Sierra Club Green Home

Cities run entirely on solar power, countries generating electricity through volcanoes, and hotels built underground to keep cool are not fantasies of the future—they exist right now, in some of the most remarkable green-pioneering places. (Photo courtesy of TripBase, Inc.)

Editor’s Note: October is National Energy Awareness Month. Take a look at your home’s energy use and how you can take advantage of incentives for efficiency.

Federal tax credits for upgrading your home with energy efficient items, from windows and doors to insulation and heating systems, are going away at the end of this year. Read about the future of these incentives and what you can do to get some money back on purchases you make now to increase your home’s energy efficiency and save money on your energy bills in the future. (Photo courtesy of Simonton Windows)

Solar panels and small wind turbines generate energy for the home—and excess energy can be sold back to the grid. Geothermal pumps also heat and cool the home, harnessing the earth’s temperature deep beneath the foundation. Here’s how to get started with these residential renewables. (Photo by Jon Callas on Flickr)

Indoor air can be five times more polluted than the air outside. The culprits include smoke, mold, pollen, fungus spores, pet dander, dust mites (actually the feces of dust mites), and even allergen-bearing particles from disintegrated cockroaches!

If your situation demands a more assertive approach, try the following tactics. They could help you avoid air conditioning, and its associated costs and greenhouse gas emissions, entirely. Or–if you really need to flip the AC switch–they’ll help you save money, fuel, and greenhouse-gas emissions as you enjoy the cool air.

A cat lying in a sunny window knows how to get warm. So do you when you open the drapes on the sunny side of the house on a cold day. Dozens of simple actions like that can lower your heating bill, regardless of the type of heating system you now have. When it comes time to think about a new system, however, the choices become more complicated. You need to consider the differences between furnaces that heat air and furnaces that boil water.

If you have a programmable thermostat, you can automate your heating and cooling systems to save energy when you’re not at home or asleep. In winter, for example, your house can be a nippy 60ºF while you are at work, and then–while you are still boarding the bus for your commute back home–it can automatically move up to a toasty 68º or 70ºF.

Cold air can’t hold as much water as warm air. So in many parts of the country, humidity is low in the winter, making the air in the house uncomfortably dry. Low humidity dries out mucous membranes, making you more susceptible to colds. It can make your eyes and skin itch, chap your lips, and irritate your throat and nasal passages. It can cause nosebleeds and aggravate asthma and sinusitis–not to mention the toll it can take on your furniture and musical instruments such as guitars and pianos.

Let’s say you have a basic wood-burning fireplace. Charming as it may be, this old-fashioned device pollutes the air and sends a large amount of its heat roaring out the chimney. But there’s no need to get rid of your old fireplace.

Fuel cell technology is an emerging form of clean energy that seems to be within reach for consumers. The main drawback is in the costly expenses associated with the units, in comparison to conventional fossil fuel systems. Fuel cell systems have proven to produce at least twice as much energy and little to no pollution, unlike their ‘dirty fuel’ counterparts.