Some cost more, but bring benefits in terms of increased enjoyment while waiting for the payback. Many, like installing programmable thermostats or insulating a water heater, take less than an hour of DIY time and pay back their cost in less than a year. They found 45 out of the 50 projects they ran the numbers on ended up paying off from both an environmental and economic standpoint. Green$ense for the Home: Rating the Real Payoff from 50 Green Home Projects by green architect Eric Corey Freed and financial and marketing expert Kevin Daum evaluates projects ranging from the simple (like installing energy-efficient light bulbs) to the ambitious (like developing a mini-power plant with your neighbors from a stream running through your properties). Two new books out from Taunton Press (the publishers of Fine Homebuilding) are filled with tips for those interested in green remodeling, building new, or making their homes more efficient, even if they are just renting. With the potential to recover significant costs from city, state and federal rebates, the payback could be swift. And, by going to this handy interactive map posted by the City University of New York, I found out the co-op building in which my mother is a shareholder could save almost $7,000 a year by installing a solar PV array on its roof.

The retrofit cost $73,000 and is expected to pay for itself in three years.

The 15-story Park Avenue building installed a new efficient burner capable of using either cleaner fuel oil or natural gas. That’s what the shareholders of one New York City co-op found. And for those who want to stay in their homes, the ROI is getting ever shorter - about a three-year payback for most green retrofit investments. For sellers in a depressed housing market, that’s an impressive ROI for adding green features to their home. That’s because a home with significant green features and efficiency can command as much as 30 percent over a traditional home - and sell in as little as one third the time. And while commercial construction was the early pioneer in green building - owing to high upfront costs - now that costs of green building technology like photovoltaics are dropping, residential construction is showing green enthusiasm as well. But building green is starting to make economic, as well as environmental sense.Ī report released this year by CB Richard Ellis shows the green building market is growing dramatically, reaching 35 percent of new construction in 2010. Traditionally constructed buildings are responsible for between half and three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., so the more we incorporate green building practices in new and old construction, the closer we will be to getting a grip on climate change. And it’s not just for new construction: from simple energy efficiency projects to “deep energy retrofits,” owners and leasers of existing homes and commercial buildings can join the green building boom. *To use MyOncor, you must be a customer in the Oncor Electric Delivery service territory.Building green is getting big, better and cheaper.

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