Greening my dream home.
When I started as a freelancer, I never considered having a niche in green topics, but in the past 6 months or so, I’ve covered subjects like
- indoor air quality
- eco-friendly housecleaning
- water-based foam insulation (no detectable off-gassing and saves on heating/cooling)
- geothermal heating and cooling (digging deep to save green …dang it! I could have used that for my title! Too late.)
- how to go green without becoming an earth-worshipping tree-hugger (This was a tongue-in-cheek article but covered real information on how to do it.)
And I’ve learned a few things from researching these articles.
- Some eco-friendliness can be gained by living what folks call a simple lifestyle. I like the concept, as long as it includes cable, high-speed Internet, nearby grocery stores, and air conditioning.
- Living green can be cheaper. I’m all about the frugal aspects of alternative energy. What I don’t want (and I’m not unlike zillions of others in this respect) is to pay more just to save a koala who doesn’t care one lick about me.
- Some green products actually work. No one would ever accuse me of being a rabid environmentalist, but I am really intrigued by the science of green products. Natural products can work effectively — you just have to know which ones work on what. And if you can remove a stain without killing a tree, why not do it?
- My dream home is going to be mega-awesome and cool with all the best green-tech. Because now I not only want a writing porch with floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves and lots of natural light, I also want to make it sustainable without living off the grid.
Technology is helping people like me have my whole-grain ricecake and eat it too. I want indoor air quality, for instance, but in the heat of summer, I don’t cotton much to the idea of opening a window. So, when I build my dream home (like that’s ever going to happen), it’s going to have icynene insulation, a whole-house air purifying system, a geothermal heating and cooling system (maybe some solar to run it), and lots and lots of windows to open in the spring and fall. And a nearby grocery store.
Right now, most of these new, greener technologies are somewhat more expensive to install than conventional systems. Over time, costs can generally be recouped by increased efficiency and reduced energy consumption.
It’s all pretty cool, even for me, a not-fanatical, not-crunchy person.