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. And so green home design, formerly a small market, is spreading steadily over the world. Some experts predict that green home design will soon make up a huge slice of the real estate industry.
In the United States, homes create 38% of the total carbon emissions. So in the fight on global warming, how we choose to build our homes (with green home design or without it) is going to have a huge effect on our 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. These homes also require more resources for building and create more waste as a result. 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. The relatively simple concept behind passive solar design is to design a home according to the climate. In warmer climates, homes are designed to absorb less heat. In colder areas, design is used to reduce the amount of heat lost. Green home design uses the buildings orientation to the sun, window positioning, stone flooring, and other building elements to control the temperature and save energy.
Green Home Design Rule 3: Use Recyclable or Renewable Materials
Almost everything used in a traditional home harms the environment in some way, either by its manufacture (plastics and artificials) or its transport (naturals). Using locally produced renewable materials can help reduce the amount of damage your building can do. Use recycled materials, such as recycled insulation and lumber composites, or quickly-renewable products, such as bamboo flooring, in your green home design.
Green Home Design Rule 4: Optimize your Heating and Cooling
Heating and cooling a home accounts for the huge majority of its energy consumption. 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. Big air conditioning systems cool the air too much and too quickly, causing them to turn on an off constantly. Because of this, they dont last nearly as long as smaller systems, creating a huge amount of waste along with energy loss. See More Green products for home - Green home bathroom - Green home design - Green home plans -