Will making your house "green" save you money?

Green building is the newest hype nationwide, but there's little mention of it here in East Tennessee.

With a good amount of research, I found two builders, Mike Dulin and Fred Trainer, beginning to use environmentally-friendly building concepts and materials in several of their homes.

In fact, Fred introduced me to a young Knoxville couple he's building a "green" home for.

A few days ago, the couple lead me through their home full of green products and materials. They expect to move into the home in just a few weeks and hope to reap all the benefits of living in a healthy and environmentally-friendly home.

But one very important point they wanted to get across is they worked hard to have a green, cost-effective home built.

Both builders reiterate to me that same point. With most of their clients, dollar signs are the bottom-line with the economy in a slump.

Homeowners want to know, "Will this home that's designed to be healthier for me and the environment save me money?"

One home I saw had a geothermal heating system costing $30,000. That's $10,000 more than a top-of-the-line conventional heating system. But the homeowners expect to see a 20 to 30 percent reduction per year on their electric bill.

So what do you think? Is it worth it to go green?