Sierra Club Green Home

Studies conducted by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers show that windows can account for 25-30% of the total heating and cooling energy use in a home. Optimal window performance requires some research to determine the most appropriate units for a home based on energy efficiency, solar exposure, usability and aesthetics.

When it is hot you have more to worry about than a high air conditioning bill. The humidity in the air combined with the heat can be a disaster for your health and your home. When it is 100? outside you obviously want to spend time indoors, but with indoor air-quality lower than outside air-quality you need to look at investing in a dehumidifier to help.

6 ways to set the stage What’s underfoot is a big deal. Your floors cover hundreds–maybe even thousands–of square feet, affect the look of every room, can use heaps of materials, and therefore come with a big price tag. Fortunately, they also offer you a chance to make positive esthetic and environmental changes. The key [...]

Is your home plagued with musty smells, condensation on windows, a clammy basement, or mold creeping up the walls? Is your home drafty and uncomfortable, with energy bills that seem too high no matter how diligent you…

How to make your home a healthy place
Smog in urban areas often makes the news. But truth be told, air quality is often much worse inside our homes than outside. That’s because tens of thousands of chemicals, some synthetic and some found in nature, are used to make products commonly found in buildings. Many of these chemicals are benign, some are highly toxic, and most fall in that wide gray area in between.
When it comes to indoor air contamination, the biggest culprit in our homes is VOCs, a large class of chemicals that can evaporate, or offgas, from stuff that’s all around us, like particle board, carpet, paint, cleaning products, and materials treated with stain-resistant and wrinkle-resistant chemicals.