Using these landscaping tips can keep your energy costs down and make your yard more environmentally friendly. Sitting under a shade tree on a hot day makes you cooler, and standing by a wall on a cold, windy day makes you feel warmer. It seems pretty obvious. What’s less obvious is that you can landscape your yard to offer your home those same benefits. It just takes a bit of planning in the way you site trees, fences and other elements. Make your landscape a cool, shady retreat on hot summer days.
- A well-positioned tree can save up to 25 percent of your home’s energy for heating and cooling. A tree-shaded yard can be up to 6 degrees cooler than a sunny yard. A shaded lawn can be up to 25 degrees cooler than sunny pavement.
- Shading your home’s roof can increase your air conditioner’s energy efficiency by more than 10 percent.
- A single shade tree equals the cooling power of 15 air conditioners—and it runs for free!
- Three house-shading trees can cut your cooling bill by as much as half.
- Windbreaks can cut winterheating bills by 10 to 30 percent.
Vines can also shade walls during their first growing season. A lattice or trellis with climbing vines, or a planter box with trailing vines, shades the home’s perimeter while admitting cooling breezes to the shaded area.
Shrubs planted close to the house will fill in rapidly and begin shading walls and windows within a few years. However, avoid allowing dense foliage to grow immediately next to a home where wetness and continual humidity could cause problems. Well-landscaped homes in wet areas allow winds to flow around the home, keeping the home and its surrounding soil reasonably dry.
To ensure lasting performance of energy-saving landscaping, use plant species that are adapted to the local climate. Native species are best, as they require little maintenance once established and avoid the dangers of invasive species. To find the best choices for your area, call the Consolidated system arborist, at 419-949- 2919.
Consolidated is a tree certified utility
The Tree Line USA® program is sponsored by The Arbor Day Foundation™ in cooperation with the National Association of State
Foresters and recognizes public and private utilities across the nation that demonstrate practices that protect and enhance America’s urban forests. We are pleased to announce that Consolidated is a Tree Line USA® certified utility.
What does this mean to you as a member? Consolidated supports the idea set forth by Tree Line of having a dual goal of dependable utility service, and abundant, healthy trees in our communities.
