Money
Green building is a smart investment. Depending on where the money is spent, it can be an investment into health, into improving quality of life or an investment into increasing a home’s durability and longevity. Green building can also be seen purely as an investment on financial terms, with a measured and predictable rate of return or Return On Investment (ROI).
Realize huge savings with green appliances.
Residential equipment and appliances are the biggest users of energy in the house. We can realize huge savings on energy and water usage by choosing appliances that are water and energy efficient.
Some examples:
Energy efficient washing machines save time, money & resources:
- Top loading washing machine can use 40 gallons of water per load.
- A new front loading machine can use as little as 11 gallons of water per load.
- What you can save every year:
- Over $100 in electricity and gas from washing and drying your clothes.
- Time. Front loaders are larger and they can do more laundry in less time.
Since an efficient front loading washer spins the clothes much faster (over 1200 rpms), the clothes are significantly dryer by the time they go in the dryer. This means more loads can be done in less time, freeing up more of your life for things you want to do. Unless you like doing laundry.
Your biggest energy hog lives in the kitchen. Fire that old refrigerator.
- A high efficiency refrigerator($1400) can save over 500 kWh of electricity a year compared to an 10 year old refrigerator.
- In 10 years, assuming electricity rates increase by 6%/year, the money you would save on your electricity bill with the new fridge would have paid for the new fridge AND saved you over $3,000 on your electricity bill. This is like getting paid $3000 over 10 years for buying a new refrigerator.
In fact, if you had taken the money to buy the fridge and invested it at 8% interest and paid your normal electricity bill, you would have only made $2,000 in 10 years on that 1,400 dollar refrigerator. In other words, it cost you $1000 to NOT buy the new refrigerator. Sorry guys, no, you cannot apply that same logic to large screen TV’s.
Fluorescent light bulbs are a simple change that pay off big.
- Switching 25 incandescent lights to fluorescent bulbs=$4,500 saved in just 10 years.
- This return on a $75 investment = over 6,000 percent in 10 years.
To put this in perspective: In three years, Google stock went up 800%, just before it went down 60% in 2008. Investing in green building and energy efficiency is at least 7.5x better than investing in Google stock and only if you sold your stock at the peak. If you didn’t sell all of your Google stock in 2007 before the crash, replacing your light bulbs is a 20x better investment than Google stock because an investment in energy efficiency never loses value.
Green Homes are simply worth more:
- New green homes sell faster (about 18% faster)
- Green homes sell at a 28-37% higher cost per sq. ft.
- Each 1$ per year saved in energy bills becomes $20 in additional value when the house is sold.
- Save $2000 per year on gas, electric and water bills and your home is worth $40,000 more than your house would be worth without those savings.
- Energy efficiency is the single most important factor in home purchasing decisions in the 43-53 year old demographic.
- A good green home should have utility costs in the 100’s of dollars per year, not per month like many modern homes and these maintenance and utility costs are not tax deductible.
- Green homes can last up to 10x longer before needing preventative maintenance or repair.
- Green homes can save more than 50% on maintenance and 70% on utility costs.
- Green homes save you time- time not spent maintaining home and time not spent working to pay for the home maintenance and repair.
- A green home gives you more free time to enjoy the rest of your life.
- Well built green homes will not suffer from sick building syndrome caused by moisture infiltration, should never have termite or mold problems.
- Numerous studies have shown that people who live in green homes and work in green buildings are much happier, healthier and more productive than those that do not.