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Are you looking for cost-effective
yet eye-pleasing ways to lower your energy bills? Planting trees,
shrubs, vines, grasses, and hedges could be the answer. In fact,
landscaping may be your best long-term investment for reducing
heating and cooling costs, while also bringing other improvements
to your community.
A well-designed landscape
will:
* Cut your summer and winter
energy costs dramatically.
* Protect your home from winter wind and summer sun.
* Reduce consumption of water, pesticides, and fuel for landscaping
and lawn maintenance.
* Help control noise and air pollution.
This publication covers landscaping
tips to save money year-round; ways that landscaping helps the
environment; important climate, site, and design considerations;
landscape planning; and tree and shrub selection. You can get
additional information on regionally appropriate species from
your local nursery and landscaping experts.
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Landscaping Saves Money Year-Round
Carefully positioned trees can
save up to 25% of a household s energy consumption for heating
and cooling. Computer models devised by the U.S. Department of
Energy predict that the proper placement of only three trees
will save an average household between $100 and $250 in energy
costs annually.
On average, a well-designed landscape
provides enough energy savings to return your initial investment
in less than 8 years. |
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An 8-foot (2.4-meter) deciduous
(leaf-shedding) tree, for example, costs about as much as an
awning for one large window and can ultimately save your household
hundreds of dollars in reduced cooling costs, yet still admit
some winter sunshine to reduce heating and lighting costs. Landscaping
can save you money in summer or winter.
Summer
You may have noticed the coolness
of parks and wooded areas compared to the temperature of nearby
city streets. Shading and evapotranspiration (the process by
which a plant actively moves and releases water vapor) from trees
can reduce surrounding air temperatures as much as 9 degrees
F (5 degrees C).
Because cool air settles near
the ground, air temperatures directly under trees can be as much
as 25 degrees F (14 degrees C) cooler than air temperatures above
nearby blacktop. Studies by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
found summer daytime air temperatures to be 3 degrees F to 6
degrees F (2 degrees C to 3 degrees C) cooler in tree- shaded
neighborhoods than in treeless areas.
A well-planned landscape can
reduce an unshaded home's summer air-conditioning costs by 15%
to 50%. One Pennsylvania study reported air-conditioning savings
of as much as 75% for small mobile homes.
Winter
You may be familiar with wind
chill. If the outside temperature is 10 degrees F (-12 degrees
C) and the wind speed is 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per
hour), the wind chill is -24 degrees F (-31 degrees C). Trees,
fences, or geographical features can be used as windbreaks to
shield your house from the wind.
A study in South Dakota found
that windbreaks to the north, west, and east of houses cut fuel
consumption by an average of 40%. Houses with windbreaks placed
only on the windward side (the side from which the wind is coming)
averaged 25% less fuel consumption than similar but unprotected
homes. If you live in a windy climate, your well-planned landscape
can reduce your winter heating bills by approximately one-third.
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