I recently became aware of a home energy-saving device known as the ‘whole house fan’. In hot summer climates, this device helps your air conditioning work a lot less, which is especially useful if your house is the size of the Buffalo, NY train depot pictured above. But even if your house is much smaller, whole house fans can lower your electrical or gas usage significantly. Since electricity is produced primarily by fossil fuels and gas is a fossil fuel, you are lowering your carbon footprint and saving money!

The whole house fan is installed in your attic where much of the home’s hot air is trapped. When activated, it exhausts the hot attic air to the outside while pulling in cooler air back into the attic. Simple! However, you want to do this when the air outside is colder than the air in your attic - like in the evenings when you get home from work or school. This quickly cools down your house and uses less energy than your air conditioning. Then if you want to run the air conditioner to bring the temperature even lower, your A/C unit doesn’t need to work as hard and cuts off sooner. This saves energy and money! Make sure the installers build in a temperature shutoff gauge or timed dial so the fan doesn’t run all night.

Prices range from $1,000-$1,600, including installation. According to my manufacturer, a whole house fan can pay for itself over 2-3 summer seasons! Compare that with solar panels, which cost a lot more to purchase and can take 7 years or more to pay off, and the whole house fan becomes a no-brainer.

And if you ever sell your home, don’t forget to include the whole house fan and your historical cost savings in the real estate marketing materials (but don’t guarantee it!). The buyers will be able to enjoy the green energy savings too - lowering their costs of ownership.

Much has been said about the LEED certification for buildings, Energy Star appliances and other energy saving systems for the home or apartment. But little has been said about choosing locations that reduce your carbon footprint until now. WalkScore helps you determine the green factor of any location. Their algorithm includes proximity to grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, schools, parks and more. Plus they map the location and show you distances to these amenities. Now you can choose housing based on how little you need to use your car. Who needs a gym membership when you got Walkscore?