is a smart way to go. ICFs are lightweight rigid expanded polystyrene or extruded polystyrene foam forms that hold concrete in place during the curing process but are left in place to serve as thermal insulation for the walls. In addition to possessing insulation values ranging from R-17 to R-26, ICF foundation walls are fast and easy to construct.

Credit: Follansbee Steel

Metal Roof
Asphalt dominates the residential roofing category, but more green building advocates are recommending metal roofs as an energy-efficient improvement. Available in aluminum, stainless steel, copper, or zinc, metal is a durable, lightweight material that’s extremely fire-resistant. No wonder it’s the material of choice for so many agriculture buildings. Considered a “cool” roof, a metal roof reflects heat, lowers energy use, and helps reduce the heat island effect. The product is pricey—especially copper, zinc, and stainless steel—but it has a low lifecycle cost, and some states offer lower home insurance premiums for homes with metal roofs.

Credit: AZEK Building Products

Cellular PVC Trim
Wood, the old standby, is a good choice for exterior trim. But unless you’re using durable species such as mahogany, teak, or cedar, millwork will eventually succumb to Mother Nature. Available as trim, sheets, and corner boards, cellular PVC lumber can be cut and nailed like wood, but it’s resistant to moisture and insects, which means a homeowner will not have to replace it—at least not anytime soon. It can be painted, but manufacturers say there’s no need.

Credit: TruStile Doors

Solid Core Doors
A hollow-core door may look acceptable, but homeowners will soon notice how flimsy they feel and how little soundproofing and privacy hollow-core doors truly offer. But, then again, what do you expect for a $30 slab? Solid-core doors are much better. Not only do they sound and feel more substantial to a homeowner, they also exhibit excellent sound transmission properties. They last longer too. Considering that the average new home in 2007 measured 2,407 square feet and had 8.6 interior passage doors, solid core doors will seem pricey at $100. The good news is that the homes that are being built–and sold in the downturn–are smaller and likely have fewer doors. Using solid-core doors only for bedrooms and main bathrooms will also lower costs.

Credit: Resolute USA

Better Light Fixtures
There are a handful of areas where it can be painfully obvious that the builder took the cheap way out. Inferior lighting is one of them. Here are a few tips: Don’t try to get too fancy. Don’t get brass. Do go for something simple and elegant, whether it’s traditional or contemporary. If money is an issue, focus on a living space that everyone sees, such as the dining room/kitchen or great room. Keep in mind that low-cost and cheap aren’t the same things. You can often find a nice simple light for just a few dollars more than your original choice and get a priceless “wow” factor in the process.

Credit: Lutron Electronics

Dimmers
Say you haven’t bought into the energy efficiency hype of compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, and your pockets aren’t deep enough for light-emitting diodes (LEDs). For you, incandescent is the one true light. Fair enough, but at least install a few dimmers so your buyers can save some bucks by lowering the intensity of the light output as needed. Dimmers allow homeowners to save energy, extend the life of light bulbs, and gain more lighting flexibility in their home. Again, think strategically and install dimmers just in the kitchen, living room, and maybe the dining room if margins are tight.

Credit: RAIS

EPA-Certified Wood Stove
Strictly speaking, a freestanding wood-burning stove will not improve your house–although if you select one of those really handsome European numbers, it will certainly add to your home’s aesthetics. But the beauty of a wood stove goes deeper than the unit’s cast iron or soapstone skin. Unlike a fireplace, a wood stove performs a slow controlled burn that produces substantially less smoke. The product also is an excellent source of supplemental heat, which is radiated to a house long after the fire dies away. Consequently, a properly sized wood stove can heat up to 4,000 square feet.

Fewer Americans See Hard Evidence of Global Warming

American’s belief in global warming and its human causes has begun to wane. That’s the conclusion of the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which revealed that just 57% of respondents today say there is solid evidence of rising global temperatures compared with 71% who held that same belief in April 2008.

Over the same period, there has been a comparable decline in the proportion of Americans who say global temperatures are rising as a result of human activity, such as burning fossil fuels. Just 36% say that currently, down from 47% last year.

Fewer than four-in-ten (36%) now say global warming is mostly caused by human activity such as burning fossil fuels, while 16% say it is occurring mostly because of natural environmental patterns.

The survey was conducted Sept. 30 through Oct. 4 and included 1,500 adults reached on cell phones and landlines.

And while the GOP recently made headlines by boycotting a U.S. Senate hearing to begin marketing up the Democrat-sponsored Kerry-Boxer climate bill, across the political spectrum fewer Americans are convinced that solid evidence of global warming exists.

The trend was most prevalent among independents, of which only 53% now see solid evidence of global warming, compared with 75% in April 2008. Republicans, who were already highly skeptical of the evidence of global warming, according to the Pew study, have become even more so. Just 35% of Republicans now see solid evidence of rising global temperatures, down from 49% in 2008 and 62% in 2007. Democrats have also backed off in their belief to 75% today, down from 83% last year.

Amid growing skepticism, the survey still finds more support than opposition for a policy to set limits on carbon emissions. Half of Americans favor setting limits on carbon emissions and making companies pay for their emissions, even if this may lead to higher energy prices; 39% oppose imposing limits on carbon emissions under these circumstances.

