Green Your Home - All-in-one for Dummies

698 Pages·2009·5.39 MB·English

by  The National Gardening Association, Ann Whitman, Betsy Sheldon, Liz Barclay, Michael Grosvenor, Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, Eric Corey Freed, Rik DeGunther, Owen E. Dell

Spine: 1.29”
House & Home/Sustainable Living
Practical, simple home
solutions for reducing your
impact on the planet Open the book and find:
Want to go green in and around your home? This value- • H ow to cut back on consumption
packed guide gives you easy-to-follow, budget-friendly
• W ays to reuse and repurpose your
tips that will reduce your ecofootprint. From using greener possessions
cleaning tools and building materials to cutting your
energy costs and working with your lawn, you’ll discover • R ecipes for green cleaning
solutions
how to make your home cleaner, healthier, and more
energy efficient. • G reen options for heating and
cooling systems
• G o green, save money — using less means saving more
• S trategies for organic gardening
• R educe, reuse, recycle — the reasons behind going green and
tips for getting the whole family involved • G reat green food choices
• I mprove your energy use — simple fixes for making your • T ips for financing solar
heating, air conditioning, lighting, water use, and appliances investments
more efficient
• G reen finish and construction
• B ring green to your clean — practical tips for eliminating toxic materials
cleaners from your home and cleaning every room of the house
• H ow to raise ecoconscious kids
• R emodel the ecofriendly way — using sustainable construction
materials in your home projects
• P lan your garden and landscaping — organic options for
BOOKS
growing your garden and beautifying your yard with less waste
• T ap into the power of solar energy — projects to make solar Go to dummies.com® IN
work for your home for more! 7
1
• Green Living
• Energy Efficiency
• Green Cleaning
• Green Remodeling
• Sustainable Landscaping
• Organic Gardening
$29.99 US / $32.99 CN / £19.99 UK • Solar Power
ISBN 978-0-470-40778-3
Printed on recycled
paper with soy ink.
Green Living
Energy Efficiency
Green Cleaning
Gren Remodeling Green Your Home
Sustainable Landscaping
Organic Gardening A L L - I N - O N E
Solar Power
™
Making Everything Easier!
Green Your Home
A L L - I N - O N E
Green Your
Home
ALL - I N -ONE
FOR
‰
DUMmIES
by Yvonne Jeff ery, Liz Barclay,
Michael Grosvenor, Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, PhD,
Betsy Sheldon, Eric Corey Freed, Rik DeGunther,
Ann Whitman, The National Gardening
Association, and Owen Dell
01_407783-ffirs.indd i 11/25/08 7:30:42 PM
®
Green Your Home All-In-One For Dummies
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Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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About the Authors
Yvonne Jeffery, coauthor of Green Living For Dummies, is an author, editor,
and award-winning feature writer with 15 years’ experience writing home and
lifestyle stories, many of them focused on sustainable living. Yvonne’s work
has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books around the world. Her
credits include National Geographic Traveler, American Profi le, The Sunday
Telegraph (UK), and CanWest newspapers.
Liz Barclay, coauthor of Green Living For Dummies, has worked as an adviser,
trainer, and manager with the Citizens Advice Bureau, a nonprof t organi-
zation in the United Kingdom that provides free, impartial advice to help
individuals resolve legal, f nancial, consumer, and other problems. Liz has
worked on a wide range of business and f nance programs for the BBC and
has written for News Of The World, The Express, Moneywise, Family Circle,
Save Money, and the Mail On Sunday personal f nance magazine. She also has
written UK Law and Your Rights For Dummies and Small Business Employment
Law For Dummies.
Michael Grosvenor, coauthor of Green Living For Dummies, is a leading
urban planning professional and freelance writer on sustainability. Through
his work and writing, Michael promotes the benef ts of making sustainable
lifestyle choices. He is the director of his own consulting f rm and holds
maters degrees in Urban Affairs and Applied Social Research and a degree in
Town Planning. He’s also a member of the Planning Institute of Australia and
provides advice to the Institute on integrated land use and transportation
planning issues.
Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, PhD, author of Green Cleaning For Dummies, is
a Family Resource Management professor at Florida State University who
green cleans her own home. She is a nationally known expert in how house-
holds are run, including the most documented home in America — the White
House. Liz is the author of several college textbooks, including Consumer
Economics: Issues and Behavior (Prentice Hall; 2nd edition Pearson) and
Resource Management for Individuals and Families (Wadsworth Publishing),
now in its 4th edition (Pearson). She was a Fulbright Scholar in Trinidad
and Tobago, studying family and home-management practices. Liz presents
papers on households and consumers at conferences worldwide and has
been quoted in various publications.
