Reality check: greening up your home does not have to be a lifestyle downgrade. Over the last few years there are some rather fabulous, somewhat selfish perks to making green changes to your home and your lifestyle. Here are a handful of them, in honor of Earth Day. 1. Save Money Now.  When it comes to the economics of most home improvements, homeowners spend hours and hours trying to project the return we'll recoup on the upfront costs of our granite countertops and built-in theater equipment years down the road. Studies show that utility bills are one of the highest monthly expenses for most households, and that green home improvements can bring those bills down by as much as 20 - 30%.  On the average American home's energy bill of almost $2,000/year, that would represent a savings of $400-$600 - potentially much more if you live in an area with temperature extremes!   If you install a tankless water heater, insulate your pipes and walls or even do something as simple as weather-stripping your doors and windows, you will begin to save money on your utility bills immediately. 2. Sell Faster.  Green homes simply sell faster than comparable homes without energy efficient features. Today's home buyers want to save money (that's why they're buying now!) and are willing to prioritize homes that allow them to do this by way of energy efficient systems and upgrades.  3.  Boost Your Net Worth.  Not only are buyers willing to bestow a preference on 'green' or energy efficient homes, they are willing to pay more for them. The Appraisal Journal recently published data to this effect: for every $1 green home improvements decreased the property's annual energy bills, the home’s value increases by $10-$25. That might not seem impressive on such a small scale, but these numbers translate to an increase of $8,000 to $25,000 to the market value of a greened-up 3,000 square foot home. If you are like the average homeowner, your home may be your largest asset - or your largest liability.  One of very few ways you can reliably bulk up the value of this asset - and your net worth - is to implement any number of green home improvements.   One more thing: think very broadly about what it means to 'go green'. You could go solar or tankless, install insulation and weather-stripping, convert to low-flow toilets, and shower heads, switch out old aluminum windows for dual-paned - the options are limitless, and vary widely in cost. 4. Look better and live longer. There are green homes, and there are green households.  The green home element of this includes planting a kitchen garden and minimizing the water that is wasted just keeping your lawn green. Then you’ll have a back-yard (or front-yard, for that matter) harvest to reap and eat. Your household garden will attract birds, bees and, if your street is anything like mine, squirrels, deer or wild turkeys – fauna which all participate in the circle of life.   But maintaining a kitchen garden and implementing other green household practices like taking walks or public transportation may also increase you’re the quality of the air you personally breathe. If digging and planting is more than you can take on, you can support those who do this for your community on a larger scale by subscribing to a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) program or walking to and shopping at your neighborhood farmer’s market on the weekend.   5. Live more comfortably.  I recently undertook a campaign to stop up all the drafts in my house, and wouldn’t you know it: life got way more comfortable – and fast. Call me a weather-stripping evangelist, but I can think of very few home improvements this inexpensive that make this much of a difference in the comfort level of your life. And this increase in comfort from green home improvements was not a one-off, in my experience. I’d already noticed a major reduction in noise from installing dual-paned windows a few years back. The next thing I have my eye on is swapping out the big old vat of water that I pay to keep warm 24 hours a day for a quake-proof, tankless water-heater.  Sure – the energy-efficiency sounds great but so does unlimited hot water!    Read the entire post at Trulia | Author Tara-Nicholle Nelson | Posted April 18, 2012 Renaissance Homes is an award winning Street of Dreams custom home builder specializing in green building, remodeling and renovations for the Portland market. Awarded the Portland Homebuilder’s Association 2011 “Builder of the Year.”