the cityhammer blog

Living Green Since 1955


Slightly less exciting than a Foo Fighters tour, though most likely, much more informative, the Better Homes and Gardens Living Green Tour is on its way to a city near you.

Better Homes and Gardens has put together a 7 month, 15 city tour to showcase innovative, earth-friendly options for your home. They've got a 2,500-square-foot BHG "Living Green Home" composed of ecologically sound materials and appliances. And for the hardcore, don't freak out, because they're schlepping these huge displays around the country with biodiesel-burning trucks, which BHG says is "ostensibly safer for the environment than gas or diesel".

The tour is co-sponsored by GreenWorks, who makes a line of natural cleaners made with plant-based ingredients. Along with GreenWorks cleaners, the Living Green Tour features products from Pella Windows and Doors, Bosch, Kohler, and Lee Furniture.

They kicked things off in Hartford at the beginning of this month and the tour will finish out in NYC at the Vanderbilt Exhibit Hall at the end of October. We'll remind you.

For more info, visit BHG

Art by Liza Lou

Here's a green remodeling tip that is both easy to implement and extremely inexpensive.

Whether you're building a new kitchen or just updating your fixtures and faucets, be sure to ask your contractor to use aerators for the sink. According to one of the best sites on the web for energy and water conservation, H2Ouse:

The water, wastewater, and energy saving benefits you get from installing new faucet aerators is primarily determined by your current aerators. But since faucet aerators are cheap and the water savings are well documented, it’s a safe bet that you will pay for your aerator investment in less than two years.

The main thing to keep in mind is that an aerator on it's own should cost between $5 and $15, but in this day and age, most of the major plumbing and fixture manufacturers have gotten the message, and now build them into the faucets themselves.

For those interested in the specs, all faucet aerators manufactured in the U.S. must use 2.2 gallons per minute (gpm) or less.

Energy Saving Appliance Choices are a Good Start

Due to popular demand from you the readers of cityhammer.com's Interior Decorator Blog, beginning in March, we will be highlighting some practical "green" home improvement tips on a frequent basis.

This decision wasn't made based on jumping on any particular bandwagon. Through extensive discussions with both visitors and members of cityhammer, we realized that green remodeling advice was both extremely sought after and highly controversial in the eyes of New York homeowners.

As an example, just a small amount of research on whether or not replacing windows for energy efficiency was a valuable endeavor would yield you several convincing arguments on both sides. The proponents would say that any upgrade that halts the effect of "leaked" cold air and allows you to chill out with the thermostat is a good thing. The disbelievers would say that you'll have to live 100 years to recoup the energy cost savings and that the transport, waste material to dispose of, and manufacture of the new windows completely negates the shrinking of your carbon footprint.

Here at cityhammer, we will attempt to bring New Yorkers interesting new ideas for their homes that, when combined, can help to lower costs and do the right thing environmentally, without the need to build a wind farm on the roof. We'll answer reader questions with intelligence from the front lines of the green movement and keep the blog updated with the latest breakthroughs in products and practices.

Stay tuned and keep the topic suggestions coming!

Labels: Energy Efficient, Green Remodeling, Green Renovating Tips, New York Green, Window Replacement