The Two Best Tactics for Renovating a Historic Home

Steve Thomas is the host of Planet Green's Renovation Nation, a program that focuses on making green renovations to homes across the country. In his regular column on PlanetGreen.com, Steve goes behind the scenes of the show and offers additional tips and insight on green renovation.

I've posted on renovating historical buildings before, and one of the biggest renovation problems with these buildings is that you can't change anything. My own house is in the historic district, and I really can't change very much. You can't even change out the windows, because the historic commission requires single pane, true divided light windows.

The best thing to do with historic houses is making sure that it's insulated as much as possible. I don't mind at all using foam. But some historic commissions won't let you use foam like in New Orleans. If you have a historic home then you should find out what the rules are about insulation and get your place insulated to the fullest extent possible.

Secondly, use energy-energy efficient heating and cooling equipment. (You probably can't put on photovoltaics.) If you can afford it, geothermal is a great tactic for historic buildings. It's a way to make up for the heat loss that you lose because you can?t create a new shell for your historic building. Upgrading and/or maintaining the heating and cooling equipment and making it as efficient as possible is next best thing to insulation.

Don't miss the Bamboo Tree House episode of Renovation Nation!