What A Real Green Energy Roof Looks Like

Many of us are trying to live "greener" lives. Some of us have started small, by doing simple things like recycling or making sure to turn off lights when we leave a room. Others of us are further along in our efforts of living green. We are riding our bikes or carpooling to work, we are buying more efficient or even hybrid vehicles, and we are even building green energy homes.
There are many different ways to build a green energy home, whether you are wanting to completely live "off the grid," or just utilize as many green building materials as possible. And one area of your home that you can really go a long way with your living green efforts is your roof.

Here are a few features of a "green energy" roof:

1. Insulation

The insulation of your roof is a great place to start when working to make your roof more green. There are many different recycled and/or energy efficient roofing insulation products or materials that you can purchase to help make your roof more energy efficient. These products/materials have become very easy to find, and very comparable in pricing to traditional roofing installation materials.

2. Solar Panels

Roofing solar panel systems are growing in popularity with the environmentally-minded. And when talking about making your home more environmentally friendly, they are one of the most popular choices. These solar panels trap energy from the sun, and then use that trapped energy and convert it into power for the home. This solar energy is not only a renewable and sustainable form of energy for the home, but it also helps to save homeowners a lot of money in energy costs.

3. Green Roof Plants

Over the past few years, the term "green roof" has changed from the general definition of "an environmentally friendly roof," to something much more specific. Nowadays, when someone refers to a "green roof" or a "green energy roof," more times than not they are actually referring to a very specific concept or set up. According to the more current terminology, a "green roof" refers to a roof that some or all of its surface is covered with plants, used for the purpose of increasing environmental benefits.

These green roofs very easily absorb storm water, so they are usually self-sustainable. They also can serve as the insulation for a roof. And they have great benefits to homeowners for saving on heating and cooling bills. Many newer systems have started to combine solar panel technology with the green roofing systems to help generate the most benefits to their homeowners.

Benefits of Green Roofing Systems

There are two main reasons why more and more people are working to "go green." Some people do it because of the environmental benefits of their choices. And others are working their way into green energy roofs and other environmentally friendly choices in their homes because of the benefits that they have to them directly. 

Here are just a few of the benefits of energy efficient roofing options:

- Environmental benefits: recycled materials, renewable energy sources (not using up fossil fuels), etc

- Reductions in heating and cooling costs (money savings)

- Hypoallergenic (many of these environmentally friendly materials are better for people with allergies and/or asthma)

- Longer lasting (many of these greener options actually have longer lifespans than other roofing material options)

- Increased home value

- Government rebates. Many governments will offer rebates to homeowners who install some of these green options, making them very inexpensive or even free to install. So they get the energy cost savings at little to no cost to them.

Author Bio:

This article was written by Nicole. She writes about green energy options, including solar panels perth.