Green Home Features
A green home is ready for the challenges that climate change brings, which include more heat waves, drought, wildfires, air pollution, flooding, and extreme weather events. Green home upgrades are adaptations that will help you stay safe and comfortable through worsening climate conditions, while also creating the possibility for a much better future. Below are green home strategies that we have seen in the 50+ Bay Area homes featured in Green Home Tours. These upgrades benefit the homeowners, but also the community and whole ecosystem.
USE LESS ENERGY
Shrink your energy usage with LED lighting, insulation (attic, walls, and floor), leak sealing, double-pane windows, programmable thermostat, Energy Star appliances, smart plugs, clotheslines and clothes drying racks, honeycomb shades on windows, and Passive House principles.
CONSERVE WATER
The western U.S. is drying out. Save water with hot water recirculation pumps, WaterSense appliances, drip irrigation, greywater and rainwater catchment systems, water monitoring apps, sheet-mulching your lawn, low-flow faucets/showerheads/toilets, and native and drought-tolerant plants. Check out the Bringing Back the Natives tour.
ELECTRIFY
Get natural gas out of your home. Replace gas appliances with heat pump HVACs, heat pump water heaters, induction ranges and cooktops, and heat pump clothes dryers. Use electric tea kettles, toasters, and Instant Pot. Choose electric for fireplace inserts and hot tubs.
SEQUESTER CARBON
These strategies help sequester carbon in the soil: spread compost, plant trees and deep-root perennials, spread mulch over bare soil, use permeable pavers instead of concrete to recharge groundwater, and avoid synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Stopwaste has a useful guide on carbon farming.
USE CLEAN ENERGY
Align your energy use with clean energy with these strategies: rooftop solar and storage battery, choosing Ava’s cleanest power mix, and load shifting. Load shifting means doing laundry, running the dishwasher, or charging your EV in the middle of the day, and avoiding energy use 4 - 9PM.
RESIST FIRES
These strategies harden your home against wildfires: stucco and cement board siding, metal and tile roofing, tempered glass windows, non-combustible eaves, Vulcan mesh vents, planting succulents, rock walls and paths, creating defensible space around your home. Follow CalFire’s fire hardening recommendations.