Midwest Eco-Design - Your home for eco-friendly construction, remodeling & housing choices including prefrabricated homes, cabins and other sustainable material choices.

When upgrading or choosing a new heating system, you want a system with a high annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE) rating. You can find this information in the product literature. If a salesperson tells you the rating, be sure to verify it by reading the label.

The AFUE is the measure of the amount of heat delivered from your furnace through your house. For example, a furnace with an efficiency rating of 70 percent means that the furnace converts 70 percent of the fuel you supply to heat. What happens to that other 30 percent? It’s lost. The higher the AFUE percentage, the better the efficiency. Good efficiency units today are 85-plus for furnaces and 90-plus for boilers.

According to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), for a material to qualify as “green”, it must:

• Meet or exceed performance requirements.
• Have sufficient, predictable strength, durability, or stability.
• Be resistant to moisture, decay, or biocontamination.
• Be nontoxic or nonhazardous to occupants and installers.
• Be comparable in cost (labor + materials + equipment + other) to traditional materials.
• Be able to be harvested sustainably and installed efficiently.
• Be rapidly renewable or abundant.
• Be a closed-loop material, which means it can be recycled again and again.
• Involve minimal direct/indirect use of nonrenewables.
• Be adaptable, reusable, or recyclable.

Americans spend more than $160 billion a year to heat, cool, light, and otherwise power their homes. With the rising cost of fuels, many homeowners are fighting the ever-increasing gas and electric bills. To do a full energy audit on your home & learn how to save energy AND money, see the Home Energy Saver Calculator.

Want to know your carbon footprint?  Check out http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/.  Answer questions and find out your carbon footprint score.  Then learn more steps you can take to reduce your score even more.

Here is mine: (it says below the US national average, yet it feels way too high for me and I will be taking whatever steps necessary to reduce it.)  Mine is based on a 3-person household.