Customer Reviews

Green Your Home: The Complete Guide to Making Your New or Existing Home Environmentally Healthy

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Jeanne Roberts does a wonderful job in this book explaining how to make your home environmentally friendly, and Roberts explains why everyone should look into doing this. The book opens by telling that our fuel supplies are diminishing, particularly the fossil fuels like coal and oil. Roberts goes on to explain that our large-scale use of these supplies has caused, according to scientists, a 1.08 degree Fahrenheit increase in the earth's temperature, and tells many scientists predict that the earth's temperature may increase by 10 degrees F. by the time we hit 2100.

Because of these frightening predictions, Roberts explains in the book what efforts we as humans can make to reverse this escalating temperature. Roberts opens by describing the important basics which can reduce your energy bill like switching from incandescent light bulbs to compact fluorescents. In another very informative section, Roberts also describes how to fill your home with green friendly appliances.

Additionally detailed are the more expensive efforts which homeowners can take such as installing a green friendly roof. Such a roof is very beneficial because it can significantly reduce your heating and cooling costs all the while it will filter out pollutants and carbon dioxide from the air that is in your house. Roberts, also, does a great job detailing which type of roof to buy and how to go about buying and installing it. Additionally, the appropriate, energy-efficient type of refrigerator is discussed as well as dishwashers, trash compactors, and clothes washers and dryers. Every part of your home which you can make green friendly is described in this book. Also, the book is written in very clean, easily understood language that is rife with cost comparisons that show just how financially beneficial of going green can be. Therefore, all who are thinking about how they can make their home more green friendly or are contemplating building a new home, certainly need to read this book.

This book has a lot of information in it that would prove useful to many people who are interested in 'Greening" their homes. I was impressed at the breadth of topics covered and the detail given to each topic.

Unfortunately, the book is written in a style that is very casual, at times it's judgmental and for me, often irritating. I also felt that a significant amount of information could have been more clearly communicated in a visual manner. For instance, with the use of graphs, photos, more bullet points, or checklists. The use of these things would have made the information more interesting and easier to follow. As a reader, I could have charted my own progress through the task of making my home greener with the addition of checklists.

I would recommend this book to others because it has a lot of information, but I would add when I handed them my copy "It's a tough read".

Green Your Home by Jeanne Roberts offers basic strategies for improving your carbon footprint within your own home. This comprehensive guide includes case studies, web sites for additional information, and easy to follow instructions that help the reader understand and utilize environmentally friendly techniques.

Confused about household plastics products, what's safe and what isn't? Do you need to purchase a new toilet and the variety of types is overwhelming? This book explains all of this and more. In simple terms, Ms. Roberts takes the reader from linoleum to solar electric systems to a discussion of types of construction for a new home or addition. This is a very complete educational tool.

Jeanne Roberts, the book's author, provides many documented case studies for several of her sobering statements about the effect that the harmful processes of waste and apathy has on our environment. Not only do these provide a comfortable level of credibility to her work, but also her suggestions on how to save energy (and thus save money) in our own homes provide the solutions that we all need in order to go green in our daily lives.

Roberts gives clear, concise and valid facts about the continuing destruction of our natural resources as well as direct ways that each and every one of us can make small changes to our lifestyles - sometimes just as simple as turning off a light when you leave a room or powering down your "energy vampires" every night - that will create a large, positive impact on Mother Earth.

Roberts makes wide use of her knowledge of the Internet in how to determine the carbon footprint in all of the ways we use energy and helps you to understand all the ways you can alternately save the planet while saving your own hard-earned cash in the process.

All in all, this book is a treasure, full of easy-to-read and easy-to-find information on the steps you need to make on a personal level to get yourself "green" for good!

In the 21st century, energy efficiency has become more of a widespread movement than an isolated phenomenon. And for those looking to get on board, Jeanne Roberts' book, Green Your Home-The Complete Guide to Making Your New or Existing Home Environmentally Healthy, is a good starting point.

The book combines disturbing statistics and encouraging solutions to some of the world's most pressing energy issues. Many of which can be moderated with a conscientious approach to everyday, household decisions. For existing homes, easily implemented suggestions are offered about upgrading the efficiency of bulbs and appliances, along with environmentally friendly ways to adjust our usage of energy, resources and chemicals. Especially interesting are the high-tech and low-tech methods being used to construct highly efficient new homes.

There are portions of this book that can be technical and redundant, however, through the use of up-to-date information, industry experts and case studies, it presents a very thorough approach to increasing the green quotient of today's homes.

This author offers valid suggestions on how people can make their home a greener place to live. The great thing about this book is that most of the suggestions she makes are very inexpensive.
This book will encourage readers to think about the long term affects of what they are doing to the environment. It is almost shocking to see that simply changing a light bulb to a fluorescent bulb can make a positive impact on the world. This topic is not very original but she uses unique methods of making her point.

Anyone with a remote interest in making their home more environmental should pick up a copy of Green Your Home. Comprehensive and thorough, the book covers just about every way to make your home "green," from the light bulbs in your lamps to the paint on walls. Author Jeanne Roberts opens her book with a strong case of why it's important to take earth-saving actions now, citing scientific evidence of global warming and diminishing fuel reserves. The point of "greening" a home is to reduce today's so-called carbon footprint to preserve a healthy planet for future generations.

Instead of just lecturing about the perils of waste, Roberts does an excellent job of putting that waste into perspective. For example, a family pool uses 1,500 kilowatt-hours during one month of operation and adds $150 to your electric bill and a whopping 3,200 pounds of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. She provides some simple ways to find problem spots in a home - leaky toilets and drafty windows, for example - and tips on correcting them. Outside in the garden, for instance, try mixing one tablespoon of buttermilk, one cup of unbleached flour, and four cups of water as an alternative to chemically toxic chemicals.


Those are about the cheapest solutions presented in the book, however. Roberts acknowledges in several instances that some of the "greenest" ways to remodel a home or harness alternative energy are also some of the most expensive. In an ailing economy, only the most die hard earth lovers will be able shell out the thousands needed to install solar panels or cork wood floors. Still, Roberts provides a wealth of information and makes it doubly useful by frequently providing Web sites and ways to contact "green" architects and other experts on topics in her book.