When you’re planning to buy a new home, consider an energy efficiency option. Investing in an energy efficient home is vital to help keep your monthly energy bills low. While open floor plans, windows with a view, and impressive entryways can make your new house elegant, a cost-effective and eco-friendly area should also be one of your priorities.
An energy-efficient property, equipped with features like an energy-efficient dishwasher, can provide you with healthy living conditions. This type of dishwasher uses less water and energy, ensuring your dishes are cleaned effectively while minimizing environmental impact. As a homeowner, investing in an energy-efficient home with such appliances can help you save money on utility bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and utilize renewable resources. Here are five things to look for when you’re planning to buy an energy-efficient home.
The Property Has Solar Panels Installed
The solar panels are an ideal feature you need to look for when buying a new home. The solar panels are suitable energy resource that can help protect the environment and help reduce your energy bills. They are efficient energy storage that can provide a clean energy solution to help power your home’s needs efficiently.
Utilizing solar power is essential for your new home. Just like Astral Energy and other reliable power resources, it’s also a clean and renewable resource that can help fight climate change. The solar energy also has no moving parts which make it easy to maintain and can last for decades.
When you buy a new home that has solar panels already installed, it’s necessary to ask related questions to the seller. You can ask if the home seller purchased the product through a solar loan or paid them off. If they’re not, then the seller needs to pay off the solar mortgage.
You also need to consider how many kilowatts of electricity do these solar panels can generate every month. Once you know the amount, you can look at your current energy bill and compare them. Doing so will ensure that your solar units can meet your home’s energy needs.
There are Smart Thermostats Inside
Another home feature that can help you save money is the smart thermostats. They are one of the latest trends when it comes to heating a home. When buying a new home, consider the product that can help automatically switch your heating on and off via the internet.
You can use your smartphone to operate your heating system more efficient. You can effectively control your heating system by installing an app or voice commands through Google Play Store. These programmable digital heating systems can also help monitor your usage and learn your routine which makes them more convenient.
Utilizing smart thermostats in your new home can also help reduce greenhouse gas emission every year. The heating control system can make your life more comfortable while keeping your home cozy and help you save money effectively.
The smart thermostats can help reduce your energy bills, especially during the winter season. You can also opt for energy efficient home with smart thermostats installed that can operate by themselves and track you via GPS and switch the heater system on when you’re near home.
Consider the Tankless Water Heaters
The tankless water heaters are one of the things you need to consider when buying an energy efficient home. Also known as on-demand water heaters or instantaneous water heaters, they are smart appliances that allow you to instantly heat water instead of continually heating water that’s stored in a tank.
The tankless water heaters can provide you with hot water on demand efficiently. These water heaters are also convenient to use since it can be 24 to 34 percent more energy efficient. The tankless water heater can help save more energy when you can use 41 gallons or less of hot water every day.
They are also 8 to 14 percent more energy efficient when you use around 86 gallons of water every day. Moreover, tankless water heaters can be more energy saving when your new home installed a tankless water heater for every hot water outlet which allows you to save up to 27 to 50 percent.
When you’re buying a new home, make sure that you can also ask if it’s tankless water heater installed is electric or gas-fired. An electric water heater can heat up to 7.6 to 15.2 liters or 2 to 5 gallons of water per minute. On the other hand, a gas-fired water heater can heat up to 30.3 to 41.6 liters or 8 to 11 gallons of water per minute.
Moreover, a gas-fired water heater may waste more energy compared to electric water heater since it steadily burns pilot light. However, a gas-fired heater with an IID or Intermittent Ignition Device can start to heat even without a pilot light which helps maximize energy savings.
Consider the Water Harvesting Systems
The water harvesting systems are ideal products you need to look for when you’re buying an energy efficient house. As a homeowner, they are essential to make your property as green as possible. There are two types of water harvesting systems namely greywater and rainwater harvesting.
The greywater harvesting system can collect water from sources such as bathtub and kitchen sink to reuse it. After that, you can now use the product for a wide range of applications which include your washing machines, toilet flushing, outside taps, and outside watering systems.
When you’re buying a new home that has a greywater system, make sure to ask the seller about exactly how the water is reused. Some water systems can collect water from tubs, showers, and sinks and store it to use in your sprinkler systems or toilets. More advanced systems can filter the water to reuse it for bathing and cooking purposes.
On the other hand, a rainwater harvesting system ranges from the rain barrels to more complex structures that have tanks, pumps, and purification systems. The system can collect and store the rainwater before it’ll sanitize and filter the water and reuse it in your home.
Incorporated by Reclaimed Wood
The reclaimed wood or lumber is a high-quality upcycled wood from old buildings and structures. When you’re buying a new home, having reclaimed wood in your property that’s rich in history can add character, beauty, and charm to your area. It’s also a conservational product that can be an excellent option to incorporate in a new house.
Opting to choose a new house that utilizes reclaimed wood is a way to protect the environment by saving trees. Incorporating reclaimed lumber can provide a rustic look in your home and make your living space look natural. The beautiful wood textures can also add a sense of character into your area.
The reclaimed wood also came from various sources like warehouses, stock farms, retired ships, old barns, factories, wine casts, and more. You need to ensure that your realtor keeps an eye for those homes that use reclaimed wood in their ceiling beams, fireplace mantels, ceiling treatments, wall treatments, flooring, porch columns, and more.
Moreover, there are many structures constructed from virgin wood that might be demolished or removed. When it happens, there will be a big amount of air-dried wood that is left behind. The reclaimed wood flooring company will then recycle the lumber and use again in various ways such as a home’s flooring and ceiling treatments.
Takeaway
The windows, impressive entryways, and elegant home design are some of the things you’d like to consider when buying your new house. However, it’s also a cost-effective option to opt for energy-efficient home. The green home features such as those mentioned above can help reduce your energy bills, save money, and help protect the Earth.