Being Energy Efficient

I was watching an episode of Bazaar Foods yesterday that was filmed in Iceland.  I learned that the majority of Iceland's homes are heated using geothermic energy - or heat and energy that comes from the ground.  I first learned about this when I was working at the bank and I opened a business account for a group that did this kind of work.  I found it really interesting!  

Right now I am living in an apartment and looking for a house to buy.  I know that when I finally find a home, one of the first things I will do is have a home energy audit.  We plan on buying an older home - maybe even a fixer-upper.  The newer homes just don't have the kind of yard we are looking for.  My husband and I already have plans for a big beautiful garden and we take a lot of the yard space and layout into consideration whenever we look at a house.  So far, the only things that come close to meeting our needs are older homes.  

I like older homes and I think they have a lot of character, but they can be drains when it comes to energy.  For example, did you know that it's not even legal to use aluminum trim around windows anymore?  True.  A little fact I picked up when the only job I could get was selling windows door to door (terrible job, FYI). The reason builders can't use that anymore is because there is way too much energy that escapes through those old aluminum window trims.  

Most of the houses we have looked at will need the windows replaced if we want to get up to code and save money on heating and cooling. And this is just the info that I have picked up living my every day life.  I truly don't even know the half of it.  But sometimes knowing what you don't know is just as important as knowing what you do know.  I DO know that we will be ready to schedule a home energy audit very soon after moving into our new home - whichever home that may be. 

We are looking for something out in the country-ish, but that is getting really hard to find.  With the suburbs encroaching on  rural boundaries more and more, we are finding that houses on land are selling quickly to developers who demolish the old house and plant a million more on the lot.  They can cram 4 or 5 houses where 1 country farm house used to stand.  We are hoping that as winter approaches, the buying will die down and we will have a better chance at finding something.