Our Environment

The number of green mortgages, otherwise known as Energy Efficiency Mortgages, has increased in recent years. This is due in part to the increased public awareness of energy consumption as well as the financial advantages associated with owning an energy efficient home.

Traditional mortgages are based on a person’s debt to income ratio only, while a green mortgage applies the money saved each month in energy cost as income. This allows home buyers to qualify for a larger loan. This also presents an opportunity for those wishing to remortgage, since energy saving home improvements can be applied once an existing home is certified by a home energy rater.

Purchasing an energy efficient home also increases the resale value by as much as 5%. A $200,000 home that is certified as meeting efficiency requirements, on average, will realize an increase of $11,000 over a comparable home that is not certified. In addition, US home owners can take advantage of the Energy Policy Act which gives tax benefits to those who conserve energy.

More and more frequently when potential home buyers compare mortgages, they find that going green not only helps the environment, but their wallets as well.

How much do you know about energy consumption? Take the following quiz, the answers may surprise you!

1. Burning which fossil fuel emits the least carbon
dioxide (CO2)?
a. Natural gas
b. Oil
c. Coal

2. How much oil does it take to produce the
100,000,000,000 plastic bags used in the United
States of America every year?
a. 190,000 litres
b. 19,000,000 litres
c. 190,000,000 litres
d. 1,900,000,000 litres

3. Which uses the most energy each year worldwide?
a. Motor vehicle transport
b. Air travel
c. Home heating
d. Home air-conditioning

4. Which country developed the first windmills?
a. The Netherlands
b. Egypt
c. Iran
d. India

5. What percentage of energy used around the
world comes from fossil fuels?
a. 10 per cent
b. 25 per cent
c. 50 per cent
d. 90 per cent

6. Where does geothermal heat come from?
a. Earth’s core
b. Sun
c. Wind
d. Ocean

7. How much has global energy use grown in the
last 30 years?
a. 55 per cent
b. 70 per cent
c. 85 per cent
d. 100 per cent

8. How much of the energy used by the world’s
people currently comes from renewable sources?
a. 33 per cent
b. 20 per cent
c. 10 per cent
d. 5 per cent

ANSWERS: 1a, 2d, 3a, 4c, 5d, 6a, 7b, 8c

Courtesy of http://www.ourplanet.com