It seems as though everywhere you look, more and more people are "going green," or at least talking about it...The "green" phenomenon has been very interesting to watch. While alot of people consider going green quite often, very few realize the cost of going green is not cheap, especially in this economy. Adapting to a greener lifestyle is something I believe all individuals should embark on but going all-out with a green mindset is simply not affordable. Take a few green building methods for instance:
- sprayfoam insulation
- geothermal heating and cooling
- low VOC paints
- Ecostar synthetic slate roofing
- LED lighting
- solar shades
- tankless water heaters
All of these green options are great ideas and certainly better for the enviroment than standard building methods but are they all really worth the extra cost? Sprayfoam insulation, geothermal and tankless water heaters are all easily triple the cost of their convential methods and the others are much more expensive than their counterparts as well. In theory, going green is fantastic but in reality it is a major financial committment. My best advice to anyone who is considering going green with their next building project is to balance the green methods out with the conventional methods. Perhaps you'll use sprayfoam insulation, tankless water heaters and low VOC paints in your project along with a convential HVAC system, conventional roofing materials and standard paints. This way you'll have the satisfaction and self-gratification of knowing you are helping the enviromnent but you'll also have the comfort of knowing you didn't completely break the bank to "go green". With the current cost of "going green" there is very little chance you will ever recoup the money you spent on your project. While I encourage everyone to live a greener life, I also remind people to be smart about it too.
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