Exterior home upgrades provide homeowners with an opportunity to contribute to environmental conservation while at the same time enhancing the visual appeal of their curbs.
Sustainable outdoor upgrades do not only lower your emissions footprint; they also contribute to financial prudence through reduced energy bills and a cutting-edge visual appeal that makes your property unique.
The following are some of the environmentally friendly options you can explore when upgrading the exterior of your home.
Sustainable Driveway Materials
Traditional asphalt and concrete driveways are impermeable which contributes to runoff water degrading the environment around our homes.
Besides, the bitumen used to make asphalt driveways emits greenhouse gases, which lead to global warming.
Home Exterior Improvements in NJ
In place of these harmful materials, consider sustainable pavers such as grass or gravel, which allow rainwater to seep, thereby preventing runoff.
Energy-Efficient Windows and Doors
Windows and doors are among the areas where homeowners are looking to go green in. Given the amount of energy efficiency you can achieve through these two features, almost every homeowner is exploring windows and exterior doors made from low-VOC materials. These come in double and triple-paned types, depending on your energy-saving requirements. E-windows and exterior doors, compared to common ones, are crafted using low-energy materials that repel heat indoors during the cold winter months and outside during the hot summer months, making your AC perform optimally.
Cool Roofing
Cool roofing materials absorb significantly less heat while reflecting sunlight, cutting the requirement for intensive air conditioning. This can lower your monthly energy costs and help combat the urban heat island effect. Metallic shingles, green roofs covered in vegetation, and reflective shingles are among the other cool roofing options to explore.
Sustainable Landscaping
As beautiful as they may be, lush lawns come with many cost demands from the high amounts of water they consume, especially during the hot summer months. In addition to depleting our water resources, lawn grass also increases your carbon footprint through the toxic gases emitted by lawnmowers and water pumps. Instead of lawn grass, homeowners are now going green by planting drought-resistant yard plants and flowers, with the rest of the spaces being occupied by pea gravel or stones, a process popularly known as xeriscaping.
Rainwater Harvesting Systems
Given the beauty and lushness that comes with lawn grass and garden flowers and plants, some homeowners may be unwilling to forego that benefit. Fortunately, they can still leverage the beauty of their lush lawns and gardens while still maintaining eco-friendliness. Instead of letting the countless barrels of rainwater run off into the nearby waterbodies, you can make good use of it by installing harvesting systems. The harvested water can be used for exterior purposes such as exterior cleaning and watering the lawn and garden grass, plants, and flowers.
Solar or LED Outdoor Lighting
Exterior lighting is another aspect that increases homeowners’ carbon footprints through the increased energy needed to run these fixtures. LED lighting fixtures consume less electrical power, compared to other common fixtures, making you achieve some energy efficiency. To take the efficiency even a notch higher, you can install solar panels to power the exterior lights, lawnmowers, and pumps and achieve a significant level of financial prudence.
Recycled Decking Materials
The beautiful wooden deck that you love to chill on and unwind is not as environmentally friendly as you may think. The felling of several trees to obtain the beautiful decking wood, notwithstanding the large amounts of emissions produced by the power saws and mills during the wood harvesting, all contribute to massive climate change. Reclaimed wood is among the various sustainable alternatives to solid wood since it is made from recycled materials. Recycled plastic lumber and composite decking are the other sustainable decking options to explore.
Sustainable Materials for Exteriors
Fences, outdoor furniture, siding, pergolas, arbors, and other decorative features can all contribute to lots of deforestation when they are crafted from wood. Using recycled metal and reclaimed wood, among other upcycled materials, eliminates the requirement for new resources and minimizes waste. Furthermore, they require little maintenance and are more durable than solid wood.
By incorporating these environmentally friendly exterior upgrades, you can achieve visually appealing exterior features and outdoor spaces and contribute to the well-being of the environment in which you live. What you may not be aware of is the fact that some of these low-VOC and Eco-friendly options can save you a significant amount of money through energy efficiency. Some options and appliances can even earn you some tax credits like exemptions and refunds both from the federal and state governments.