Going green when you're remodeling your home in Santa Fe is a good thing!

Green building and for that matter green remodeling is the “in thing” in the City of Santa Fe. The City of Santa Fe now has a written green building code that addresses green building so when you’re looking at changing your home’s exterior or interior with a remodel in Santa Fe you can definitely remodel your home green.  Once you’ve made the decision to go green for your remodel the next step to take is find a builder (unless you’re the extra handy sort of homeowner). In Santa Fe several builders have taken the steps to learn about green construction so finding someone to do your remodel won’t be a problem. The next step to take is to determine which parts of your home you’re going to remodel.  Once you’ve got that decision made the green decisions can come into play.  Green appliances, lighting, and building materials are available for virtually any part of home construction today.  One of the best parts of this fact regarding green appliances and materials is that several of the purchases you’ll make come with government tax incentives. Make sure you get documentation about the energy tax credits and confer with your accountant before making your purchases so you get the best products with the best tax savings.

Additionally savings will occur because the new appliances and light fixtures and lighting parts like the new type bulbs will cost less to operate daily, weekly, and monthly so your electricity bills will be less and the savings will start adding up before you know it.  Your energy consumption will go down in the long run, but cost you money up front. New windows, new doors, new insulation will all lower your heating and cooling bills but also some of these components will also come with tax credits which will lower your tax bill dollar for dollar in many instances. Because of the tax credits the net costs of those items will be less cost wise as well.   Another option that can save you money and even allow you to sell electricity back to your local power company is solar power.  Tax credits for solar power can be tricky because the local utility companies have different rules to comply with so make sure you know the rules before you make the big investment.  The cool thing about solar power is if your energy consumption is negative you can often sell your excess power back to your local electricity company.   The bottom line is there are so many options to “go green” when you’re remodeling your home in Santa Fe it’s worth exploring going green when it comes to a pending remodel.