Going Green this Summer? Quick Tips for Your Landscape, Pool and Spa

Landscape
Plant a tree. Carefully positioned trees can save up to 25% of the energy a typical household uses for cooling Consider water use when replacing the irrigation system—native plants are well adapted to the amount of water your community usually gets and will cut down on overall watering needs.
Replace outdoor floodlights with compact-fluorescent versions—they’re just as bright and use 1/4 the energy.
Replace low-wattage halogen landscape bulbs with LED versions. They cut energy use by over 80% and can last for 10 years or more.
Install motion sensors on any nonessential lights. New versions just screw right into your existing light socket. A typical 100-watt floodlight, used six hours per day, can consume up to $40 of electricity a year.
Consider solar-powered outdoor lighting for walks, paths and more.
Pool and Spa
Consider a time clock that will give you day-to-day, automatic control over your filter’s and heater’s hours of operation.Consider replacing your old pump. Pools
are commonly equipped with larger pumps than needed. Replacing an oversized pool
pump—even one in good working order— with a smaller, energy-efficient pump is an
investment that usually pays for itself in just two to four years.
Go solar as solar pool heating systems are especially effective during the summer months and can back up a regular pool heater in the spring and the fall. A solar pool heating system can be a significant investment, so make sure the savings have a payback time of less than, or equal to, the useful life of the equipment.