A new green super paint?
There is a new type of paint that was developed by BM, it is their super premium paint - Aura™. There are a couple of key items that differentiate Aura from other paints, it’s color technology and the method of mixing the colors. (more…)
You already own your house and it was built back before people were really aware of “green” building practices (you and about 110 million close friends). With American’s spending over $200 billion dollars on home remodeling there are a lot of people out there making changes to their homes. If you are going to update your home, why not go green. Well, you ask, what are some of the best changes you can make to improve your home’s energy efficiency?
Here is my top 10 list: (from little/easy to big/tougher)
Window shades usually are not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of green behavior. There are a couple of areas where shades can directly impact the green rating of your house, they two areas are off-gassing and energy efficiency. The biggest impact from shades can be their energy savings. There are a couple of ways the shades help, keeping the heat out or keeping the heat in your house. Light colored fabrics will reflect the sun’s rays which reduces solar gain and help keep the indoor temperature lower. In addition to reflecting heat insulating shades can also keep the heat (or cool) in the house. Insulating shades have R ratings of up to 5.0 or higher, these factors along can save a considerable amount on your energy bills.
In addition the the energy savings there are indoor air quality issues with some shades. The majority of shades have a thin coating of PVC to increase the durability of the shade. Now more manufactures are also creating PVC-free shades that use other, more environmentally friendly, coatings to provide the durability. You still need to be careful since the replacement coatings are not always harmless, be sure to check with the manufacture for details.
There is a new line of paints from ICI called the Freshaire Choice that are VOC-free in both the base and the tint colors. The reason this is noteworthy is that in many paints the base color may be VOC-free but the tint can add a large amount of VOCs back into the paint. The neat thing about the tint system for the Freshaire paint is that it uses a solid colorant instead of a liquid tint. The colorant comes in a package and it is placed in the base, bag included. A quick, easy, precise, and environmentally friendly way to color paint. The paint ranges from around $35 to $38 per gallon and it will be available exclusively at the Home Depot starting in April. The Freshaire Choice Paint product assortment consists of flat, eggshell and semi-gloss finishes, as well as drywall interior primer and ceiling paint.
