Your Questions About Sustainable Energy Systems

admin answers:

Any building element that will lead to energy savings or reduce CO2 emissions and increase the greenery , that is relevant to LEED , to be certified green you require the country requirements and it’s procedures, there are minimum requirements to be certified, some of the elements could be the heat transfer through walls and windows , waste management system, amount of green areas, ventilation system, minimize water consumptions , minimize power consumption , energy storage for AC system . These are some examples you may consider

admin answers:

Check the integrity of your insulation and replace it, if necessary. This will help control heat loss in the winter.

Replace all your regular incandescent bulbs with flourescent bulbs. You can purchase them to burn as brightly as 60, 75 even 100w bulbs, but they only USE around 14-20 watts of energy. This can be especially significant in fixtures that have multiple bulbs in them.

Make sure you have good windows that are properly sealed.

Landscape your exterior to help with summer heat absorption and winter heat loss issues. Plants can sometimes help quite a bit in this area, and it’s always nice to plant a tree. 🙂

Don’t know if this is even an option residentially, but I know that there are water conservation means becoming available that conserves water utilized in the sink/bathtub in a special resevoir and uses then THAT for flushing the toilet/irrigating the land instead of fresh water.

I have heard that radiant floor heating can save energy, but I don’t know from personal experience, so you might want to research it.

I DO know of some individuals with two-story homes who installed separate heating/cooling systems for each floor. It seems like a bit much, but they ultimately saved quite a bit, because they didn’t have one system chugging away to heat/cool a whole home(where all the heat is going to rise upstairs anyway with the downstairs staying too cold).

Setting your water heater to a slightly lower temperature will conserve a little energy.

Good window coverings can make a big difference, too, especially when used in layers. Trying to use a thicker more opaque layer of window coverings over a more translucent layer will help, technically, add layers of insulated air between the window and the room and will also help with light control/loss. Blocking the sun from shining into a room during a summer day can SIGNIFICANTLY affect how warm that room and, ultimately, the house gets.

These tidbits run the gammut, I know. And some are huge investments while others are pretty simple.

Hope you find at least some of it useful.