Save on energy costs using landscaping tips

[youlki22]

These tips would definately help you in saving with your energy bills. Landscapes help in reducing heat around our environment, but proper way of landscaping can lower our energy bills also.

How it is possible?

Let me explain:

Landscaping is a good way to keep energy costs down. Landscapes that keep the sun away from the east and west walls reduces the amount of heat flow into a house. When heat is transferred into the home, your AC has to operate longer and harder, thus using more energy. Plants and trees that cast shadows over the east and west walls can reduce indoor temperatures by as much as 20°F in the summer!

A good way to start the landscape planning process is to make a bird's eye drawing of your home. Mark east and west directions on your plan and include all and any existing trees and/or shrubs. This will help you decide where to plant the appropriate vegetation.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind during the planning process:

• Plant trees and shrubs so they can direct breezes. Remove low branches to allow for maximum air movement. Plants and trees release large amounts of water from the pores in their leaves, and this evaporative cooling process can create a zone around the plant as much as 9°F cooler than the surrounding air temperature.
• Plant shade-casting plants around the air conditioning compressor so it doesn't have to work so hard. Be sure that leaves and branches do not block the airflow and periodically check for fallen leaves.
• Set trellises away from the house to allow air to circulate and keep vines from possibly damaging the exterior surfaces.
• Consider using bark or woodchips for walkways. This helps to keep the yard cooler and provides drainage for water.
• Use native plant species that are adapted to the soils and local environment.

Hope that these tips work for you!

[amyschiff]

When planting trees near your home, it's important to know what the tree will be like when it's mature so that you can plant them far enough away. It's likely that the trees will eventually be taller than your home and if they extend over your roof it can be dangerous in the event of a storm. Also, if the trees lose their leaves in the fall, you may end up doing some serious gutter cleaning.

[jdp]

I pay attention to this here but more so for keeping the house warm in winter because winter heat bills are our biggest expense.

I look for evergreen plantings to block northerly and westerly winds from battering the house and stealing my heat. I hope the trees on the southern side of the house are deciduous so the sun can shine in during the day and help warm the house.

If you are looking to save work, gas $ AND be green you could also try and plant "wild", use rock-scaping, etc. to eliminate mowing.

[frugalized]

Regarding landscaping in order to save energy, neighbors of ours installed rain barrel sprinkler system. They buried a huge rain barrel under the back yard near the back of their house and landscaped over it. All the gutters on the house drain into it (and I think the backyard is landscaped to drain surface water into the underground rain barrel). The rain barrel then feeds all the sprinklers throughout the yard with a small pump.

No use of municipal water at all and reuse of rain water! Lots of water savings and reuse of rain water that would normally drain into the soil and eventually into the municipal drain system which just gets funneled into the sewers.

[Johansen8]

What plants are suitable for landscaping that would help save water, and stil beautify the lawn? Are there any preferred type of soil here? Does the soil still need any fertilizers? How to do this now- Saving water in landscape?

[gt0163c]

Originally Posted by Johansen8

What plants are suitable for landscaping that would help save water, and stil beautify the lawn? Are there any preferred type of soil here? Does the soil still need any fertilizers? How to do this now- Saving water in landscape?

The answers to many of your questions are very dependent upon where you live. The climate, soil type, shade/sun ratio, whether your yard is on a slope or not, what plants you already have, how much time you're willing to put into maintenance, etc all will effect the answers to your questions.

Just like when dealing with anything alive (kids, pets, spouses, coworkers), landscaping is all about managing the variables and figuring out what works best for you. Your best option may be to go to your local nursery (generally not the big box home improvement stores) sometime when they're not busy and find the older guy or lady who's there more because they love plants and landscaping and less for the money and have a nice, long chat with that person. It's kinda like when you need advice about power tools or how to complete a project, your best bet is to go to Home Depot and find the old guy (every store seems to have one) and ask him for advice. These people know what they're talking about. Part of the reason that they're working there is because they want to help people enjoy the things that they enjoy.

[marts56]

Thanks for your tips that's exactly what I'm looking for my friend he ask me if I have a knowledge in landscaping and I said that I don't have but I'll try to search and this is it. This will be a big help for him I guess.

[ganzygrl]

We had major problems with basement flooding until we installed rain barrels on two of our downspouts. Now we have the added benefit of free water for our landscapig, plus no flooding this year! We found rain barrels and the assorted pieces at Wal-mart for less than $100 for two rain barrel set-ups, which was much less than it cost to pump out our basement!