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Whoever says you can’t “kill two birds with one stone” when becoming more energy efficient is absolutely wrong! There are ways to cut down on your home’s energy expenses while adding beautiful landscapes to the yard and, in turn, likely increasing your home’s value.

A well designed landscape will:

• Cut your summer and winter energy costs dramatically
• Protect your home from winter wind and summer sun
• Reduce consumption of water, pesticides, and fuel for landscaping and lawn maintenance
• Help control noise and air pollution

By planting trees in optimal locations, you can save up to 25% of your home’s energy consumption for heating and cooling, which ends up being anywhere from $100 to $250 annually. In less than 8 years, you will have likely earned back whatever price you put into landscaping the lawn to begin with. And, as stated above, you are realistically raising the value of your home in the process.

“Shading and evapotranspiration (the process by which a plant actively moves and releases water vapor) from trees can reduce surrounding air temperature as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit.” In addition, the temperature directly underneath the tree may be reduced by as much as 25 degrees Fahrenheit. As well as all of that, the cost of summer air condition bills can be decreased by as much as 15% to 50% with the aid of properly located landscaping.

Depending on what part of the United States you are located in, wind chill factor may be an issue during the winter. As you know, this can drastically drop the temperature by numerous degrees. By adding trees and fences as a windbreak, you can shield your home from the biting wind. When the freezing cold wind hits the walls and windows of your house, it decreases the temperature inside, causing more heat to be needed to offset this temperature reduction. With these landscape additions, you can counteract the negative results of this cold air and prevent having to run the heater as high or as often.

Landscaping Strategies by Region

Temperature

• Maximize warming effects of the sun in the winter
• Maximize shade during the summer
• Deflect winter winds away from buildings
• Funnel summer breezes toward the home

Hot-Arid

• Provide shade to cool roofs, walls and windows
• Allow summer winds to access naturally cooled homes
• Block or deflect winds away from air conditioned homes

Hot-Humid

• Channel summer breezes toward the home
• Maximize summer shade with trees that still allow penetration of low angle winter sun
• Avoid locating planting beds close to the home if they require frequent watering

Cool

• Use dense windbreaks to protect the home from cold winter winds
• Allow the winter sun to reach south facing windows
• Shade south and west windows and walls from the direct summer sun, if summer overheating is a problem

With all the talk regarding solar energy for many years its time has finally come. The gradual inevitable depletion of natural resources has made alternative sources an absolute must. It is now a matter of time and we will determine the eventual new leader. Much money and resources are now being spent to find the best natural resource, solar energy.

While many potential sources are possible, research into all the avenues will eventually surface with the most viable option for our use. Presently we are using a number of various resources to create heat, electricity and desalination of seawater. Renewable energy has the sun as it’s primary source. A source that cannot be depleted. Approximately 30% of our energy resources come from the sun.

Most of our economic resources and time are spent developing our resources in the areas of wind power, water power, solar energy, biofuel, liquid biofuel, solid biomass and geothermal. Naturally these all have their pro’s and cons. The biggest concern is pollution that comes directly from the materials, industrial processes and construction equipment used to create them. The side effects can be pollution and waste that will impact our environment.

We also we need to consider other key issues of environmental impacts, aesthetics and habitat hazards, land usage, proximity to demand, availability, reliability, longevity along with energy input verses output. Other possibilities such as fossil fuels and nuclear power have their own positive and negatives and are not as viable. The resources for our use are many, the challenge is not if we have alternates to use but which ones and in what order.

The U.S. currently relies heavily on coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are nonrenewable, that is, they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally-damaging to retrieve. In contrast, renewable energy resources — such as wind and solar energy — are constantly replenished and will never run out.

Renewable energy is important because of the benefits it provides. It is believed that the major element in the learning and discovery process definitely will be and is solar energy.

solar energy system

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