Remodeling Your Home? Save Some Love for the Planet

If you consider Global Warming and other environment related hazards to be a major concern, then welcome to the 21st century. Contrary to what doom theorists might say, there are several ways through which we can minimize carbon footprints. Among all the ongoing concepts in this field, sustainable development has come out as the most modern concept for maintaining ecological balance. In this line, the concept of a green home is one way through which you can conserve energy and become more energy efficient and thereby, reduce the carbon footprint and electricity bills along the way.

When we talk about green homes, then it means trying to be energy efficient and consume renewable sources of energy as much as possible. The concept of green home needs to be applied while building a new home as well as during remodeling the existing one. Though, any competent contractor specializing in real estate remodeling in Houston TX would be able to guide the way, it is important for you to be proactive during all stages of the project, especially during planning and material selection.

During the remodeling stage we can consider adding renewable energy system such as solar panels or small turbine that will provide your home with electricity, space heating, cooling and water heating.

Steps to Follow for Going Green While Remodeling
Planning and executing the concept of green home involves few steps that are essential for efficient green home. These steps are:

Step 1: Prepare
The first step on the way to achieve energy efficiency in multifamily property is to check few fundamentals. These fundamental includes: how much you pay for utility bills, how much energy you can save or to know about which equipment consume more electricity and make comparisons among the energy level consumption in different area of the multifamily property. Broadly the preparatory step includes:

Gather Bills
Record of previous utility bills plays an important role in designing the module for energy efficiency in the multifamily property. By collecting previous utility bills you can know the area where there is maximum electricity consumption. Later you can decide to replace that system with another more energy efficient system.

Use an Energy Efficient Tool
It is important to do the comparative study to understand the energy efficiency of your building. Here, comparative study means, comparing electricity and water usage per square foot of your building with the national average. This statistic can be later used to educate the tenants.

Step 2: Perform Lighting System Retrofit
The next step on the way to go green is to replace the energy consuming lighting system with the energy efficient lighting system. This step includes the following:

Replace Incandescent Bulbs with CFLs
Replace the old incandescent bulbs with Compact Fluorescent Lamps, CFLs. One of the offsets that you might feel is - CFLs are costly, however, by using CFLs instead of old bulbs, you can save almost 75 percent of electricity.

Replace T12 Bulbs with T8 Bulbs
The old fluorescent lighting system still have 40 Watt’ T12 lamps, this can be replaced with much thinner and energy efficient fluorescent bulbs – 32 Watt’ T8 bulbs.

This step of replacing older energy consuming systems with the recent energy efficient system also includes: use of low-mercury lamps, low faucets and so on.

Step 3: Improve the Indoor Air Quality
The third step to minimize the carbon footprint is to check and improve the indoor air quality of the multifamily property. Poor indoor air quality in the form of Carbon Monoxide (CO) or any other gas leak is not only hazardous for the atmosphere, but it can also be the reason for serious health problem, such as nausea. Following steps should be taken to check and improve the indoor air quality:

Check CO and Gas Emission
The finest way to improve the indoor air quality is to check emission of Carbon Monoxide (CO), other natural gases and liquid propane. Emission of these substance has adverse impact on health and thus become reason for many diseases. These substance are the byproducts of the heating oil used while cooking or natural gas combustion that occurs in gas furnaces and water heaters. These devices can be tested and it can be insured that there is no emission of any natural gas or Carbon Monoxide. This testing generally occurs in the energy audit process.

Trace for any Sign of Moisture
Moisture are the result of variety of sources, such as bad weather, cooking, exterior walls, etc. Moist environment can further result to dust mites, mold and mildew. These substance have capacity to damage the structure of the house. Hence, it is important to check, trace and deal with any sign of moisture in the form of condensation or peeling paints.

Install Exhaust Fans in Bathrooms and Kitchen
To control moisture and minimize the emission of Carbon Monoxide, exhaust fans should be installed in bathrooms and kitchen. Always fix exhaust fans with Energy star qualification, these are 70 percent more energy efficient as compared to normal fans.

Minimize VOC-Paint
If in the process of renovation, you are about to use paint, then do check that paint should be low on Volatile-Organic Compound, VOCs. VOCs are the byproduct gasses that are found in different building materials. These gasses have potential deadly substance that can adversely impact human health. Nowadays, paints with low VOCs compound are easily available. 

Step 4: Plan for Future Maintenance and Operation
Next step in the process of increasing energy efficiency of the multifamily property is to plan and use only green products during any maintenance or operation, that doesn’t increase carbon footprints. This step includes the following:

Purchase and Use Green Cleaning Products
Cleaning products are hazardous. They can impact human’s eyes, ears and respiratory system. Further due to nitrogen and phosphorous emission, these cleaning products also contribute in increasing carbon footprint level. Therefore, before buying cleaning products always check that they are certified by Green Seal or Environmental Choice, or otherwise you can also check the VOC content of the cleaning product and buy the one with the lower VOC content.

Plan to Invest and Use Green Materials
Well, it is impractical to remove all the existing valuable components of the multifamily property with the green or energy efficient materials. Doing this will need huge investment. Though, you can plan to use green materials in your multifamily property at the time of future renovation. For example, to replace the existing roofs, you can plan to buy energy efficient roofs that meet the Energy Star requirement. You can also plan for using green materials while doing Capital Need Assessment, CNA by transforming it to green CNA.

Execute Retrocommissioning
Retrocommissioning is the process to improve the performance of existing equipment and system of the multifamily property. In addition, retrocommissioning includes giving training to owners and staffs about how the improved performance of equipment and system can be enhanced and sustained in future also. 

Step 5: Educate the Tenants
The last step in the process of going green is to educate the tenants. It is important to aware the tenants about the ways through which energy efficiency can be attained. Tenants can be educated in following ways:

Organize Tenant Awareness Meeting
Prior to renovation or retrofit process it is essential to convey tenants about your concerns regarding the steps that you are about to take to increase energy efficiency of the multifamily property. Your concerns can be conveyed and awareness can be spread among the tenants by calling few meetings.

Discuss Utility Use Patterns with Tenants
Discuss the utility use patterns with tenants, and make them aware about systems of the building that consume more energy and also emits maximum environmentally hazardous substance. Also encourage tenants to purchase and use Energy Star qualified products.

Ensure Tenants have Operational Knowledge
After renovation, ensure that tenants have operational knowledge of green system and products. This can be done by providing tenants with proper written materials and manuals that clearly states how to use and optimize the green systems of the building.

Conclusion
By going green where there is an option available, we can minimize the carbon footprints. While building or remodeling our home there exists an enormous scope through which we can add renewable sources and become more energy efficient in our day to day life.

If you too are contemplating a makeover for your property and need a specialist provider of real estate remodeling, it is important to ensure that the one select has proven competence in the domain, validated by a consistent streak of dynamic remodeling jobs. If you are looking for multifamily remodeling in and around Houston, TX then feel free to consult our experts.