4 Strong Rules On Green Home Design
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by: hugatree | Total views: 87 | Word Count: 525
As a people, our current wasteful lifestyles wont be sustainable for long. This is a fact that were becoming more and more aware of every day. Because of this, green home design is becoming a more and more mainstream part of the housing market. Some experts predict that green home design will soon make up a huge slice of the real estate industry.
In the U.S., housing accounts for 38% of the countrys carbon emissions. Especially if we want to stop global warming, building our homes with green home designs will have a significant effect on the future. For those who want to give their houses a bit of green home design, there are many little steps that can be taken. But if youre seriously interested in reducing the impact your home has on the environment, there are four basic green home design concepts to follow.
Green Home Design Rule 1: Smaller is Better
Theres something gloriously attractive about large, mansion-like homes. But large homes use up an incredible amount of energy for heating and cooling-- and this energy generally comes from nasty fossil fuels that muck up our environment. Large home also use up more building materials and so, of course, create more waste. So if youre looking to incorporate green home design in your building plans, build small.
Rule 2 in Green Home Design: Use Passive Solar Planning
Passive solar cooling and heating is one of the most important elements of green home design. This kind of heating and cooling is relatively simple, and uses the climate to dictate the design of the home. In warm climates, design is used to reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the home. In cold climates, the amount of heat lost is reduced. To do this, green home design is incorporated into the orientation of the building, the location of the windows, the flooring (stone is best), and other elements of the home to reduce the amount of energy wasted.
Green Home Design Rule 3: Use Recyclable or Renewable Materials
Unfortunately, almost all the materials you use in your home will harm the environment, either during manufacturing or transportation to your home. The use of renewable or recycled materials which are manufactured locally helps to reduce the damage building can have on the environment. Use recycled materials, such as recycled insulation and lumber composites, or quickly-renewable products, such as bamboo flooring, in your green home design.
Rule 4 in Green Home Design: Shrink your AC
Heat and AC systems are the most energy-consuming elements in almost any home. And even though the thought of the hot summer months might make an oversized air conditioning system sound pretty tempting, this kind of cooling is as anti-green home design as you can get. Large AC systems overcool the air, and tend to cycle on and off too frequently. This constant on-and-off cycle gives large AC systems a short lifespan, making them create extra waste along with using up extra fuel.
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