Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
SANTA FE — Contractor Klaus Meyer's 2,500-foot house is about 70 percent more efficient than the average home. But it could have been even more efficient had he discovered a green building method called the Passive House before pouring the home's foundation.
Meyer and his architect, Joaquin Karcher, used the German-developed building method, which claims an 80 to 90 percent reduction in energy needs compared to a standard-built house, on the Santa Fe home owned by Meyer and Susanne Schindler.
The house is one of 20 in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos featured on this year's GreenBuilt Tour New Mexico next weekend.
New green-building standards in New Mexico, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, rising energy costs and tax credits for energy efficient and solar buildings, are encouraging more green building around the state.
With heating-fuel prices increasing an average of 20 percent a year, it makes sense to build homes that need little or no heating, said Karcher, who owns One Earth Design in Taos.
Passive Houses are designed for passive solar gain, they are airtight and require no conventional heating system, Karcher said.
Walls, doors and windows are superinsulated and a controlled ventilation system brings fresh air inside without losing heat in the cold months, he said.
Aside from south-facing windows and a clerestory, the only source of heat is provided by a wood-burning stove.
The superinsulation makes the house act like a Thermos, holding in heat in the winter and keeping the house cool in the summer.
Meyer's house qualifies for a $20,000 state tax credit for its green design. He said he will use that money to buy a photovoltaic system to provide the home's electricity.
The first Passive House buildings were built in Darmstadt, Germany, in 1990, Karcher said.
