A well-designed landscape with the
proper outdoor
lighting fixtures placed in the proper area will:
- Cut your summer and winter
energy costs dramatically.
- Protect your home from winter
wind and summer sun.
- Reduce consumption of water,
pesticides, and fuel for landscaping and lawn maintenance.
- Help control noise and air
pollution.
Your Landscaping Saves Money
Year-Round
Carefully positioned trees can save
up to 25% of a household's energy consumption for heating and
cooling. Computer models devised by the U.S. Department of Energy
predict that the proper placement of only three trees will save an
average household between $100 and $250 in energy costs annually.
On average, a well-designed
landscape provides enough energy savings to return your initial
investment in less than 8 years. An 8-foot (2.4-meter) deciduous
(leaf-shedding) tree, for example, costs about as much as an awning
for one large window and can ultimately save your household hundreds
of dollars in reduced cooling costs, yet still admit some winter
sunshine to reduce heating and lighting costs. Landscaping can save
you money in summer or winter.
Summer
You may have noticed the coolness of parks and wooded areas compared
to the temperature of nearby city streets. Shading and
evapotranspiration (the process by which a plant actively moves and
releases water vapor) from trees can reduce surrounding air
temperatures as much as 9 degrees F (5 degrees C). Because cool air
settles near the ground, air temperatures directly under trees can
be as much as 25 degrees F (14 degrees C) cooler than air
temperatures above nearby blacktop. Studies by the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory found summer daytime air temperatures to be 3 degrees F
to 6 degrees F (2 degrees C to 3 degrees C) cooler in tree- shaded
neighborhoods than in treeless areas.
A well-planned landscape can reduce
an unshaded home's summer air-conditioning costs by 15% to 50%. One
Pennsylvania study reported air-conditioning savings of as much as
75% for small mobile homes
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