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Green Building Principles
1. Building Site - Green Building is
giving thought to the Building Site and not just
rubber-stamping a house plan on a lot. If the
site is a "Brownfield" site, we need to check
for contaminates or hazardous waste that was
left behind from the previous use of the land
and clean-up and dispose of the problem
properly.
You need to consider the position of the sun on
a hot summer afternoon and position and design
your home so to minimize the sun's effect on
keeping your home cool. It is preventing debris
from being washed away and down the storm sewers
or having construction trash blowing in the
wind. Any debris that is recyclable needs to be
flattened and place in bins for recycling. Of
course, that sounds like something we should
have been doing anyway. We need to give thought
to the building site as to how rain water run
off is going to effect the immediate surrounding
neighborhood. How about collecting the rain
water from the roof for irrigation during the
dry times?
2. Water Management - Green Building is
serious consideration to Water Management. It is
the conservation of water usage inside the home
and irrigation to the plants outside the home.
Some go to the extreme of reusing the grey water
from a home or rain water collection for
landscape irrigation. I heard where in the
southern states, landscape irrigation accounts
for 70% of water consumption. Specifying
Low-Flow Shower Heads is the first step in water
management. A 5 minute Old Shower Head shower
can use over 30 gallons of water which half of
that was heated by your water heater. Install a
low-flow shower head and your saving money
already and saving the environment. The same is
true in the Kitchen and the Dishwasher. Did you
know that washing dishes in an energy efficient
automatic dishwasher uses less energy than
washing dishes by hand?
3. Resource Efficiency - Green Building
is consideration to the selection of Building
Materials that during manufacturing didn't leave
a large Ecological Footprint. You should select
building materials that don't outgas toxic
vapors. In a minute I will touch on Interior Air
Quality. Your selected building materials should
also be very durable and be able to last a very
long time. Purchasing a flooring material that
cost twice as much but last ten times longer is
a good choice.
Resource Efficiency is also the intelligent use
of Engineered Lumber and Materials. According to
the NAHB a typical 2,000 sq. ft. home produces
1,600 pounds (or 6 cubic yards) of wasted solid
sawn wood alone. We need to revise how we frame
houses so not to create so much waste. Lookup
Optimal Value Engineering and learn how to frame
homes with much less waste and that means $$
saved.
4. Interior Air Quality - Green Building
is the Quality of the Interior Air. The
government banded the use of lead based paints
inside homes decades ago. However, there are
other things in your home that could still be
making you and your family sick and these things
are releasing high volumes of VOCs (Volatile
Organic Compounds) into the air. These are
things like glues, paints and finishes. When you
paint the interior of your new Green Built Home
you should hardly smell the fumes of the paint
if you were using low VOC paint. Back in the 80s
builders used a Styrofoam like sheathing to help
insulate the walls. These homes could now very
well be out-gassing formaldehyde fumes. If the
home was to burn, those walls will be releasing
dangerous smoke fumes. Some of these gases could
even be considered a carcinogen.
5. Energy Efficiency - This is the first
item many people might think of. A Green Built
Home will have high energy efficient appliances,
HVAC and water heating and could include the use
of Geothermal, Wind and Solar. Also the use of
high efficient insulation protecting the
interior envelope from the elements including
radiant barriers. Insulating windows and doors
have been common for years and are included in
the specifications list. You might have to look
hard to find an incandescent light bulb in a
Green Built Home. Most all lighting will be
Compact Fluorescent Lights or CFLs. Not only do
CFLs use less electricity, they also create much
less heat. Then your air conditioner has to work
even harder to cool the air. Air Conditioners
are rated in SEER numbers. Expect to find a SEER
rating of 16 or higher in a Green Built Home. We
recently replaced the old clunker of an air
conditioner in our personal home with a high
efficient SEER 16 unit and the results are
fantastic! Especially my bill from the local
power grid! Question; Is your Dishwasher
Energy-Star compliant?
6. Home Owner Education - Ok, the builder
built a certified high energy efficient Green
Built Home with all the bells and whistles.
Unless the new Home Owner knows how to care for
the home, all the work and planning that went
into the Green Built Home may not be used to
it's highest potential. So the Home Owner needs
to understand what went into the new Green Built
Home, how to maintain and program the Air
Conditioner and to even how to operate the
dishwasher properly. If all else fails, read the
instruction books!
The benefits are great to those choosing to
build or purchase a Green Built Home. Although
Green Building is really nothing new. Just the
word "Green" is the new buzz word. Many builders
and design professionals have been practicing
these principles for years. Just now with new
interest in the environment, global warming and
the use of energy saving products and
procedures, Green Building has become more of a
concern to the home buyer than ever before.
Contact us for how we can help you
design and build your Green Built Home.
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