Trees can help you save up to 75% on your home cooling cost, and this has been proven a study from the Department of Energy using computer modeling. It shows that the proper placement of trees can reduce spending that amounts to $100 to $250 a year off your home cooling costs.
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How Can Urban Trees Conserve Your Energy?
So now, we’re going to take a look at how we place those trees around our home to save on it. Whether it’s incorporating shading concepts into your landscape design or taking care of the big trees you already have, trees can help reduce this solar heat gain, reducing your cooling costs. If you live in a temperate climate, you want to plant deciduous trees. Those are trees that lose their leaves in the winter. Put those on the south and west sides of the building.
Those are the sides of the house where the sun’s rays are the most intense, large evergreen trees should not be planted on the southern side of homes in cold climates because the branches of these trees will block some winter sun.
Trees, shrubs and ground cover plants can shade the ground and pavement around the home. This reduces heat radiation and cools the air before it even reaches your home. However, avoid allowing dense foliage to grow immediately next to a home where wetness and continual humidity can be problems.
So as you can see, the trees in your landscape provide dividends that are pretty significant on several levels and it’s worth your while to call an IT professional to consult with you about the best way to maintain these trees. A professional arborist will evaluate the trees in your landscape. They can also talk to you about proper trees to plant to enhance the energy savings you might get from your landscape.
How Much Energy is Saved?
Even when in the middle of winter, it is great to start thinking about saving energy in the summer. If you want to save a buck, specifically planting those shade trees will definitely help you cut costs on your electricity. However, you must remember that where you plant them is just as important as when you plant them.
There is no shortage of free shade trees, and all you have to do is reach put to tree foundation nurseries. There are always great choices of deciduous trees to choose from. In the winter, the trees may not have any leaves. But notwithstanding, they’re all in great health. The tree won’t go into shock when it gets hot and you’ll have a much healthier mature tree quicker.
Foundation nurseries spend as much as $1 million every year to buy trees for its customers. A recent study the USDA found their money is well spent because of the power of the trees.
The study shows for the first time that trees are cost effective strategies and save a great deal of energy.
The study used about 450 homes randomly sampled from the land park area. It found out that planting a tree can save the average homeowner at least $25 on their energy bill in summer months. Experts say, depending on where you plant your tree, it can help you save energy about 30 to 40%.
To go about this the best way, the foundation nursery can provide you with expert advice on where to plant your tree and how to plant your tree. You’ll also get advice on the best tree to plant for the specific spot around your home.
With all of these, will not only save money, you will help clean up the air quality and save the environment.
Energy Saving Per Year For The Average Home
If you did a quick count of how many plugging appliances, you have in your home. You might be surprised. The average household has over 60 and that number is set to rise. The good news is that more and more we’re opting for energy efficient appliances, but there’s still room to improve. The real cost of an appliance is not just the price you pay, it’s also the cost to run or use it over its lifetime. The more energy efficient an appliance is, the less it will cost to run. That’s especially important for high use everyday appliances like fridges, washing machines and dishwashers and air conditioners
Apart from choosing energy efficient appliances, another efficient method that has worked well is planting of trees, and this could save over $250 per year.
For instance, if the average energy consumption of a home for air conditioning in the winter is about $50 per month. This could increase the average household energy bill per month to about $250.
Hence in the summer you may expect the cost to rise to as much as $350 with increased air conditioner use. Arithmetically, this is: $100 x 4 – 5 months (summer) = $450 cost for air conditioner. If trees reduce energy 30% that is $130 pa.
Can Trees Also Add Value To Your Home?
According to the council of tree and landscape appraisers, a sound mature tree can add from $1,000 to $10,000 to the value of your home. One of the non-aesthetic ways a tree can improve the quality of life on your property is saving you money.
Trees Also Improve Air Quality
Trees are constantly cleaning our air and improving our air quality. They exhale the oxygen we need to breathe while absorbing carbon dioxide and other air pollution.
Trees reduce air pollution, trees absorb and break down most of the major airports including ground level ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide. Just as we easily breathe these gases into our lungs, potentially causing us serious health issues, trees breathe them in as they draw in CO2, removing them from the air.
Trees also absorb tiny particles of pollution and smog that land on their leaves and bark within the trees. These chemicals go through a series of biochemical reactions which can convert them to non-harmful compounds.
That said, Trees absorb close to 50 pounds of co2 in a year. This means that the time a tree reaches 40 years of age it would have stored about 1 ton of co2