After so many years, green homes have come a long way as many homeowners have been shifting to this eco-sustainable option over the traditional houses we knew growing up. Fortunately, the number of green home builders in the United States is growing faster than expected. With the expanding green home demand, there are several tips you can utilize in building a greener home for your family that’s more cost-efficient and cost-effective.
Why Are Green Homes Better Than Traditional Houses?
A green home is now considered an excellent alternative to conventional houses for several reasons, such as significant money savings, better standard of living, reduced carbon footprint, and more. Moreover, encouraging your friends and family to do the same creates a positive effect on the environment, creating a better environment for the future generations of your family.
It’s no secret that building a green home from scratch comes with costs, but if you think about the bills you can save for the rest of your life is much more cost-efficient. , you’ll know how this niche paved its way into the mainstream market once you understand how incorporating environmentally sustainable materials, methods, and processes can create a home that’s as sturdy and aesthetically pleasing as a traditional house, with massive benefits than you’ve ever imagined.
Useful Green Home Techniques
1. Choose Your Location Wisely
Before buying a property, it should be located outside areas prone to floods, earthquakes, and other environmental disasters. You must also avoid places where you can disrupt the wildlife. Checking the nearest essential establishments, such as grocery stores, wet markets, and even public transportations, are also important to reduce the carbon emission from frequent usage of personal cars.
2. Less is More
Tiny homes have impacted the mainstream market because of their minimalistic styles, making them ideal for green homes. However, having a small house is not an option for households with many family members, and that’s acceptable. The only philosophy you must remember is to consume less and share more. Building a house that’s too big for your family is not cost-efficient, and you’re consuming resources more than you have to. So it’s better to construct a smaller house that’s just perfect for your family size.
3. Local is Better
Choosing local materials for the construction itself is much better to reduce the travel time from one place to another. What you need will is likely available within your area. But in some cases where you must import from a farther location, you may want to talk to a professional green home builder for other available alternatives in your community.
4. Opt for High-Efficient Equipment
When buying equipment for your green home, like your HVAC system, always check if it has an energy star label or not. All equipment with the energy star label has passed the United States Environmental Protection Energy (EPA) standards, making it safe and healthy for your green home.
5. Proper Insulation is Key
One of the essential factors of a green home is proper insulation. When your home has excellent insulation, you’ll reduce your energy consumption regardless of the season. Heating and cooling are vital in a green home, but poor insulation can make your HVAC unit work more than it should, making them less inefficient as time goes by. You may want to look into denim and newspaper for your greener insulation solution.
6. Go for Sustainable Materials
Incorporating sustainable materials, such as wood, cork, bamboo, and more, is good for the environment and your family. Whether it’s for your doors, windows, or pieces of furniture, every area of your house must be made with eco-sustainable materials to reduce the overall impact of your green home construction on the environment. You should also consider non-toxic, organic house paint that’s safer for your loved ones as well.
7. Recycling Works Wonders
The first step to an eco-friendly campaign is to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and you must understand this very well when you live in a green home. Stop buying things that aren’t needed, especially if they are not environmentally friendly. Instead, reuse what you can, like the materials from your old home. This way, you can save money while building your green home. Recycle recyclable things, such as plastic bottles, glass, and the like. But if you don’t know where to use them, you can donate them to companies that collect recyclable materials and transform them into something useful again.
8. Use Low-Flow Water Fixtures
Installing low-flow faucet aerators and other water-saving fixtures are some of the simplest ways to conserve energy without too much effort. Moreover, you can check out EnergyStar-rated home equipment to ensure the quality of appliances your home will have.
9. Take Advantage of Natural Daylight
To minimize energy consumption from lights, maximize the natural daylight that’s coming into your interior using skylights, windows, and other features that can help encourage natural light to reach your home’s indoor areas. While doing this, you must also consider looking for other furniture that can act as sunshades when you need protection from too much light.
10. Cool Your Roof
Avoid using any roofing material as you please, as it is crucial for your home’s energy efficiency. Metal roofs, terra cotta, and slate are some of the best examples of materials providing green benefits for your home. However, you may ask your green home builder for the most accessible eco-sustainable roofing material in your area that cools much faster and reflects the heat away from the sun.
11. Work on Your Property’s Natural Terrain
Landscaping will give your property the curb appeal everyone is looking for, but you don’t have to modify your lot’s natural terrain to make it possible. However, if you don’t know what to do, you can ask a professional landscaper to develop a design that will not disrupt the terrain you have. But if you’re more into DIYs, you can look into xeriscaping instead. This way, you can conserve water and energy at the same time.
12. Choose Native Plants for Your Landscape
Plants that are native to your location will thrive without requiring high maintenance. You can check your local plant shops or surf the web. Aside from reducing the energy from traveling your desired plants, you’ll have a low-maintenance landscape in the future.
13. Incorporate Solar Panels in Your Home
More and more residential properties are installing solar panels in their home for economic purposes. Fortunately, solar panel prices have been dropping within the past decades, making them an excellent choice for a more budget-friendly green home. You may even receive cash incentives and tax breaks by installing solar panels in some places.
14. Use Geothermal Power
Installing a geothermal heat pump may require more upfront investment, but it is one of the best ways to have limitless indoor heating and cooling energy. So if it’s summer, the pump will extract the heat from the indoor air and send it into the ground loops to cool your indoor air down. And if it’s winter, it will take the heat from the ground loops to provide heating into your home.
15. Place a Rainwater Collector and Storage
If you plan to live in an area where drought and summer can be intense, placing a rainwater harvesting system is an excellent idea to have a water source during those seasons. Depending on the unit you would prefer to have, some rainwater collectors are big enough to supply the house’s chores, such as washing the clothes, flushing the toilet, and more.
Start Your Green Home Project with The Vision Group
The Vision Group has more than a decade of experience in building green homes. We want to help you protect the environment and create a healthier home for your family. Our expert builders guarantee you a beautiful dream green home while incorporating eco-sustainable practices. So contact our green home builders, and let us start with our green construction project!
