Spine: 1.29” Practical, simple home House & Home/Sustainable Living Solar Power Organic Gardening Sustainable Landscaping Green Remodeling Green Cleaning Energy Efficiency Green Living Making Everything Easier!™ solutions for reducing your impact on the planet Open the book and find: G H o m e Want to go green in and around your home? This value- (cid:127) How to cut back on consumption r G r e e n Yo u r packed guide gives you easy-to-follow, budget-friendly e (cid:127) W ays to reuse and repurpose your tips that will reduce your ecofootprint. From using greener e possessions cleaning tools and building materials to cutting your n energy costs and working with your lawn, you’ll discover (cid:127) Rsoelcuiptieosn fso r green cleaning A A L L - I N - O N E how to make your home cleaner, healthier, and more L Y L energy efficient. (cid:127) G reen options for heating and - o cooling systems I N (cid:127) Go green, save money — using less means saving more - u (cid:127) Strategies for organic gardening O (cid:127) Reduce, reuse, recycle — the reasons behind going green and N r tips for getting the whole family involved (cid:127) Great green food choices E H (cid:127) Improve your energy use — simple fixes for making your (cid:127) Tips for financing solar heating, air conditioning, lighting, water use, and appliances investments o more efficient m (cid:127) G reen finish and construction (cid:127) Bring green to your clean — practical tips for eliminating toxic materials cleaners from your home and cleaning every room of the house e (cid:127) How to raise ecoconscious kids (cid:127) Remodel the ecofriendly way — using sustainable construction materials in your home projects 7 BBOOOOKKSS (cid:127) Plan your garden and landscaping — organic options for 1 growing your garden and beautifying your yard with less waste IN Go to dummies.com ® (cid:127) Tap into the power of solar energy — projects to make solar for more! work for your home (cid:127) Green Living (cid:127) Energy Efficiency (cid:127) Green Cleaning (cid:127) Green Remodeling (cid:127) Sustainable Landscaping (cid:127) Organic Gardening $29.99 US / $32.99 CN / £19.99 UK (cid:127) Solar Power ISBN 978-0-470-40778-3 Printed on recycled paper with soy ink. Green Your Home ALL-IN-ONE FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Yvonne Jeff ery, Liz Barclay, Michael Grosvenor, Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, PhD, Betsy Sheldon, Eric Corey Freed, Rik DeGunther, Ann Whitman, The National Gardening Association, and Owen Dell 0011__440077778833--ffffiirrss..iinndddd ii 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::4422 PPMM Green Your Home All-In-One For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, 317-572-3447, fax 317-572-4355, or online at http:// www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/ or its affi liates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITH- OUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZA- TION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008941620 ISBN: 978-0-470-40778-3 Manufactured in the United States of America. This book is printed on recycled paper. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0011__440077778833--ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiii 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::4422 PPMM About the Authors Yvonne Jeffery, coauthor of Green Living For Dummies, is an author, editor, and award-winning feature writer with 15 years’ experience writing home and lifestyle stories, many of them focused on sustainable living. Yvonne’s work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and books around the world. Her credits include National Geographic Traveler, American Profi le, The Sunday Telegraph (UK), and CanWest newspapers. Liz Barclay, coauthor of Green Living For Dummies, has worked as an adviser, trainer, and manager with the Citizens Advice Bureau, a nonprofi t organi- zation in the United Kingdom that provides free, impartial advice to help individuals resolve legal, fi nancial, consumer, and other problems. Liz has worked on a wide range of business and fi nance programs for the BBC and has written for News Of The World, The Express, Moneywise, Family Circle, Save Money, and the Mail On Sunday personal fi nance magazine. She also has written UK Law and Your Rights For Dummies and Small Business Employment Law For Dummies. Michael Grosvenor, coauthor of Green Living For Dummies, is a leading urban planning professional and freelance writer on sustainability. Through his work and writing, Michael promotes the benefi ts of making sustainable lifestyle choices. He is the director of his own consulting fi rm and holds maters degrees in Urban Affairs and Applied Social Research and a degree in Town Planning. He’s also a member of the Planning Institute of Australia and provides advice to the Institute on integrated land use and transportation planning issues. Elizabeth B. Goldsmith, PhD, author of Green Cleaning For Dummies, is a Family Resource Management professor at Florida State University who green cleans her own home. She is a nationally known expert in how house- holds are run, including the most documented home in America — the White House. Liz is the author of several college textbooks, including Consumer Economics: Issues and Behavior (Prentice Hall; 2nd edition Pearson) and Resource Management for Individuals and Families (Wadsworth Publishing), now in its 4th edition (Pearson). She was a Fulbright Scholar in Trinidad and Tobago, studying family and home-management practices. Liz presents papers on households and consumers at conferences worldwide and has been quoted in various publications. 