Like many Bay Area homeowners, you’ve probably taken measures to reduce your home’s water and energy usage, such as installing water-saving plumbing fixtures and switching to LED lighting. However, you may have overlooked another part of your property: your yard. From your garden to your pool, there are several areas where you can save water and energy by improving your exterior efficiency. Read more

The ideal lawn should grow in your environment without lots of supplemental watering. In general, turf grasses only need about one inch of water per week to maintain their green color and active growth. However, there are numerous other factors to consider when determining your lawn’s water needs, like soil and weather conditions. Here are a few guidelines to follow. Read more

As California faces another year of drought, everyone in the San Francisco Bay Area is once again being urged to conserve water. While those of us whose homes are connected to city water supply networks will be doing our part, it can be easy to take this admonishment for granted—after all, no matter what happens, we can rely on water coming out when we turn on the faucet. However, for many rural homeowners, water conservation is less a civic responsibility than an act of survival. Read more

Winter rain totals for Northern California fell far short of expectations this year. Once again, state and local governments are anticipating drought conditions in the near future, and some communities are already restricting water usage. When the Bay Area faced a persistent drought just a few years ago, residents learned how to adapt. Here’s a refresher on changes you can make to limit water use in your home and garden during a drought.  Read more

While drought conditions have subsided in the Bay Area, water conservation remains as important as ever. After all, there’s no telling what the future holds, and if the past has taught us anything, it’s that we can’t afford to take our most precious resource for granted. So, if you haven’t already taken steps to reduce your water consumption, now is the time. Read more

These days, more and more Bay Area homeowners are ditching their old water heaters for cutting-edge tankless models. Because of their advanced technology, tankless water heaters boast an array of practical benefits, not the least of which is a virtually endless supply of hot water. However, going tankless involves more than simply swapping the old for the new, as there are often functionality and compatibility concerns that need to be addressed before and during installation.

Here are five factors to consider when installing a tankless water heater:

1. Unit capacity
While sizing a conventional water heater mainly comes down to tank storage capacity, with a tankless unit, it’s a bit more complex. Read more

Last fall, we published a long piece about how to make different types of Bay Area homes more energy efficient (download the free e-book here). This month, we’ve distilled the wisdom offered in that post and added a few more Green tips in honor of March, the greenest of months. Enjoy!

1. Implement a whole-house solution
Richard Hiteshew of A-1 Guaranteed Heating & Air, Inc. says people who want to “Green up” their homes should “reduce before they produce.” Read more