Even if you rent instead of own, an understanding of long-term savings on green household choices can help you better select your next rental property (or encourage your current landlord to make some beneficial changes).
To owners out there who may want to make green changes in their living but think it's all just costly confusion: take note of Green and Save's master ROI table.
The research on the site looks substantial, offering a calculated rundown of all types of green 'tune-ups' in your home.
One of our favorite, sometimes overlooked remodeling elements is the high efficiency skylight. Green and Save calculates a modest cost ($70) and a modest annual savings ($30), for a 42.9% return on investment. This is one of dozens of examples given on the site - and the 40% range appears to be the average ROI, with 3 years the average payback time for most upgrades.
Anyone making big green changes lately? Tell us how you're going green (or how you hope to)!
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Where can I find a skylight that costs $70? Or an Energy Star dishwasher that only costs $20?! The site indicates that's the added cost. MAYBE the added cost over and beyond what the standard item would cost. BUT, using the dishwasher an an example, throwing my current dishwasher away and buying a new Energy Star model costs ME more than $20 when I don't really need a new dishwasher. Thus a much longer payback period. And, more importantly, throwing my old dishwasher away just to buy a more energy efficient one isn't *GREEN* at all, and actually defeats the purpose of trying to be more environmentally responsible.
view Daily Nuance's profile
It's a pretty gross overstatement to say that disposing of an existing product to replace it with a more efficient product "defeats the purpose of trying to be more environmentally responsible." If this were true, then we would be remiss in encouraging folks to replace incandescent lightbulbs with CFLs. Instead, it's a valid point that there are landfill costs with any green upgrade; these should be considered when evaluating the propriety of the upgrade, along with the energy savings expected.
view CJL's profile
I don't think there's any substantial research on this site. There's just a bare-bones explanation about how they "calculated" the "added cost" -- but no details, and no proof to back up their claims. I've been shopping for "greener" choices, and it seems to me that many of the "added cost" values are far too low.
For example, my experience suggests that the difference between a "green" dishwasher and a "not-green" dishwasher is rarely only $20. But since they don't say how they generated that number, their claim is useless.
As a place to get started thinking about where you might save money by choosing greener options, this site is OK. But for real numbers, it just adds to the confusion. Why should I trust anyone's numbers in the green game if they don't cite their sources? Too many people are using the green trend to make money, and this site looks like a perfect example of this.
view Moryse Heron's profile
I agree entirely with views echoed here. Being green is a holistic approach rather than spur of the moment trend (which seems to be happening now).
The cost of going green often outweighs the benefits it bring that it actually ends up costing the environment more, making it less "green", but conscience is clear... go figure.
view crewtag.com's profile
Interesting post, it is refreshing to see more people taking action to help the environment. I found the information they presented to be informative. I disagree with the other comments posted here, if you dig deeper into the site you will find all the information you need to make your decisions easier. I would tend to think that if you were in the market for a new dishwasher that it would be beneficial to know the added cost and the payback time for purchasing a "greener" machine.
view tedn20's profile