In addition to
improving our air quality, trees help us to conserve energy. Energy
conservation is great for the environment and
your wallet!
Trees help to trap
heat in the cold Canadian winter and cool us down in the summer, meaning that
we can cut down on both our heating and air conditioning bills.
How do they do it? In
the winter, trees act as buffers against the icy wind. Wind is a major cause of
heat loss from buildings in the winter, forcing us to turn up our furnaces to
stay warm. If planted in the right places near homes and other buildings, trees
can reduce this heat loss, saving energy.
In the summer, trees
have the opposite effect, cooling us down through a variety of methods. Again,
their wind buffering effect comes into play, but this time the trees are
shielding buildings from warm air. Trees also provide shade, making it bearable
to sit outside and preventing all the hard surfaces (sidewalks, roads,
buildings) in the city from absorbing the sun’s energy and heating up. Finally,
the leaves of trees act as mini air conditioners, evaporating moisture from
their surfaces and absorbing heat in the process. According to the Urban
Forestry Network, moisture evaporation due to one large tree can have the same
effect as 10 room-sized air conditioners running all day! |
| Image from www.yourleaf.org |
Remember, it’s all
about putting the right tree in the right place. The energy conservation
benefits vary depending on where you plant the tree, and increase exponentially
with the size of the tree. There are lots of resources out there to help you
figure out how to get the most out of your urban forest. So before you plant a
tree, do your research!
Check out this report
about the value of Toronto’s urban forest. According to TD, it’s 7 billion dollars!
Information for this post provided by:
http://www.forestry.utoronto.ca/neighbourwoods/web/
http://urbanforestrynetwork.org/benefits/energy.htm
--Mara
--Mara
