Even if you rent instead of own, an understanding of long-term savings on green household choices can help you better select your next rental property (or encourage your current landlord to make some beneficial changes).
To owners out there who may want to make green changes in their living but think it's all just costly confusion: take note of Green and Save's master ROI table.
posted originally from: AT:Chicago
The research on the site looks substantial, offering a calculated rundown of all types of green 'tune-ups' in your home.
One of our favorite, sometimes overlooked remodeling elements is the high efficiency skylight. Green and Save calculates a modest cost ($70) and a modest annual savings ($30), for a 42.9% return on investment. This is one of dozens of examples given on the site - and the 40% range appears to be the average ROI, with 3 years the average payback time for most upgrades.
Anyone making big green changes lately? Tell us how you're going green (or how you hope to)!
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Skylights? Well, that'd be one way to... double our AC costs and lengthen the portion of the year where we require AC, while adding the excitement of roof leaks during rain storms (which are always torrential here).
I'm trying to imagine the environmental benefits of snow piling up on skylights when we lived in Minnesota or upstate NY, and my imagination just isn't sufficient.
I guess we've only lived in weird climates, rather than a more normal condition of mild, chilly sunlight with little rain, where skylights would be great.
view wende in the twin cities's profile
One big green change that I'm planning to make next month (when budget allows) is to buy a "Cat Genie" self-flushing litter box. Basically, this is a litter box system that connects to household plumbing (sink or toilet) and flushes away cat waste. The Cat Genie uses washable, reusable granules instead of kitty litter.
I had been thinking about litter-box alternatives for a while, and doing the Green Cure got me thinking about the topic again. Dealing with kitty litter is an ongoing challenge in my apartment since I have three cats. I looked at the cabinet that conceals the litter box (previously featured on this blog) and a friend's "sifting" system. Neither addressed the issue of how many plastic bags of cat poo I was putting into the landfill. And until I started reading about the Cat Genie, I wasn't even thinking about where kitty litter comes from. (Clay is strip mined.)
So next month, when I can afford the $300 Cat Genie, I'm going to give it a try. Considering what I pay for kitty litter, it should pay for itself in about a year. (There is an ongoing cost for the solution that decontaminates the granules and to replenish granules that gradually wash away in the cleaning process.)
I'll let you all know how it works.
view bohemiangirlpdx's profile
Because of the type of rental that my boyfriend and I share, its difficult to make any huge changes and still comply with the landlord's wishes. But I can say that on a small scale, we're doing a good job-- we switched to a more energy efficient shower head, all of our bulbs are CFLs, and we create minimal waste by shopping smarter. We haven't brought a single plastic bag into our home, simply by using canvas market bags (which saves us from so much clutter!). We're in the works to begin composting in the backyard, but if the landlord really fights us on it, we'll just put a tiny vermicompost bin on our tiny balcony. And thanks to our neighbor's gluttonous use of hot water, we'll never need to turn on the heat-- the hot water pipes that run through the walls in our apartment are more than sufficient.
I think the small changes really add up, especially in a rented space.
view lostinprojection's profile