Lighting: One of the biggest energy consumers in your home is your lighting. Instead of using your run-of-the-mill incandescent, consider compact fluorescents that live at least twice as long and can be used in the same socket as an incandescent bulb. If you are building from the ground up and want to be even more energy efficient, LED lights use 33% less energy than your already thrifty compact fluorescents and come in a broader spectrum of colors. The nice thing about LED's over fluorescents is they not only last longer, but can be used at different levels of light to create mood lighting.

Heating and Air Conditioning: Central heating and cooling is great, but wastes a lot of energy in trying to keep your environment at a certain temperature. If you want the heating temperature in you house regulated, try radiant heating tubes laid in the cement of your floor that control the temperature of your home from the ground up. Instead of just your air currents being the right temp, your floor will be too. These nifty little devices can be controlled by a solar water heating collector on your roof. Your environment and air temperature can be controlled during the summer as well by building with a cement slab foundation, deeper window boxes to create shade around windows and doors, and using non-heat absorbing material for your roof.

Appliances: Another big energy consumer in your home are your appliances like your refrigerator, stove, ovens, washer, and dryer. When you are purchasing appliances for your home, do a little research first. Energy-star rated appliances will help you conserve the most energy in your home, but even with energy-star, some are better than others. For example, Bosch's Evolution 800 refrigerator is 16% more energy-efficient than federal energy-use standards. That's a big jump up in eco-friendliness than other energy-star rated appliances.

Flooring: There are hundreds (if not thousands) of flooring options out there, but keep in mind when you are choosing your flooring that your indoor air quality can be greatly affected by the product you choose. There are lots of eco-friendly choices out there that are good for you health, budget, and the environment. Recycled carpet, reclaimed woods, woods from renewable populations like bamboo or cork, stamped cement, and recycled glass tiles are all excellent and beautiful flooring solutions that have low or no environmental impact.

Walls: The most typical thing to do with a wall is to paint it, however, not all paints are created equally. Make sure you are painting with a water-based paint and if you want to make your impact on the environment even less, consider recycled paint. There are several companies that accept water-based paints for re-processing which they recycle into high-quality paints. Other eco-friendly solutions for your wall include recycled wall paper hung with non-emission glue, paint applied dry in a reusable applicator, and reclaimed wood paneling.