The latest in our series of advice posts at Inhabitat focusing on green living, energy efficiency and the like features our own Christine Marvin. She’s sharing a detailed look at the window replacement process an how it can make your home more energy efficient. From the article’s introduction:

…one of the most important elements to maintaining a green home: windows! Windows aren’t just a portal to the outside world — they can improve the comfort of your home, the interior light and ambiance, the ventilation, and above all, they can dramatically increase your energy savings. Joining us this week is Marvin Windows expert Christine Marvin, who is among the fourth generation to work for the family-owned and sustainably operated made-to-order window and door company. Christine provides us with a wealth of knowledge, giving us her top 5 considerations for transforming our homes with new windows.

Her tips:

1. Consider All Factors: Climate, Energy, Design & Style
   The number one consideration is going to be window performance. Standards for performance often come listed on a manufacturer’s label, where makers list performance data that can arm you with the information you need to make intelligent comparisons between products and manufacturers depending on your needs and location.
2. Know Your Climate – Where You Live Impacts What You Should Buy
   The next question you might ask is, “How do I know which energy considerations are suitable for me?” The region in which you live plays a crucial role in deciding which window is the right product for you. In particular regions, certain glazing options are better than others in maximizing comfort and energy efficiency.
3. Understand the Label – Performance Rating Information
   Currently, there are a few prime gauges of performance that can be found on your window’s labels. Every label highlights the various characteristics and performance factors of your window, such as whether or not a window is dual-pane or has a specific U-factor. Generally these labels will come in three flavors…
4. Make Sure Your Windows Are Under Warranty
   Window replacements are very much a part of this long-term investment, so you should be certain that you are installing a product that is of the highest quality and value – this can often be signaled by the type of warranty your manufacturer offers.
5. Look for a Company With Values That Match Your Own
   If you take all the tips above into consideration,it’s easy to see that picking the right company to source your windows from is just as important as the windows themselves. Look for a company with heritage, a proven track record, and a commitment to bringing you the best products and services.

Be sure to read the full article for more detail on each of these tips, which are likely to help make the window shopping process a bit easier.

This 3,600-square-foot classic New England home uses some of the most advanced home building techniques and materials available to operate at net zero energy, meaning it creates at least as much, if not more, energy than it consumes. How? Thoughtful design, alternative energy sources, and high-quality, energy-efficient products — including a houseful of Marvin tri-pane windows.

The home was recently featured on Jetson Green, a popular blog about green technology and sustainable home design. In addition to the video overview above, we have a set of nice photos posted here. Learn more about Marvin’s green building efforts here.

As we mentioned last week, Marvin is sponsoring a series of post at Inhabitat full of great green-living and remodeling tips from a variety of experts on specific niches within the broad world of “green.” The newest post in the series features an interview with our friend Sarah Susanka, who shared some great tips on remodeling a home with an eye toward making it more livable and efficient.

While conjuring up comfort in the home seems like a basic principle, it’s a far more complex process for architect & remodeling guru Sarah Susanka, who believes that comfort can significantly influence the sustainability of your personal abode. With her mantra of “build better, not bigger,” Susanka promotes quality over quantity when remodeling a home. Through transforming your living space into a more beautiful and comfortable environment, Susanka says that any home’s occupants will automatically take better care of their space in a more sustainable way. We sat down with Susanka to get the low-down on how to do more with less when revamping your space.

Read the full interview here.

We at MLuxe often learn from and link to the popular green-design and sustainability blog Inhabitat. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to make his or her home a little more earth-friendly without sacrificing style or cutting-edge technology. Because Inhabitat is such a popular resource on the Web, Marvin Windows is excited to partner with the site to produce an upcoming series of interviews with a great lineup of green-home experts.

The series will include interviews with interior designer Zem Joaquin, architect and author Sarah Susanka, energy-efficiency expert David Johnston and Marvin Windows product planner Christine Marvin. Last week, the series kicked off with a great list of tips on “greening your home” from architect Eric Corey Freed. From the article:

Greening your home can provide numerous financial, health and environmental benefits; from making your air healthier, to cutting down your energy bill, to lowering your carbon footprint. Most people like the idea of “greening” their home, but many are daunted by complex technical information and don’t where to begin. Happily, eco architect and green building expert Eric Corey Freed has stepped in to distill the process of greening your home into 5 easy steps: increasing insulation, get a thermostat, conserve water through smart technology, overhaul your roof and upgrade your lighting. We sat down with this organicARCHITECT to take notes on his 5 steps to a greener home – read on for the full scoop!

image courtesy of Inhabitat

Last week we featured some of the smartest new gizmos in the world of home technology that were showcased at the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Today we have a nice round-up of the newest “greener” gadgets. (“Green” would generally refer to items that are truly environmentally friendly, whereas “greener” refers to devices that, as a class, aren’t necessarily great for the environment but, as innovations take place, they become much easier on the environment, relatively speaking.)

