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Can Landscaping Affect Home Energy Consumption?

By National Refrigeration October 20, 2020

There are many strategies homeowners can take to reduce energy consumption through landscaping. Understanding your home’s region is helpful for understanding what landscape approaches are best. According to energy.gov., Massachusetts is considered a cool region. Here are a few tips to conserve energy consumption for cool region homes:

1. Shelter Your Home with Trees and Shrubs

Evergreens and dDeciduous trees and shrubs can help create shelter areas around your home. This is important especially during cool months when winds can be particularly strong. If your home has drafts or the sealing of windows and doors is wearing down, your furnacehome is likely exerting excess energy to keep your home warm. Fortifying your home with deciduous trees and shrubs minimizes wind exposure and simultaneously reduces the ability for cold air to seep into your home.

2. Create More Shade

Creating more shade helps protect your home during hot summer temperatures. Taking specific measures to shade the east and west facing walls of your home is worthwhile because these sides experience the most heat. For many homeowners, AC’s can become financially burdensome during summer months when the heat feels unbearable. By building more shade, your home is less susceptible to overheating and your AC does not have to work as hard to keep your home a comfortable temperature.

3. Plant Deciduous Trees

Deciduous tTrees are not only beautiful during the peak of fall, but they also are great for reducing your home’s energy consumption. Because deciduous trees changeevolve with the seasons, these trees bring benefits to your home year round. In the summer months, shade is created through the abundance of leaves. In the fall and winter, as the trees lose their leaves, sunlight is able to warm your home. Passive solar heat is a free resource that can alleviate some of your home’s reliance on the heater. With deciduous trees in particular, it’s important to plant trees at least 15 feet from your home to ensure that the roots do not damage your home’s foundation.

National Refrigeration can assess your current heating system to help you make informed decisions about repairs, upgrades and replacement solutions.

4. Regularly Trim Plants

Increasing air flow is important in the summertime for keeping energy costs low. The air flow surrounding your AC unit is especially important because an overheated AC unit can lead to a multitude of problems. Keeping the surrounding area trimmed and keeping gutters cleared is a low cost and high reward measure you can take.

Landscaping is not only a great way to beautify your home, but it can also help with keeping energy consumption low. To learn more about keeping your energy costs low during peak heating and cooling seasons, check out our blog from August where we shared a few more general tips for homeowners regarding their HVAC. Here you can find more broad DIY solutions.

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