Study: Shade Trees Lower Bills, Emissions
Jan 06 - United Press International
Shade trees on the west and south sides of a house in California can reduce
summertime electricity use and reduce carbon emissions, a study indicates.
The study conducted last year on 460 single-family homes in Sacramento, is
the first large study using utility bill information to demonstrate that
trees can reduce energy consumption, the U.S. Agriculture Department's
Forest Services said in a news release.
"Everyone knows that shade trees cool a house. No one is going to get a
Nobel Prize for that conclusion," says study co-author Geoffrey Donovan.
"But this study gets at the details: Where should a tree be placed to get
the most benefits? And how exactly do shade trees impact our carbon
footprint?"
Donovan, a research forester with the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest
Research Station, co-authored the report with economist David Butry of the
National Institutes of Standards and Technology. Their findings have been
submitted to the journal Energy and Buildings.
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