GREENING YOUR HOME FOR SALE

Reducing the energy use of your home and thereby its environmental impact is likely to add thousands of dollars to the re-sale value of your home, especially further down the track. Some prospective buyers may even be put off by homes which have not kept up with energy awareness and where money has been spent on flashy consumer fittings instead. Read the rest of this article for some tips on how to improve the carbon footprint of your home before putting it on the market.

If you are unsure of how much unnecessary energy your home is using, you can get a professional energy audit (google energy audit to find options near you and a comprehensive explanation of the benefits) and utilise the advice of trained home energy consultants who will prepare a personalised home energy savings report including practical advice. Many householders find themselves saving hundreds of dollars a year as well as reducing their carbon footprint by up to 20% - even improving the health profile of their homes e.g. reducing electromagnetic radiation when appliances are turned off after use. Insulating water pipes and water heater, re-sealing around windows, doors, eaves, edges and joints and installing solar lighting outdoors are just some of the things that may improve your home’s carbon footprint and its re-sale value.

If you are in the process of renovating, remember, while many of the ‘green’ features currently available may seem innovative, by the time you sell they may be standard, and putting them in now is likely to be less expensive than retrofitting.

In the kitchen, this means choosing appliances that have a good energy rating and opting for gas cooktops and ovens rather than electric ( a gas cooktop produces half the greenhouse gases of an electric one). Look for ovens with high levels of insulation and triple glazed, low-e coated windows. Remember that fan-forced ovens are 30% more efficient than convection ovens which waste 90% of the energy used.

For water heating, consider that solar, gas and electric heat pump systems produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional electric storage systems. Gas-boosted solar is the most greenhouse efficient form of water heating.

For lighting use fluorescent or compact fluorescent lamps – they are energy efficient and long lasting. Avoid using low voltage downlights for general lighting and look for compact fluorescent replacements which are now available.

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