Gone are the days of premium-priced green products
When I first started writing about green building in 1988 - when we called green building "energy efficient building" - building a green structure cost decidedly more. The new-to-market CFL light bulbs cost upward of $12 each (they are now $0.99). "Natural" paints were $50 a gallon (they are now $15), and cans of spray foam cost three times what they sell for today.Green building was perceived as either an endeavor for hippies whose green projects looked like something from the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" movie set. Or it was perceived as custom trophy homes whose owners bragged their innovations saved 30 percent on their fuel costs, even though it meant conditioning an 8,000-sq.ft. space for two people with 3,000 gal. of fuel each year.Paints, adhesives, caulks, sealants, finishes. Driven as much by government regulations as by consumer concern for indoor air quality, you can now find a wide variety of low-cost green paints, adhesives, caulks, sealants and finishes. And when I say green, I mean low-toxicity products with Energy Protection Agency-compliant VOC levels, or no VOCs at all.Today, especially over the past five years, we enjoy the benefits of green product design at scale. In nearly every product area, manufacturers no longer charge high prices for exotics or prototypes; instead, they charge commodity prices for products that would have been four or five times more expensive a few years ago, and 10 times more expensive 25 years ago.As everyone knows, another really good method for reducing home energy is definitely to take away the existing filament bulbs and then switch them with CFL light bulbs. This can definitely help you save a considerable amount of electricity and money as soon as it all accumulates. The benefits associated with this sort of lighting products is that they can keep going 10 times more as opposed to filament light bulbs, they give clean white light rather than a yellow light, and naturally they eat up considerably less energy. Another thing regarding these types of bulbs which makes them really cool is that they really are completely recyclable, meaning that you actually will not be required to dump them all and induce additional wastefulness at the landfill.This article will list some simple, easy-to-do things to reduce your electricity bill.In fact, 20 years ago, average consumers and homes were frozen out of green building for reasons of cost, not for reasons of desire. When asked: "Do you want to burn less fuel and live in a home free of toxins?" Most people would surely answer yes. But if the follow-up question is "Will you pay $20,000 more for that privilege?", most people couldn't afford to answer yes, even if they wanted to.Buy the Power Save gadget. The gadget helps monitor the power supply to your house and uses the minimum that is needed.Another thing to take care of here is what you perceive as an electronic appliance. Would you switch off the television set, turn off the fan, but not the light bulb? Yes, you need light, but not now when you are leaving the room. Taking care of these small things will go a long way in reducing the dreaded huge electricity bills.JOHN D. WAGNER is an award-winning author of many books and articles about construction, and a frequent contributor to the industry's leading trade magazines. A sought-after speaker for industry events, he can be contacted at JohnDWagner.com. Read past columns at rdbmagazine.com.Limited use: Start with the room you are sitting in. If you were to take a call in another room or join your family at the dining table, would you just step out of your room without any concern for the electrical appliances in the room? If you would, stop right there, and look around. Switch off all the appliances even if you would be back in five minutes. Yes, even that will help. Every drop of water constitutes to the ocean.Ever hear the phrase "Design, at scale, is free"? Essentially, it means if you create one-offs and prototypes, you will need to charge for those products at exorbitant one-off and prototype prices. But if you design an innovation and mass produce it, at scale, you can sell it at mass-produced rates.BUILDING PRODUCTS
JOHN D. WAGNER is an award-winning author of many books and articles about construction, and a frequent contributor to the industry's leading trade magazines. A sought-after speaker for industry events, he can be contacted at JohnDWagner.com. Read past columns at rdbmagazine.com.
Author: Wagner, John D
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