Energy Efficient Landscaping

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Not only can it lower your utility bills, energy efficient landscaping can raise your property values.
Not only can it lower your utility bills, energy efficient landscaping can raise your property values.
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Despite what you may think, a solid wind barrier is not the most effective way to shield an area.
Despite what you may think, a solid wind barrier is not the most effective way to shield an area.
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Evergreens provide the best protection from winter wind, while deciduous trees can funnel a summer breeze.
Evergreens provide the best protection from winter wind, while deciduous trees can funnel a summer breeze.
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A penetrable barrier will create a substantially larger wind shadow.
A penetrable barrier will create a substantially larger wind shadow.

The United States has 42 million acres of yard (an area about the size of New England). Most of these yards waste water, are sprayed with chemicals, don’t use native plants, and can’t support wildlife. Only a small percentage take advantage of their natural ability to shield a house from the elements. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a recent U.S. Forest Service report, and numerous university studies, energy efficient landscaping can substantially reduce a home’s utility bills. By how much? Between $300 and $750 a year according to those same studies, and that doesn’t even include the increased value that low utility bills and a well-designed landscape add to home resale prices (15% according to a survey by the National Gardening Association).
 

Tempering the Sun

The strategy for handling the sun is simple: block it when it’s hot, let it in when it’s cold. What’s more complicated is where to place and not place plantings to achieve those goals. In many cases, removing trees can be even more important than planting them.

As landscape writer Robert Kourik noted, “The old-fashioned idea that an energy-conserving landscape means a thicket of deciduous trees along the southern side of a house [so the leaves will block the sun in the summer, but drop off and let the sun in during the winter] is not only ineffective, but often counterproductive.” For most of the country, heating costs more than cooling, so a home’s southern exposure should usually be cleared to let in the sun’s warmth. Even leafless deciduous trees can block 25-60% of the sun’s energy.

  • Published on Oct 1, 1994
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