Green Reads

I thought I'd share some of my favorite books on green living and homemaking. I'll still be giving you all the key tips here, but if you want to get a little more in-depth on a specific topic, try these out. Enjoy!

---------------------------------------------------------------

REMODELING
Green Remodeling: Changing the World One Room at a Time
David Johnston and Kim Master

Did you know that Americans spend more money annually on home renovation than on new-home construction? With buildings being responsible for 40 percent of worldwide energy flow and material use, home renovation represents a huge opportunity to decrease your environmental footprint. And if done correctly, green remodeling can, over time, allow you to recoup much of the money invested in the work. Upgrading to a more energy-efficient furnace, for example, can help lower your fuel bill, while installing low-flow toilets can save on water bills. So it pays to think ahead when remodeling, which is why this book is so useful.

Green Remodeling discusses simple green renovation solutions for homeowners, focusing on key aspects of the building including foundations, framing, plumbing, windows, heating and finishes. Room by room, it outlines the intricate connections that make a house work as a system. For example, it explains how new windows may affect the building's mechanical systems, the health of the occupants, and the future of old-growth forests. Then, in an easy-to-read format complete with checklists, personal stories, expert insights and an extensive resource list, it covers ways to save energy, conserve natural resources, and protect your health. This book is a useful resource for homeowners, architects, and remodeling contractors.

---------------------------------------------------------------

HEALTHY HOUSEHOLD

Creating A Healthy Household: The Ultimate Guide for Healthier, Safer, Less-Toxic Living
Lynn Marie Bower

Lynn Marie Bower is an expert on healthy interior decorating, furnishings, hobbies, and cleaning practices. Her book, Creating A Healthy Household: The Ultimate Guide for Healthier, Safer, Less-Toxic Living, is packed with useful information. A multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) sufferer, Bower writes with deep personal knowledge of the issues. The book includes a comprehensive resource list with full contact information for each reputable company or organization mentioned. With chapters devoted to cleaning products, personal-care, clothing, linens, interior decorating, life-styles, housekeeping, air and water quality, and reducing electromagnetic radiation, no other book matches its thoroughness.

---------------------------------------------------------------

BIOPHILIC DESIGN

Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection
Stephen R. Kellert

Ecological Design
Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan

The theory of biophilia states that there is an innate bond between humans and nature. The term has recently been the subject of much attention in environmental and design circles. Yale social-ecology professor Stephen Kellert has published a book titled Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection. In this book, Kellert states that a connection with nature is "instrumental in human physical, material, emotional, intellectual, and moral well-being." Kellert also attests that our fractured relationship with nature can be ameliorated through what he calls "restorative environmental design." The benefits of biophilic design are being acknowledged by a growing number of architects, designers, and public health officials, and can be applied to many facets of your home.

For a somewhat more practical read on biophilic design, pick up Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan's book Ecological Design. This book is a thoughtful discussion of the theory and practice of ecological design, covering the following five principles: "solutions grow from place," "ecological accounting informs design," "design with nature," "everyone is a designer," and "make nature visible."

---------------------------------------------------------------

ENERGY USE

The Home Energy Diet: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-Smart
Paul Scheckel

The Home Energy Diet was designed to help readers take control of their personal energy use and costs so they can save money, live more comfortably, and help reduce environmental impacts. The book also explores the possibility of using renewable energy for meeting home energy needs.

The crux of the book is a series of lessons on how common household systems (hot water heaters, heating/air conditioning systems, refrigerators and freezers, and other household appliances) use energy, but more importantly, how they lose energy through inefficiency, and what you can do to minimize such losses. The book then spells out a "diet" for each system. For instance, the electrical diet lists 16 tips, including:

• Call your power company and ask if they provide an energy audit service. Older homes can often reduce energy bills by 50% or more by implementing energy audit recommendations.


• Use only compact florescent light bulbs (CFLs). For every 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) used by a conventional, incandescent light bulb, a CFL bulb will use only 333 kWh, reducing your lighting costs by one-third.


• Know what is on, when and why.


• Eliminate your phantom loads (phantom loads are energy leaks from appliances, like those with a digital clock display, that draw small amounts of power even when not in use) by using power strips with on/off switches. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that phantom loads add up to nearly 10 percent of U.S. household electricity use, or approximately $4 billion per year.

Tankless Water Heaters

Heating and storing water in a conventional water heater takes lots of energy, which translates into higher utility bills. If you're looking to reduce the amount of energy used to heat your water, consider a tankless water heater. Tankless water heaters heat and deliver water on demand, without storing it. Rather than holding water in a tank, they circulate it through a series of burners or electric coils that heat the water as it passes through.

Though tankless units cost more than most conventional water heaters, they're cheaper to operate because energy isn't required to maintain a large tank of hot water 24 hours a day. Also, because the water heater doesn't store hot water, it never runs out--unless, that is, the flow surpasses the unit's ability to heat it. If two people take separate showers at the same time, a tankless unit may not be able to handle the flow. To overcome this problem, you can install a "whole house" type tankless water heater or install two or more tankless water heaters, connected in parallel for simultaneous demands of hot water. This approach may be more appropriate in a townhouse or a brownstone, which may have more space (say, in a basement) for larger or multiple units. You can also install separate Tankless Water Heaters for appliances—such as a clothes washer or dishwater—that use a lot of hot water in your home. This approach may be more appropriate to a condominium, where there may not be a large utility area and smaller units make more sense.

Because of the heat output and response time required, most (but not all) whole-house tankless heaters are gas-fired (including propane and kerosene). Smaller, single-fixture units, which may store a few gallons of water, are usually electric. A company based in Canada, Pulsar Advanced Technologies, is set to release the Vulcanus MK4, a water heater that uses microwave technology to heat water on demand. The unit can heat water from 35 degrees Fahrenheit to 140 degrees Fahrenheit in seconds and can provide hot water for multiple applications at once.

This technology is most appropriate for single-family homes or condos in small buildings where each unit has its own water-heating system. In buildings where multiple units share a heating system, the money and materials involved with taking a single apartment off the central system may be prohibitive, if it is allowed at all.