Building Green Homes – What to Consider Before You Start Construction
Building green homes comes naturally to those who have a connection with their landscape and surroundings. Cost, repairs and energy usage of the green architecture are reduced as homeowners take more informed building decisions. It is an advance in design and building that values the environment and preserves resources. If building green homes has sparked your interest, read on to find out more:
- Many energy saving products are not good choices for green homes. We’ll use radiant floor heating as an example. When building green homes with proper insulation, keep in mind that even a small amount of heat can cause overheating. It gets even worse in houses with passive solar heating, where the radiant floor keeps on distributing heat even after the solar gain raises the air temperature. The only solution is to do your homework: read all you can about each major product you intend to buy for your home.
- Green building products do not always appear to be environmentally friendly. For example, cordwood is considered one of the best materials for building green homes, even though it uses a lot of cement in the mortar. Sustainable materials that leave little impact on the planet, and are energy efficient in the making and in performance – this is what you need to look for in green building products.
- Building green homes is dynamic. New homes do not have to remain the way they were built: as new, energy efficient technologies become available; you should be able to take advantage of them. For example, you can invest in energy efficient windows or solar hot water systems, and have them retrofitted if you’ve already finished building your green home.
Builders of green homes should get certified with the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Homes program to confirm that the design is indeed green, before starting to build.