There are two dueling pieces of energy legislation in Congress: the Waxman-Markey energy bill, widely known as the “cap-and-trade” bill, introduced in May of this year; and the Kerry-Boxer clean energy bill, proposed at the end of September. Cap-and-trade would allow businesses to trade or buy carbon credits if they exceed specified limits.

However, a third option, announced last week by Senators John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, seeks to find middle ground in legislation that could pass the Senate with 60 votes. While this bill would still encompass a cap-and-trade program, it would also include some measures important to Republicans such as strengthening nuclear power in America.

With the Health Care Reform slowing winding its way through Congress, however, experts now say the prospects of passage for any major energy legislation this year are dim.

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This is a tremendously valuable source of information for homeowner’s wondering if solar power is right for their house. It’s also a great source for contractor’s looking to start offer solar power as a product.This book covers everything you need to know to get started in solar and see if its right for your home or business. We’ve sold thousands of copies of this book to people all over the country and the reviews all say that this was THE BEST book for learning about elementary (more…)

Developing Nuclear Power as Alternative Energy

Many researchers believe that harnessing the power of the atom in fission reactions is the most significant alternative energy resource that we have, for the fact of the immense power that it can generate.

Nuclear power plants are very clean-burning and their efficiency is rather staggering. Nuclear power is generated at 80% efficiency, meaning that the energy produced by the fission reactions is almost equal to the energy put into producing the fission reactions in the first place. There is not a lot of waste material generated by nuclear fissionalthough, due to the fact that there is no such thing as creating energy without also creating some measure of waste, there is some. The concerns of people such as environmentalists with regards to using nuclear power as an alternative energy source center around this waste, which is radioactive gases which have to be contained.

The radiation from these gases lasts for an extraordinarily long time, so it can never be released once contained and stored. However, the volume of this waste gas produced by the nuclear power plants is small in comparison to how much NOx (nitrous oxidethat is, air pollution) is caused by one day’s worth of rush-hour traffic in Los Angeles. While the radiation is certainly the more deadly by far of the two waste materials, the radiation is also by far the easier of the two to contain and store. In spite of the concerns of the environmentalists, nuclear power is actually environmentally friendly alternative energy, and the risk of the contained radiation getting out is actually quite low. With a relatively low volume of waste material produced, it should not be a difficult thing at all for storage and disposal solutions for the long term to be developed as technology advances.

The splitting of an atom releases energy in the forms of both heat and light. Atomic power plants control the fission reactions so that they don’t result in the devastating explosions that are brought forth in atomic and hydrogen bombs. There is no chance of an atomic power plant exploding like a nuclear bomb, as the specialized conditions and the pure Plutonium used to unleash an atomic bomb’s vicious force simply don’t exist inside a nuclear power plant. The risk of a meltdown is very low. Although this latter event has happened a couple of times, when one considers that there are over 430 nuclear reactors spread out across 33 nations, and that nuclear reactors have been in use since the early 1950s, these are rare occurrences, and the events of that nature which have taken place were the fault of outdated materials which should have been properly kept up. Indeed, if nuclear energy could become a more widely accepted form of alternative energy, there would be little question of their upkeep being maintained. Currently, six states in America generate more than half of all their electrical energy needs through nuclear power, and the media are not filled with gruesome horror stories of the power plants constantly having problems.

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Green Living – Learning about Solar Lighting

Did you know that solar power has two ways to reach the earth? You can use heat and light to have solar power. When it comes to solar cells and other sources, you will find that there is a way for you to collect heat to produce electricity, but most of the time it is overlooked completely. When it comes to the history of America, the sun light was what many would depend on to light their homes and business during the day. Lamp oil and electricity used to be very expensive and possibly unavailable. Today, there is a movement to get back to solar power and to use it to provide light for the indoors, and with the help of new technology, it is becoming possible.

Fiber optics and other lighting sources that use the sun became popular as America became more interested in renewable energy and saving the environment. Today, there are researches and labs that are looking to have a new form of sunlight that is called Hybrid solar lighting or HSL. This technology uses sunlight to light spaces naturally as well as to create electricity for lighting sources. Scientists happen to still be developing the idea of HSL, but it looks as if it can be a very profitable and efficient way of using solar energy collections.

HSL technology works by using a special device to direct sunlight into optical cables. The infrared light, normally wasted in this process, is then collected and turned into electricity. These cables are able to deliver the sunlight to the lighting fixtures that happen to be throughout the building so that they are able to use less electricity. The cables deliver that sunlight to lighting fixtures throughout the building, so they use less electricity. HSL technology may be used in two ways in the future. When it comes to the aforementioned procedure, you will find that lighting in this manner will be used to cut back on the amount of electricity that can be used in a commercial building. Special sensors would adjust the amount of electricity used depending on how much light is gathered from the sun at any given time. Then the second way for HSL technology is the use of power plants.. By collecting sunlight energy on a large scale, power plants can use this form of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels. Only after the electricity has been created can it be sent to your home the way that you have electricity now.

When it comes to solar lighting energy, you will find that there is efficient using the HSL technique so that there isn’t any waste in the sun’s power. You will find that the visible light that is directed completely for the use of lighting is infrared light that may end up being wasted, but instead is converted into electricity. There are alternative energies like this that can be renewable and less inexpensive. You will find that the research in fossil fuels will become limited. They are also good for the environment and is natural, so there are no harmful side effects on the environment. The sunlight’s energy is just one of the ways that you can make the future seem brighter and continue towards Green Living.