Mike Chino, managing editor of Inhabitat, penned a piece for My Life Scoop about the top 5 greenest gadgets at CES. Among them is the nPower PEG Kinetic Energy Charger, which captures your body’s kinetic energy — the natural motion from walking around, climbing stairs and other regular activities — and stores it for charging other devices. “Simply toss this pint-sized power charger into your backpack or briefcase,” Chino writes, “and it will capture kinetic energy from your daily activities and transform it into electricity to juice your gadgets on the go.”

For those of you who are more style-minded, the Budget Fashonista has a round-up of some more nifty gadgets from CES, including the fancy bracelet shown here. According to the Budget Fashionista, “If you’re the kind who likes to wear your love of technology on your sleeve, the Asus Waveface Ultra is for you. The not-yet-available OLED wristband can be worn as a bracelet, but functions as a smartphone.” Maybe it’s not for everyone, but that’s just plain cool.

If you’re interested in more green gadgets from CES, you could spend hours pouring through Google search results, but a good starting point is Inhabitat’s coverage of the show.

Christmas is over and now it’s time to take down all those decorations and get ride of everything holiday. But how do you do that in an environmentally friendly manner? Our blogger friends have some tips to help you out.

Now that the presents are unwrapped, something has to be done with all the wrapping paper and bows. But what? If you are into reusing things, save them. It’s easy to use bows again. Wrapping paper is a little trickier, but if you are an expert wrapper, open presents carefully and save the paper, reuse is an option. Store it away and when you buy a gift, look for a similarly sized piece of wrapping paper.

If you are like most of us though, you have eagerly ripped off the paper to get to your gift. The Daily Green has some tips for disposing of it wisely. Here are a few:

• 25%: That’s the amount that most people’s trash increases at Christmas. That’s huge. Make recycling a priority at this time of year.
• Have a bag ready to collect all the wrappings. This way it is easier to bring to the recycling bin.

And what about the Christmas tree? For many households, it is what defines Christmas decorating.  PickYourOwnChristmasTree.org offers a handy guide to local recycling as well as some ideas of what else to do with the tannenbaum. For instance, you can make your tree into mulch, use it in a private fish pond for food, put it in your backyard as a natural tree house, or, if you have a living Christmas tree, plant it in your own backyard.

May all your Christmases be green!

Photo courtesy of alancleaver_2000 on Flickr

Last week, we shared a video that introduced you to P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home Retreat. Today we continue that exploration with a video from Smith in which he explains his home’s approach to sustainability. It’s a mix of traditional and newer building techniques — he’s done things like positioning the house with consideration for the sun’s angles and including a sophisticated, energy-efficient in-floor heating system.

When P. Allen Smith designed the Garden Home Retreat, he wanted it to be as energy-efficient and “green” as possible. That includes positioning the home to take advantage of shade, collecting rainwater for irrigating the garden, using energy-efficient appliances and windows, and more. Watch the short video above for more, or check out our YouTube channel for other videos from Smith.

Late November brought us the annual GreenBuild conference from the U.S. Green Building Council, a major event in the world of sustainable design and construction. Among the wealth of news and information that came out of the conference was a report from BuildingGreen on the top “green” products of 2010.

Here’s a quick run-down of many of them, as reported by our friends at Re-Nest:

• FOAMGLAS: Foamglas is strong insulating material that is impermeable to water, resistant to termites and rodents, and is noncombustible

• FSC-Certified Office Furniture by Knoll: Knoll is the only company with this level of commitment to eco-friendly furniture

• Stealth Toilet by Niagra: It’s one of the quietest on the market and uses the least amount of water

• The XICATO Spot Module: An LED alternative to halogen bulbs that produces high-quality light

Check out Re-Nest for the full report. With green-oriented design and construction on the rise — while traditional housing construction is still trending downward — we expect to see more and more of these and similar products in homes around the country.

Greenbuild, a massive conference and expo devoted to green building, kicks off this week in Chicago. Hosted by the U.S. Green Building Council, Greenbuild promises to be full of innovative energy-efficiency products, discussion of how green products and principles can drive an upswing in the homebuilding industry, and ideas for homeowners to live a little more “green.”

The video above shows highlights from last year’s Greenbuild show, and you can find more information on the show’s website. The USGBC is celebrating this big with an announcement that the organization has now certified more than one billion square feet worth of environmentally friendly commercial buildings.

You can follow news from Greenbuild on the official blog or on Twitter. Marvin Windows and Doors is among the companies exhibiting at the show, and when we see something interesting that might make an impact on your home in the near future, we’ll be sure to feature it right here at MLuxe.

It’s the little things that count, right? To make the world a better, greener place, we can recycle, take shorter showers and drive less. There are a lot of things manufacturers can do to make sure we have products that make things a little more environmentally friendly (e.g., selling recyclable goods, low-flow showerheads and non-gas guzzlers). But here’s a good, green and simple idea: tube free TP.

Yep, toilet paper without the cardboard tube in the middle. You can still use it in your regular toilet paper holder, but the slightly useless tube isn’t there.

Think it doesn’t make a difference? According to Treehugger, those tubes add up to 160 MILLION pounds of trash per year. Imagine the difference it could make if toilet paper tubes went the way of the dodo!

Image courtesy of elycefeliz on Flickr.