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Betsy Sheldon, contributor to Green Cleaning For Dummies, has served as
editor in chief for three travel publications, and is the author or co-author of
six books on topics from job-hunting for women to Jewish travel. Betsy writes
“Green Watch,” a regular column for Indianapolis Monthly Home magazine,
and contributes articles about environmental issues and sustainability to
publications including Indiana Living Green and Vacation Industry Review. She
is involved in a number of environmental initiatives, including the greening
task force for the American Resort Development Association and the Indiana
Sustainability Coalition, and also serves on the board of Earth Charter
Indiana. She facilitates “Low Carbon Diet” workshops, which help partici-
pants discover the steps to lowering their own carbon footprint and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
Eric Corey Freed, author of Green Building and Remodeling For Dummies, is
an architect, lecturer, and writer based in San Francisco. He has 15 years of
experience in green building and is a practitioner in the tradition of organic
architecture f rst developed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Eric is founder and
principal of organicARCHITECT, part architecture f rm, part think tank. Eric
teaches in the Sustainable Design program he co-developed at the Academy
of Art University and the University of California, Berkeley. His monthly
column, Ask the Green Architect, is published by GreenerBuildings and syn-
dicated to dozens of publications.
Rik DeGunther, author of both Solar Power Your Home For Dummies and
Energy Effi cient Home For Dummies, is CEO of Eff cient Homes, an energy eff -
ciency auditing f rm in Northern California. He is actively engaged in design-
ing and developing new solar equipment, including off-grid lighting systems
and off-grid swimming pool heaters. He attended the University of Illinois as
an undergraduate and Stanford University as a graduate student, studying
both applied physics and engineering economics. He holds several United
States patents and has designed a wide range of technical equipment, includ-
ing solar power systems, weather measurement equipment, and explosive
devices (strictly by accident).
Ann Whitman, coauthor of Organic Gardening For Dummies, was fortu-
nate enough to grow up around parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles
who kept compost piles out back and had keen interest in growing food
and f owers. She’s been tending her own patches of soil for more than 30
years. Ann earned a bachelor of science degree in Plant and Soil Science
at the University of Vermont. She also completed a master of arts degree
in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design in
Massachusetts. Ann is the author of Trees and Shrubs For Dummies, as well as
How-To Landscaping Basics and Water Gardens: Simple Steps to Adding Beauty
of Water to Your Garden, both published by Time Life.
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The National Gardening Association (NGA), coauthor of Organic Gardening
For Dummies, is committed to sustaining and renewing the fundamental links
between people, plants, and the earth. NGA is best known for its garden-
based curricula, educational journals, international initiatives, and several
youth garden grant programs. Together, these reach more than 300,000
children nationwide each year. To f nd out more about the NGA, visit www.
garden.org/home.
Owen Dell, author of Sustainable Living For Dummies, is an internationally
recognized expert in sustainable landscaping. He has authored numerous
publications for Sunset Magazine, National Gardening Magazine, Southern
California Gardener, Pacifi c Horticulture, and many others. An international
speaker, he is also the cowriter and cohost of the California television series
Garden Wise Guys (www.citytv18.com), a sustainable landscaping sitcom.
His book How to Start a Home-Based Landscaping Business (Globe Pequot
Press) has helped budding professionals get a healthy start on their careers.
Owen’s work has been featured on HGTV, Peak Moment Television, and NBC
and in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Landscape Architecture mag-
azine, the Los Angeles Times, and in many other publications.
