GREEN BUILDING
There is much interest in Green Building currently, stemming from a greater awareness of the environmental impact of our lifestyle choices, as well as a concern about the increasing cost of energy. Certain strategies can be employed in the design of your new home that will create a win-win situation - lowering your energy costs as well as reducing the impact of your home on the environment through reduction in the use of resources.
What is Green Building? Wikipedia has a good definition: It is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources - energy, water and materials - while reducing building impact on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal. Green Building is also called Sustainable Building, which is more descriptive of the underlying concept.
Green Building as it’s applied to a new home refers to a comprehensive approach to the selection of the homesite, design of the home, selection of construction materials and methods, and finally the operation of the home over it’s life cycle to increase efficiency and reduce it’s impact on the environment.
There are many new building systems and technologies now available to the Green Building market, some of which can be quite expensive when compared to standard building techniques. But there are also many practical, inexpensive ways to make your new home more sustainable. This is my list of practical, cost effective, and impactful ideas:
When considering purchase of a property, make sure that the home can be properly orientated. The house should be oriented such that the front and back face north and south, and should be elongated such that the ends facing east and west are minimized - wide and shallow is best. This orientation and shape will minimize the exposure to solar gain.
Reduce the size of your home if possible. This can often be accomplished with creative floor planning that focuses on efficiency of space. An open floor plan with strong relationships to the outdoors feels much bigger than a larger compartmented design. A smaller home uses fewer resources during construction, and requires less energy to heat and cool.
Protect windows from direct sun in Summer. Place most of the windows on the south and north walls. Use overhangs that are long enough to shade the southern facing windows during the Summer. Minimize the number of windows facing west. Place windows such that the home is not reliant on conditioned air for the entire year. With proper design, the home can be heated by the sun on many winter days, and cooled by natural ventilation on many spring and fall days.
Use a metal roof. Most of the heat gain in our region comes from the roof. The use of a semi-reflective metal roofing greatly minimizes heat gain compared to darker-colored roofing. Insulate the attic. Use foam insulation applied to the underside of the roof deck. This places all the air conditioning ducts and equipment within conditioned space, allowing them to operate more efficiently. There are many other practical benefits to a sealed attic.
Use native limestone instead of imported stone or brick. With the many varieties of limestone available within this region, it makes little ecological sense to import masonry from long distances.
Use native plants and turfs that thrive in our limestone hills without requiring much water.
Consider installing a rainwater collection system instead of drilling a well.
My feeling is that these strategies should be applied before considering expensive and more exotic technologies and building systems. Otherwise you could be just “putting lipstick on a pig”. For most people, budgetary constraints prevent them from doing everything they would like to do, so start with these practical, inexpensive strategies that will give you the most impact for the least amount of money.
There is much interest in Green Building currently, stemming from a greater awareness of the environmental impact of our lifestyle choices, as well as a concern about the increasing cost of energy. Certain strategies can be employed in the design of your new home that will create a win-win situation - lowering your energy costs as well as reducing the impact of your home on the environment through reduction in the use of resources.
What is Green Building? Wikipedia has a good definition: It is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources - energy, water and materials - while reducing building impact on human health and the environment, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal. Green Building is also called Sustainable Building, which is more descriptive of the underlying concept.
Green Building as it’s applied to a new home refers to a comprehensive approach to the selection of the homesite, design of the home, selection of construction materials and methods, and finally the operation of the home over it’s life cycle to increase efficiency and reduce it’s impact on the environment.
There are many new building systems and technologies now available to the Green Building market, some of which can be quite expensive when compared to standard building techniques. But there are also many practical, inexpensive ways to make your new home more sustainable. This is my list of practical, cost effective, and impactful ideas:
When considering purchase of a property, make sure that the home can be properly orientated. The house should be oriented such that the front and back face north and south, and should be elongated such that the ends facing east and west are minimized - wide and shallow is best. This orientation and shape will minimize the exposure to solar gain.
Reduce the size of your home if possible. This can often be accomplished with creative floor planning that focuses on efficiency of space. An open floor plan with strong relationships to the outdoors feels much bigger than a larger compartmented design. A smaller home uses fewer resources during construction, and requires less energy to heat and cool.
Protect windows from direct sun in Summer. Place most of the windows on the south and north walls. Use overhangs that are long enough to shade the southern facing windows during the Summer. Minimize the number of windows facing west. Place windows such that the home is not reliant on conditioned air for the entire year. With proper design, the home can be heated by the sun on many winter days, and cooled by natural ventilation on many spring and fall days.
Use a metal roof. Most of the heat gain in our region comes from the roof. The use of a semi-reflective metal roofing greatly minimizes heat gain compared to darker-colored roofing. Insulate the attic. Use foam insulation applied to the underside of the roof deck. This places all the air conditioning ducts and equipment within conditioned space, allowing them to operate more efficiently. There are many other practical benefits to a sealed attic.
Use native limestone instead of imported stone or brick. With the many varieties of limestone available within this region, it makes little ecological sense to import masonry from long distances.
Use native plants and turfs that thrive in our limestone hills without requiring much water.
Consider installing a rainwater collection system instead of drilling a well.
My feeling is that these strategies should be applied before considering expensive and more exotic technologies and building systems. Otherwise you could be just “putting lipstick on a pig”. For most people, budgetary constraints prevent them from doing everything they would like to do, so start with these practical, inexpensive strategies that will give you the most impact for the least amount of money.
