If you are considering new landscaping for your home, consider the advantages that landscaping offers in the form of energy savings, as well as beauty.

Properly selected and placed landscaping can create shading opportunities and fashion windbreaks that reduce cooling and heating costs considerably.

According to the Department of Energy, shading and “evapotranspiration” (tree motion and water vapor release) can lower the surrounding air temperature by up to 9 degrees.

And, since cool air settles toward the ground, the air temperature under trees can be up to 25 degrees cooler than the air temperature over nearby blacktop.

Trees and other plants also can shade the ground and pavement around your home, reducing heat radiation and cooling the air before it reaches your home’s walls and windows.

Appropriately chosen and placed trees and plants can create a windbreak that lowers the wind chill around your home in the winter, reducing your heating costs. The DOE reports that windbreaks can reduce outside wind speeds “for a distance of as much as 30 times the windbreak’s height.”

Windbreaks should include a well-thought combination of distant windbreaks and landscaping next to your home. Landscaping near the home creates dead air spaces that insulate your home in both winter and summer.

Landscaping decisions should involve a consideration of the regional climate and the “microclimate” immediately surrounding your home.

For more information, review DOE’s Website at www.eere.energy.gov/consumer (click “landscaping” under “Quick Links”) and consult a landscaping professional.

BY JOSEPH PELLICCIOTTI
Joseph Pellicciotti is a lawyer, professor and associate vice chancellor at Indiana University Northwest. Opinions in this column are solely his.