Green Homes Special Series: Part Seventeen: Green Tools Online

Energy-Efficient Rehab Advisor This tool, which also links to the Home Energy Saver, was developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help improve energy With online tools, you can "green" your home from anywhere. efficiency during rehab and renovation. While the information is a bit outdated in some areas, Brian Sullivan, HUD supervisor for public affairs, says the tool can be used as a “blunt instrument to help determine cost savings” on home improvement projects. Sullivan noted that prices will vary anyway, depending on where people live. The Advisor first asks for basics and lets you select a project. Choose “whole house,” for instance, and it provides informative measures that would fit many homes of that age and type in your region. At the bottom of the page, access earth-friendly improvement tasks as well as links to great resources, such as Toolbase Services, a storehouse of technical information provided by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center. Energy Star Home Energy Yardstick This yardstick will estimate the energy efficiency of your home. Enter basic information, including your utility bills for the year. In seconds, a quick efficiency ranking compares your home with homes similar to yours. It can be a real eye-opener and project motivator if your home is among the less efficient. The yardstick’s quick summary also provides suggested energy-efficiency and savings targets and includes advice for how to obtain them. The various tips, such as “heat and cool efficiently” or “seal up your home,” then link to more detailed information. The site can help you understand your home’s possible problems and what you might consider to correct them—and save yourself money. Personal Sustainability Calculator Score your current level of personal sustainability with Greenprint, an interactive online tool. Johnson Controls—a global leader in automotive experience, building efficiency and power solutions—partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council to launch this tool. It helps you identify and prioritize practical options for improving sustainability at home, work and in your vehicle. After you sign in with your gender, age, ZIP code or country, Greenprint challenges you to commit to new energy-efficient or sustainable behaviors. Data collected will be tracked to observe trends and to better understand how to accelerate change. “The ultimate goal of Greenprint is to accelerate the move to more sustainable living, in a fun and personally relevant way,” according to Clay Nesler, vice president of global energy and sustainability at Johnson Controls. “The data collected will also give us a better understanding of the dynamics of making personal sustainability decisions. We expect the findings to highlight key areas of focus for ongoing environmental awareness and personal action.” “Carbon calculators are simply no longer enough,” says Rick Duke, director of NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation. “To achieve results that reduce energy use and electric bills, we need tools, such as Greenprint, that can help homeowners turn their carbon footprint results into smart choices and new solutions.” Solar Calculator If one of your “what if’s” involves a form of renewable energy, this site is one of the more user-friendly ones online, and it’s planning to get even better. Brad Collins, executive director of the American Solar Energy Society, says the site’s software provides general cost and savings estimates for those interested in using the Sun for photovoltaic, or PV, (electricity) and solar hot water and spa/pool heating. ASES partners with Solar Electric Power Association, Energy Matters LLC and the U.S. Department of Energy on the site. Thinking about PV panels for your home? After entering some information, a guide pops up listing incentives available, a system size range to handle part or all of your needs, and possible costs and benefits. The summary can link you with solar pros in your area who can do an actual site assessment to obtain a precise cost and benefit analysis. The site’s calculations rely on solar radiation data by ZIP code from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Since the module went online in October 2004, Findsolar.com has seen steadily rising interest with recent tallies at 25,000 unique visitors a month, says Collins. Twenty percent more installers were qualified to join the link pool in the last few months. These solar pros report increasing contacts by those interested in taking their “what if” to the next level. The calculator is kept up to date, says Collins, by those associated installers who are its eyes and ears. About every six months, a global search is performed on the 3,100 utilities listed to update their incentives.

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