The greening of America has gone from being a passing fad to a practical way of life for many homeowners in a budget-tightening economy.
When incorporating some green elements into your house, consider the home options of Goodrich residents Angela and Guy Adamec.
In 1986, the Adamecs purchased property near the village limits.
‘I came from a home building family,? said Angela, a local postal worker. ‘So when it came time to build our home I wanted it to be as environmentally friendly as possible.?
The 2,400 square-foot home incorporates a variety of green building ideas, including utilizing the full-sun by facing the building toward the southeast.
‘We have more windows on the south and east side of the home. There are fewer windows on the west and north sides of our home,? she said. The concept is to block the cold winds from the north and west in the winter time, while using more daylight in the summer months.?
‘If the sun is out it also helps heat the home in the winter’every little bit helps out.?
Other home features add to the home’s efficiency.
To prevent the cold from entering the home through doorways, an air-lock system featuring two doors provides a buffer from the outside when doors are opened.
A hot water heating system featuring propane or wood keeps the home’s energy bills at a minimum during the winter months.
‘Our energy bills are about $30 per month, using 325 kilowatts.?
While the Adamecs have utilized a variety of green ideas when building a new home, several area businesses offer a number of items to help.
Steve Breman, at TSC, 700 S. Ortonville Road in Ortonville offers several services and products to start going green.
For example, light bulbs that many of us use are incandescent bulbs.
‘These bulbs are inexpensive but highly inefficient. A better option is compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) that are very efficient.?
The initial cost difference is easily made up, because these lights last much longer and run at a cooler temperature. They save about $30 or more in electricity costs over each bulb’s lifetime.
Another great way to see green, says Steve, is to consider the use of low sodium salt for your water softeners.
Nature’s Own water softener uses potassium-based crystals, not sodium, to soften water.
Nature’s Own adds potassium to drinking water, thus reducing the amount of chlorides discharged into the environment, versus common salt.
‘In addition to cleaning up the discharged water, we’ll take up to five gallons of used motor oil at our Ortonville store,? said Steve.
‘It’s important that we do our part to keep the environment clean.?
Items to live the green life can also be found in area food stores.
Even the bag you choose to carry your products home in can be green.
Bueche’s Food World provides a way to conserve the use of plastic bags.
According to the Arlington, Virginia-based American Plastics Council, plastic bags are inexpensive to make, sturdy, plentiful, easy to carry and store. At least 80 percent of the grocery and convenience store market has utilized them since they were introduced 25 years ago.
‘We sell ‘Green Bags? as an alternative to plastic bags or even paper bags,? said Joe Dore, Bueche’s Food World manager.
‘If you’d rather use the paper bags, then we’ll give you 3 cents credit off your food bill.?
Bueche’s also offers Full Circle garbage bags made from 80 percent recycled plastics which help our landfills by reducing millions of pounds of plastic that otherwise would be discarded in them.