6 Simple Ways to Make Your NJ Real Estate Home Green

What you can do to help make your NJ real estate home a green place

 

Some of the best and most innovative green ideas for your NJ real estate home are particularly low-tech. In fact, many of the sustainable homes of the future bear a striking resemblance to those of the past. A very traditional home can become energy and resource efficient.

See below for easy ways to make your home more sustainable:

Insulate

Upgrading the insulation in your home, such as caulking and weather-stripping around windows and doors can reduce your heating bills by as much as 20%. In addition, you should also pay attention to design features that make insulation easier or more difficult. For example, NJ real estate homes with cathedral ceilings and flat roofs need extra attention if the ceiling sits directly under the roof. Also, recessed lights can leak especially if they are installed under roofs or attics.

Eaves are Important

A roof should overhang walls by at least one foot in order to keep sun off windows and keep your NJ real estate home cooler. It also protects siding from the weather, so you may be able to go twice as long between repaintings or re-sidings.

Ventilate and Circulate

The secret to keeping cool during the hot summer months without having to blast your air conditioning is to force warm air out of your house as quickly as possible and to have air constantly moving over your body. Vents in your attic space, along with insulation in the ceiling below keep the cool air downstairs from being warmed by the area of hot air above. A whole-house attic fan, which pulls hot air from the rest of the house into a well-ventilated attic, can also help you turn on the air conditioner less often.

Reuse and Remodel

The NJ real estate home that you fix up will probably be much greener than anything built to replace it regardless of how cutting edge the new design or how much recycled material you use. Of course some very old homes cannot be saved, but even a building with major issues can give you more than enough to work with. An example of this is being able to salvage the first floor of a structure and building around it. If you choose to remodel, consider expanding up rather than out, as it is an easy way to control the carbon footprint of your home.

Size Does Matter

The average newly constructed home in the US is approximately 2,500 square feet, up from 1,700 in 1977. Some contributors to this included builders building homes with high ceilings and oversized rooms. However, not only is a smaller, well-proportioned house easier to heat and to cool, it will cost less to furnish.

Strategically Place Windows

You can benefit from the most old-fashioned kind of solar power simply by putting windows in the right places. In the northern part of the country, an NJ real estate home with most of its windows facing south will collect more light, and therefore more heat, in the winter. However, if you live in warmer parts of the country, it is wise to have most of your windows facing north so your home stays on the cooler side during the year. In general you want fewer and smaller windows because every window costs money and even the best and most expensive ones will leak and rot over the years.

 

The real estate market is changing rapidly and expanding into new avenues almost daily. Sometimes it can be very difficult to find the answers you need on a specific topic or issue. In times like these, you need a real estate professional who will provide valuable information and trustworthy advice. For more information on NJ real estate, call us today or click here to be connected with one of our top real estate specialists.