Home Green Ideas

Preparing your house for winter does Earth a favor

Green ideas your appreciate to help prepare your home for winter cold and be green at the same time.

Five strategies help conserve resources

By Karen Youso
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Every fall, we button up the house by cleaning and checking, fixing and sealing. Turns out that getting the house ready for winter isn’t just a cold-weather thing — it’s an eco-friendly thing, too.

A tight house uses — and loses — less energy, requires fewer natural resources and produces less pollution.

With just a bit of effort, you can make your fall house chores even greener. Here’s how:

• Seal: Gaps and spaces around windows and doors and in the attic can suck up to 30 percent of your home’s energy efficiency, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Fill them with caulk, and you’re being green. Use the right caulk, and you can be even greener. Low- or no-VOC caulks have fewer noxious chemicals, but they might not be the best choice. Look for a product with a long life expectancy, said Phil Smith of Minnesota’s Office of Energy Security. Using a caulk that has a 25-year life expectancy, such as siliconized acrylic, means you’ll use less material and discard fewer empty caulk containers.

• Cover: Even after window frames are sealed, windows can be a source of heat loss and drafts. The standard fix — a window insulation kit — might not seem eco-friendly. What’s green about stretching plastic over windows and sealing it with a hair dryer?

Quite a bit, actually. Insulated windows reduce heat loss, and you can make the insulation kits greener by reusing them. At the end of the season, remove the plastic carefully, roll it up and store it for next year. To make sure you’re able to reuse the plastic, leave an inch or two of overlap when you install it the first time.

• Filter: Before the furnace starts working hard again, treat it to a new filter.

Not all filters are created equal, though. The standard filter collects larger particles in household air that could interfere with furnace operation. But it’s designed to be replaced — and tossed in the garbage — every month.

A high-performance furnace filter (with large paper pleats) does a better job of keeping indoor air clean and needs to be changed only once or twice a year. Plus, the paper part is recyclable.

• Insulate: Adding insulation keeps warm air in and cold air out, saving money on heating bills and saving the planet’s resources.

If you need to add insulation, one environmentally friendly choice is cellulose, made from recycled materials.

To find out whether your home needs insulation, visit www. energy.mn.gov and search for “Home Insulation.” To arrange for a home energy audit, contact your local utility.

• Prevent: Before winter snows arrive, make sure your gutters and downspouts are in good condition and free-flowing. A dry house needs fewer repairs, and dry walks and driveways need less de-icer.

If you need new gutters, consider aluminum and steel. Because they’re recyclable, they’re a better choice for the planet than vinyl.