Anyone who’s looking to greenovate has heard it before “if you do this it will pay for itself.”  Greenovation can save you a lot of money and efficiency upgrades can pay for themselves in a short time.  The accountants call this ROI (Return on Investment).

It goes like this: if you install a 1.5 gallon per minute high-efficiency showerhead you’ll save so much hot water that you’ll make back the cost of the product in just a few months.   If the product costs $50, but it saves you $150 per year ($1,500 in 10 years!!) the showerhead “pays for itself” in just 4 months and your ROI is 3,000% over 10 years!!  Holy Crap!  It’s true.  So, remind me . . . why don’t you have a 1.5 gpm showerhead yet?

Check out GREENandSAVE.com (fantastic site) to find your ROI on dozens of items like skylights, new furnace, weather sealing, geothermal, solar and much more.

Here’s the ROI for Energy Efficient Windows:

2.3                  $700                       $300                      $3,000                      42.9%

Here’s a little story I got from Dr. Anna Marie this morning.  I couldn’t resist sharing:

“Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with that expensive double-pane energy efficient kind, and today, I got a call from the contractor who installed them.

He was complaining that the work had been completed a whole year ago and I still hadn’t paid for them.

Hellloooo,…………just because I’m blonde doesn’t mean that I am automatically stupid. So, I told him just what his fast talking sales guy had told me last year, that in ONE YEAR these windows would pay for themselves!

Helllooooo? It’s been a year! I told him. There was only silence at the other end of the line, so I finally just hung up.

He never called back. I bet he felt like an idiot.”

I’d love to hear your ROI stories.  Send them along by clicking here.  Occasionally, contractors trying to capitalize on “going green” can puff the sales pitch a bit.  This doesn’t help the cause to green every home in America.  So, we need to be honest about our numbers.  Green in your house can definitely save you green in your wallet.  But saving resources to create an enriched and sustainable world may be an even better cause.

GREENOVATION TIPS & RESOURCES: [Matt's advice: Don't bother with any showerhead that uses more that 1.75 gallons per minute (gpm)]

High-efficiency showerheads:

Bricor: 1 gpm – 1.5 gpm showerheads – shop here

Kohler: Forte 1.75 gpm – buy here

Hansgrohe: Croma E 75 Green 1-Jet Showerhead 1.6 gpm – buy here

Shop for dozens of low-flow showerheads here:  EcoVillageGreen.com

GREENandSAVE.com great site to find ROI on items to greenovate your home

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