0011__440077778833--ffffiirrss..iinndddd iiiiii 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::4422 PPMM Betsy Sheldon, contributor to Green Cleaning For Dummies, has served as editor in chief for three travel publications, and is the author or co-author of six books on topics from job-hunting for women to Jewish travel. Betsy writes “Green Watch,” a regular column for Indianapolis Monthly Home magazine, and contributes articles about environmental issues and sustainability to publications including Indiana Living Green and Vacation Industry Review. She is involved in a number of environmental initiatives, including the greening task force for the American Resort Development Association and the Indiana Sustainability Coalition, and also serves on the board of Earth Charter Indiana. She facilitates “Low Carbon Diet” workshops, which help partici- pants discover the steps to lowering their own carbon footprint and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Eric Corey Freed, author of Green Building and Remodeling For Dummies, is an architect, lecturer, and writer based in San Francisco. He has 15 years of experience in green building and is a practitioner in the tradition of organic architecture fi rst developed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Eric is founder and principal of organicARCHITECT, part architecture fi rm, part think tank. Eric teaches in the Sustainable Design program he co-developed at the Academy of Art University and the University of California, Berkeley. His monthly column, Ask the Green Architect, is published by GreenerBuildings and syn- dicated to dozens of publications. Rik DeGunther, author of both Solar Power Your Home For Dummies and Energy Effi cient Home For Dummies, is CEO of Effi cient Homes, an energy effi - ciency auditing fi rm in Northern California. He is actively engaged in design- ing and developing new solar equipment, including off-grid lighting systems and off-grid swimming pool heaters. He attended the University of Illinois as an undergraduate and Stanford University as a graduate student, studying both applied physics and engineering economics. He holds several United States patents and has designed a wide range of technical equipment, includ- ing solar power systems, weather measurement equipment, and explosive devices (strictly by accident). Ann Whitman, coauthor of Organic Gardening For Dummies, was fortu- nate enough to grow up around parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles who kept compost piles out back and had keen interest in growing food and fl owers. She’s been tending her own patches of soil for more than 30 years. Ann earned a bachelor of science degree in Plant and Soil Science at the University of Vermont. She also completed a master of arts degree in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design in Massachusetts. Ann is the author of Trees and Shrubs For Dummies, as well as How-To Landscaping Basics and Water Gardens: Simple Steps to Adding Beauty of Water to Your Garden, both published by Time Life. 0011__440077778833--ffffiirrss..iinndddd iivv 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::4422 PPMM The National Gardening Association (NGA), coauthor of Organic Gardening For Dummies, is committed to sustaining and renewing the fundamental links between people, plants, and the earth. NGA is best known for its garden- based curricula, educational journals, international initiatives, and several youth garden grant programs. Together, these reach more than 300,000 children nationwide each year. To fi nd out more about the NGA, visit www. garden.org/home. Owen Dell, author of Sustainable Living For Dummies, is an internationally recognized expert in sustainable landscaping. He has authored numerous publications for Sunset Magazine, National Gardening Magazine, Southern California Gardener, Pacifi c Horticulture, and many others. An international speaker, he is also the cowriter and cohost of the California television series Garden Wise Guys (www.citytv18.com), a sustainable landscaping sitcom. His book How to Start a Home-Based Landscaping Business (Globe Pequot Press) has helped budding professionals get a healthy start on their careers. Owen’s work has been featured on HGTV, Peak Moment Television, and NBC and in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, Landscape Architecture mag- azine, the Los Angeles Times, and in many other publications. 0011__440077778833--ffffiirrss..iinndddd vv 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::4422 PPMM Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services Media Development Project Coordinator: Katherine Key Compilation Editor: Traci Cumbay Layout and Graphics: Sarah Philippart, Project Editor: Kelly Ewing Christin Swinford, Christine Williams Acquisitions Editor: Mike Baker Proofreaders: Melissa Bronnenberg, Nancy Rapoport Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen General Reviewer: Lynn Jenkins Senior Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich Editorial Supervisor and Reprint Editor: Carmen Krikorian Editorial Assistant: Jennette ElNaggar Art Coordinator: Alicia B. South Cover Photos: iStock Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/General User Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 0011__440077778833--ffffiirrss..iinndddd vvii 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::4422 PPMM Contents at a Glance Introduction ................................................................ 1 Part I: Green Living ..................................................... 7 Chapter 1: The World’s Gone Green! ...............................................................................9 Chapter 2: Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling ..............................................................25 Chapter 3: Making Great Green Diet Decisions ............................................................45 Chapter 4: Setting Your Kids on the Path to a Green Lifestyle ..................................65 Chapter 5: Keeping Your Home Healthy .......................................................................77 Part II: Energy Efficiency ........................................... 89 Chapter 1: Taking Stock of Your Energy Effi ciency and Use ......................................91 Chapter 2: Sealing and Insulating Your Home ............................................................111 Chapter 3: Maximizing Your Heating and Air-Conditioning System ........................127 Chapter 4: Lighting Your Home More Effi ciently .......................................................141 Chapter 5: Increasing Your Water Effi ciency .............................................................153 Chapter 6: Taking Control of Appliances and Electronics........................................167 Chapter 7: Controlling Solar Exposure for Light and Heat .......................................185 Part III: Green Cleaning ........................................... 