Landscaping: How to Have An Energy Efficient Landscape
A landscape should not only be designed to make your backyard look charming but it should also be efficient in helping you save in your energy consumption. It is commonly reported that an energy efficient landscape can help you cut approximately one third of your cooling and heating expenses, which can amount to several hundred dollars a year. Knowing this can help you plan your landscape to be as much as energy sufficient as you can make it.
The first thing to do if you want your landscape to be energy sufficient is to plant it with trees and shrubs that can shade your house in some areas. During the summer when the sun's direct rays can heat up your house your cooling costs can go higher. However, having trees and tall shrubs shading your house from the heat of the sun, you can minimize your air conditioning use, as the normal summer temperature inside can lower by as much as ten degrees. In the winter when your trees lose their leaves, they can allow the sun rays to penetrate your house again, thereby increasing the amount of heat entering your house.
Other plants that can help give you an energy sufficient landscape are the windbreaking plants. Whereas wind is much welcome during summer, you wouldn't want it entering your house during the winter months as it will further lower the temperature inside. For this reason it is advisable to include windbreaking plants to help minimize the impact of wind on your house. Among these kinds of plants are trees and evergreen plants. As they can be sufficiently dense, they can absorb much of the wind coming through your place.
Good dead air spots surrounding your house are necessary aspect of an energy sufficient landscape. Since cool or warm air circulates around your house and it can readily escape through windows and ceilings of your house. You have to plant tall shrubs and trees around the base of your house. Having done that, a dead air line around your house is created helping the air generated by your cooling and heating devices to be trapped inside. To create an effective air line it is best to make a wider space between the foundation of your house and the trees. This leaves enough distance for air to be able to remain in the house.
To sum it all up, an energy efficient is effective in helping you cut back on your cooling and heating expenses by a few hundred dollars a year. You can achieve that by planting specific trees and tall shrubs that keep air generated by your cooling and heating devices inside, and to help minimize the impact of sunlight and wind at certain periods. Thus, the use of air conditioning or heating systems is kept to a minimum causing you to save money. An energy efficient landscape therefore adds beauty to your home without hurting your wallet.