Building Green - Benefits of Building Green

  • Tax:

    • Federal assistance with first cost. Energy Star website provides rundown of federal incentives.
    • Utility assistance with first cost. Offers rebates, loans to make houses more energy efficient. Includes Air conditioning, refridgerators, water heaters, low interest loans and in home energy audits.
    • State assistance with first cost. Your state energy offices is good starting point for incentives.
    • Incentives for changing to renewable energy. Get this incentive with the help of state, local, utilities, and federal incentives.
    • Energy efficient Mortgages. Since initial cost of some of the green feature may be more expensive than traditional features, the federal housing administrations energy efficient mortgages (EEM) program helps finance the added cost of adding energy efficient features.

  • Health:

    • People spend utmost 90% of their time indoors. Indoor air quality can be very important considering contaminats can be 2-5 times worse inside your home than out. Lack of attention towards air quality can lead to seasonal affective disorder, allergies, asthma, and certain types of cancer.
    • With the extensive use of fossil fuels, which make up 75% of the U.S. enery portfolio, has harmed our environment health and land resources. Energy efficient buildings reduce emissions that cause world wide climate change and pollution.
    • Healthier homes mean less expensive trips to the doctors office and fewer days of missed work.
    • Green homes also have fewer problems with mold and mildew.

  • Utilities:

    • Month to month, people who live in green homes save money by consuming 40% less energy and 50% less water than standard homes. That is a big saving of the years.
    • Most projects cost between 2-5% more than standard construction ( 5 being most green). Recouping the cost can take as little as 2-7 years!! 2-5% is typically all you need to spend extra to gain the savings per month on utility cost. Totally greening your house to every spec out there today can cost 20 to 30% more than standard construction. Extreme environmentalist may be interested in this due to the complex construct to really do all they can to protect themselves and the environment.