197 Chapter 1: Bringing “Green” to “Clean” for a Healthier Home .................................199 Chapter 2: Building an Arsenal of Green Cleaning Tools ..........................................221 Chapter 3: Mixing Up Your Own Green Cleaning Solutions .....................................233 Chapter 4: Making Green Work of Laundry ................................................................251 Chapter 5: Bringing Kitchens and Baths to a Green-Clean Sheen............................259 Chapter 6: Working Outside In for a Clean and Green Home ...................................277 Part IV: Green Remodeling ....................................... 293 Chapter 1: Thinking Sustainability When You Remodel ...........................................295 Chapter 2: Thinking about Building Materials in New Ways ....................................311 Chapter 3: Green Finish and Construction Materials ................................................329 Chapter 4: Exploring Options for Heating and Cooling Systems .............................353 0022__440077778833--ffttoocc..iinndddd vviiii 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::5555 PPMM Part V: Sustainable Landscaping .............................. 367 Chapter 1: Pursuing a Smart, Sustainable Landscape ...............................................369 Chapter 2: Making Sustainable Decisions for Your Landscape Design ...................383 Chapter 3: Hardscaping: Beauty and Function from Patios, Walls, and More .......399 Chapter 4: Selecting Plants for a Sustainable Landscape .........................................419 Chapter 5: Finding Greener Ways to Work Around (or with) Lawns ......................443 Part VI: Organic Gardening ...................................... 455 Chapter 1: Sowing the Seeds of Organic Gardening ..................................................457 Chapter 2: Improving Your Soil and Feeding Your Plants Organically ...................465 Chapter 3: Controlling Weeds, Pests, and Disease ....................................................487 Chapter 4: Raising Organic Vegetables and Herbs ....................................................521 Chapter 5: Finding Organic Success with Fruit ..........................................................553 Part VII: Solar Power ............................................... 581 Chapter 1: Soaking Up the Pluses and Minuses of Solar Power ...............................583 Chapter 2: Preparing for a Switch to Solar .................................................................593 Chapter 3: Jumping In to Small Projects with Big Results ........................................611 Chapter 4: Financing Your Solar Investments ............................................................623 Index ...................................................................... 639 0022__440077778833--ffttoocc..iinndddd vviiiiii 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::5555 PPMM Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................. 1 About This Book ..............................................................................................1 Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2 What You’re Not to Read ................................................................................2 Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2 How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3 Book I: Green Living ...............................................................................3 Book II: Energy Effi ciency......................................................................3 Book III: Green Cleaning ........................................................................3 Book IV: Green Remodeling ..................................................................4 Book V: Sustainable Landscaping ........................................................4 Book VI: Organic Gardening .................................................................4 Book VII: Solar Power ............................................................................4 Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5 Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................5 Book I: Green Living ..................................................... 7 Chapter 1: The World’s Gone Green! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Understanding the Impact of Your Choices .................................................9 Climate change: A sign of changing times ........................................11 Mother Nature and the law of supply and demand .........................11 Pondering pollution’s impact .............................................................12 Making the Move toward a Sustainable Lifestyle ......................................12 Changing what you can as you can ...................................................13 Adopting the four primary green strategies .....................................13 Taking those fi rst small steps ............................................................14 Turning green choices into habits around your home ...................15 Shopping greenly and ethically ..........................................................16 Finding Chemicals Where You’d Rather Not ..............................................16 In the air ................................................................................................16 In foods ..................................................................................................18 In products ...........................................................................................19 Taking Care of the Community Outside Your Door ..................................20 Looking Forward: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally ................................22 Chapter 2: Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Cutting Back Consumption and Aiming for Zero Waste ...........................26 Buy less .................................................................................................26 Be mindful of packaging ......................................................................26 0022__440077778833--ffttoocc..iinndddd iixx 1111//2255//0088 77::3300::5555 PPMM