Exteriors

The basic principles for the ultimate green home

greenOnce upon a time, it might have only been reserved for environmentalists, but it’s safe to say that everyone has caught on now, so bad news for the greedy corporations. Not only are there money saving benefits to take into account, but most green homes just look the part as well, pleasing on the eye and comforting to the soul.

Make no mistake about it – going green is completely fashionable. Instead of showcasing some of the best green technologies (we’ve all heard about the solar panels and heat pumps as well as wind turbines), we’re going to focus on green design principles. Regardless of how technology develops into the future, these will survive the test of time and allow your green home to prosper as it ages.

Capturing water – and reusing it

This first suggestion revolves around your entire plumbing system, pipes, pumps and boiler. Traditional design involves installing a source for the water to enter the home – and an exit point (in the form of a drain).

Well, it’s time to merge these together. Regardless of the type of technology available, always opt for a system which uses water before re-using it thus saving massive amounts of potential waste. This will usually involve rainwater being collected for tasks such as flushing toilets and general washing, which is surprisingly simple to achieve.

Capturing energy – and use it

Notice a theme here? In a similar vein to the previous section we spoke about, you should look to do the same with energy. Admittedly, this might be a little more difficult to picture, unless you have something of an engineering background, and just as it is hard to imagine it is also more difficult to achieve.

The principles remain the same though; collect energy (perhaps in the form of the sun) and then use. Try and eradicate the thought of capturing energy from a traditional source; look at ways your property can naturally attract energy, there are loads of ingenious methods out there to capture energy in the home.

Passive design

This is arguably the biggest improvement you can make. If you live in an existing property, it might be advisable to turn to skip hire from Envirowaste to start altering your space, as the premise of this is to use the weather to dictate the design of your house. In other words, you might need to knock a wall or two down or perhaps build an extension that will make your home more versatile.

For example, a common idea is to utilize something like solar power and direct it to heat the floor of the north side of your property, this is easy to accomplish if you have a south facing house. Some sources class this as “intelligent heating” and considering the fact that each side of your home will have completely different heating and cooling requirements, it stands to reason that the overall design can make such a monumental difference. Considering this it may well be worth the expense of a structural engineer or interior designer to help make the most of the space available to you.

Strategic choice of materials

During any sort of build, when budgets are starting to be pushed to the limit, it can be extremely tempting to opt for the cheapest materials. In truth, this is completely understandable, but not always the best long term solution.

However, if you’re serious about sticking to the green approach, it’s time to ditch this thought process and frame of mind. Sure, it might cost you more in the short-term, but selecting materials that have lifespans of a century as opposed to a decade has obvious green benefits as well as economic benefits. Not only is the planet going to be benefited (do the math with the above example), but your wallet is going to feel the effects tremendously as well into the future.

Like a lot of green developments, short-term pain can most definitely be long-term gain.

If you have any questions, please ask below!