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration
form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer
Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services
Media Development
Project Coordinator: Katherine Key
Compilation Editor: Traci Cumbay
Layout and Graphics: Sarah Philippart,
Project Editor: Kelly Ewing Christin Swinford, Christine Williams
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General Reviewer: Lynn Jenkins
Senior Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich
Editorial Supervisor and Reprint Editor:
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Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)
Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies
Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies
Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel
Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel
Publishing for Technology Dummies
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
01_407783-ffirs.indd vi 11/25/08 7:30:42 PM
Contents at a Glance
Introduction ................................................................ 1
Part I: Green Living ..................................................... 7
Chapter 1: The World’s Gone Green! ............................................................................... 9
Chapter 2: Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling .............................................................. 25
Chapter 3: Making Great Green Diet Decisions ............................................................ 45
Chapter 4: Setting Your Kids on the Path to a Green Lifestyle .................................. 65
Chapter 5: Keeping Your Home Healthy ....................................................................... 77
Part II: Energy Efficiency ........................................... 89
Chapter 1: Taking Stock of Your Energy Eff ciency and Use ...................................... 91
Chapter 2: Sealing and Insulating Your Home ............................................................ 111
Chapter 3: Maximizing Your Heating and Air-Conditioning System ........................ 127
Chapter 4: Lighting Your Home More Eff ciently ....................................................... 141
Chapter 5: Increasing Your Water Eff ciency ............................................................. 153
Chapter 6: Taking Control of Appliances and Electronics........................................ 167
Chapter 7: Controlling Solar Exposure for Light and Heat ....................................... 185
Part III: Green Cleaning ........................................... 197
Chapter 1: Bringing “Green” to “Clean” for a Healthier Home ................................. 199
Chapter 2: Building an Arsenal of Green Cleaning Tools .......................................... 221
Chapter 3: Mixing Up Your Own Green Cleaning Solutions ..................................... 233
Chapter 4: Making Green Work of Laundry ................................................................ 251
Chapter 5: Bringing Kitchens and Baths to a Green-Clean Sheen............................ 259
Chapter 6: Working Outside In for a Clean and Green Home ................................... 277
Part IV: Green Remodeling ....................................... 293
Chapter 1: Thinking Sustainability When You Remodel ........................................... 295
Chapter 2: Thinking about Building Materials in New Ways .................................... 311
Chapter 3: Green Finish and Construction Materials ................................................ 329
Chapter 4: Exploring Options for Heating and Cooling Systems ............................. 353
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Part V: Sustainable Landscaping .............................. 367
Chapter 1: Pursuing a Smart, Sustainable Landscape ............................................... 369
Chapter 2: Making Sustainable Decisions for Your Landscape Design ................... 383
Chapter 3: Hardscaping: Beauty and Function from Patios, Walls, and More ....... 399
Chapter 4: Selecting Plants for a Sustainable Landscape ......................................... 419
Chapter 5: Finding Greener Ways to Work Around (or with) Lawns ...................... 443
Part VI: Organic Gardening ...................................... 455
Chapter 1: Sowing the Seeds of Organic Gardening .................................................. 457
Chapter 2: Improving Your Soil and Feeding Your Plants Organically ................... 465
Chapter 3: Controlling Weeds, Pests, and Disease .................................................... 487
Chapter 4: Raising Organic Vegetables and Herbs .................................................... 521
Chapter 5: Finding Organic Success with Fruit .......................................................... 553
Part VII: Solar Power ............................................... 581
Chapter 1: Soaking Up the Pluses and Minuses of Solar Power ............................... 583
Chapter 2: Preparing for a Switch to Solar ................................................................. 593
Chapter 3: Jumping In to Small Projects with Big Results ........................................ 611
Chapter 4: Financing Your Solar Investments ............................................................ 623
Index ...................................................................... 639
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Book .............................................................................................. 1
Conventions Used in This Book ..................................................................... 2
What You’re Not to Read ................................................................................ 2
Foolish Assumptions ....................................................................................... 2
How This Book Is Organized .......................................................................... 3
Book I: Green Living ............................................................................... 3
Book II: Energy Eff ciency...................................................................... 3
Book III: Green Cleaning ........................................................................ 3
Book IV: Green Remodeling .................................................................. 4
Book V: Sustainable Landscaping ........................................................ 4
Book VI: Organic Gardening ................................................................. 4
Book VII: Solar Power ............................................................................ 4
Icons Used in This Book ................................................................................. 5
Where to Go from Here ................................................................................... 5
Book I: Green Living ..................................................... 7
Chapter 1: The World’s Gone Green! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Understanding the Impact of Your Choices ................................................. 9
Climate change: A sign of changing times ........................................ 11
Mother Nature and the law of supply and demand ......................... 11
Pondering pollution’s impact ............................................................. 12
Making the Move toward a Sustainable Lifestyle ...................................... 12
Changing what you can as you can ................................................... 13
Adopting the four primary green strategies ..................................... 13
Taking those f rst small steps ............................................................ 14
Turning green choices into habits around your home ................... 15
Shopping greenly and ethically .......................................................... 16
Finding Chemicals Where You’d Rather Not. ............................................. 16
In the air ................................................................................................ 16
In foods .................................................................................................. 18
In products ........................................................................................... 19
Taking Care of the Community Outside Your Door .................................. 20
Looking Forward: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally ................................ 22
Chapter 2: Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Cutting Back Consumption and Aiming for Zero Waste ........................... 26
Buy less ................................................................................................. 26
Be mindful of packaging ...................................................................... 26
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