Lower Your Energy Bills by Planting Trees

When we think about making our houses more energy efficient or greener, we think about insulation, efficient appliances, and maybe even using renewable energy sources like solar or wind power. However, we often overlook some basic landscaping changes that can help dramatically lower our use of energy for heating and cooling our homes. Reducing our heating and cooling needs also means lowering our bills, so it's not only good for the environment, but also good for our wallet.

Glass Windows Turn Sunlight to Heat

One of the biggest influences on the temperature inside our homes is sunlight. In the hottest summer months, unfortunately, the sun is strongest driving up the internal temperatures as the sunlight beats down on our houses and streams in through the windows. Did you know that ordinary window glass actually causes sunlight to shift toward the infrared side of the spectrum as it passes through the glass? This means that even more of the sunlight is converted to heat as it enters our homes.

Deciduous Trees Make Natural Sun Shades

One of the best ways to counteract the effects of the sun on the temperatures inside our homes is to use nature's own seasonal sunshades, deciduous trees. Deciduous trees are those trees that lose their leaves each year during the winter season. During the summer months, these trees fill out, completely blocking sunlight with their thick green canopies. In the winter, when we want as much sunlight as we can get, the bare branches let the warming rays of the sun pass through to whatever is on the other side of the tree.

Plant Deciduous Trees on the Southern Exposure

By planting deciduous trees along the southern exposure of our homes, we can take advantage of this behavior. In the summer our house will be shaded by the trees, preventing the direct rays of the sun from heating our house. In the winter they will allow the sunlight to stream through, and let us take advantage of the sunlight as an additional heat source. Deciduous trees act as giant automatic sunblinds that work to shade our house when it needs to be shaded during the hottest months of the year.

Additional Benefits of Deciduous Trees

Beautiful, well-maintained trees in the yard can also help to increase privacy, block noise from busy streets, and add beauty and character to our yards. Properly done, adding trees to our landscape can help increase our property value, especially if you explain to potential buyers that the trees can act as a "green" temperature control mechanism for the house.

In addition to the direct benefits we reap from the trees in our yard, they also do a greater good for the overall environment. Trees naturally absorb and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Carbon is locked away within the tree's trunk as long as it lives, which, for some trees, can be more than a hundred years.

Planting deciduous trees along the southern side of our house can reduce our heating and cooling costs along with our overall carbon footprint while adding lasting beauty and value to our homes.