The Building Industry Association held its expo this past weekend and the theme focused on going green.
That is an admirable concept, but there are some "green myths" that consumers should know about.
The BIA expo was filled with exhibitors, many of them touting the advantages of going green. But buyer, beware.
"The common misconceptions that I've been coming across is that homeowners want to do the right thing, they want to go green. There's two ways to look at it - 1, you do get a return on your investment and one is just being eco-friendly," said Alan Twu of HK Construction.
Not to say there's anything wrong with being eco-friendly. But Alan says there are some things you can do that will be eco-friendly and still save you money.
"How do I build green and what kind of money am I looking at getting back. That's not necessarily true all the time. Photovoltaics, solar, attic fans, anything solar you will see a return on your investment," Twu says.
Wind turbines also figure into those energy savings that are eco-friendly and economical. Another clever environmental device - a catchment system.
"Actually what it is, is you're just actually containing the water that you would catch off of your roof and your gutters, coming down your down spouts and actually what you would do is actually catch that water in a water catchment system," Twu says.
Twu is quick to point out there may be house-fixing approaches that have very little to do with the environment or the economy.
"You have your paints that have a low VOC, which is emissions that you get as far as that new paint smell. It's a lower emission off of that. That's going green but it's not necessarily giving you any time of investment off of that," he says.
Finally, if you are building a house from the ground up, pay close attention to the layout and design of that home.
"The way that you design can actually help you to be green, using less energy, using less AC. If you design your house correctly, you can have a nice cross-ventilation, if you do know that you're in a valley, if you have a lot of wind coming through," Twu says.
