Location, Location, Location

Straw Bale in the City - Image Huff'n' Puff Constructions

Interestingly many green homes, especially when people have been building green with straw,  have traditionally been built “out of town’ on a small holding or small acreage.

However, if living in such circumstance necessitates you driving long distances to work each day or to access other services using a private motor vehicle, this can potentially undo much of the benefit of living in a green home.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be the case though and many green home owners develop ways to ensure their impact outside the home is kept within acceptable levels.

This does not mean that a green home especially when building green with straw,  in an urban area is necessarily any better.

You may still need to travel some distance to work (much more slowly than your regional counterpart) and as homes in urban areas can be more expensive to buy or build, then issues of more than one job to pay the home loan become a reality.

Sustainability is a wide ranging subject when applied to your whole life when building green with straw, like any other project there are many things to consider.  Thoughtful design, thoughtful materials and thoughtful location will all combine to make your building green with straw experience well worthwhile.

If building green with straw is something you are interested in please visit this site for more specific information – yep I’m doing it again.

Life cycle of a Green Home

Despite a real trend towards green home building, in these days of faster and faster replacement of things such as clothing, appliances, technology and cars it may come as no surprise that homes are being replaced (knock-down-rebuild) ever  more quickly.

Often a defining feature of deciding that green home building is that it’s important to you that is it built to last, not to become ‘unfashionable’ because it may not have been fashionable in the first place.  In fact, as with most things, the longer your home lasts the greener it is.

Considerations such as the durability, replace-ability and the life-cycle of materials and inclusions in a green home can often mean that decades later the home is as comfortable and easy to live in as the day you moved in.  This could become a major factor in green home building as resources become increasingly expensive and the move to sustainable building practices becomes more main stream.

The Active Green Home

Image from hometips.com Sourced through Google Images

Many homes have a “green” label because they have many active components built into them.  Climate control devices that can sense the need to lower blinds and shades, that monitor energy use, activity within the home, zoning of climate control and most commonly, solar arrays and their accompanying monitoring and reporting hardware.

All these things can create a comfortable home that has the potential to be more energy efficient and they can be FUN to have around.  However, if basic passive design principles such as correct aspect for solar gain and  natural climate control using cross ventilation, among others have not been addressed then the energy efficiency of the green home building project will be compromised.  High tech is not always a bad thing however issues around sustainability do raise questions about how much ‘active’ you need in a green home building?

There are folks out there who say they won’t even consider installing solar panels to generate electricity because they consume more energy in their manufacture than they ever produce but they will fill their home with technological solutions to climate control and think nothing of it.  Technology is brilliant and we need to apply it brilliantly – not carelessly.  This is certainly an area of green home building and its definition,  that needs enlightened thinking and can be both a mine field and a gold mine.

The Passive Green Home

Design is a vital component in creating a green home and is often the very first part of your green home building program.  Passive design allows the home to provide stable temperatures, healthy airflow, and a sense of place that creates a particularly enjoyable space for people to dwell.  Good passive design significantly reduces the need for energy inputs to heat and cool the home making is a much more sustainable option in the medium term.  So before you head for a little retail therapy looking for gadgets and technological solutions to make your home more energy efficient – revisit your design.

Design for Cross ventilation to cool your home. Google Images from extension.org

Does it have the right amount of roof overhang to protect your glass for direct summer sun?  This is a BASIC green home building principle and will reduce your reliance on energy guzzling air-conditioning.  It will also allow the sun to enter your home in the winter thus providing passive heating and further reducing your energy consumption.  Have you designed in enough cross ventilation?  This will help you cool your home even if it does heat up a bit in the middle of summer.

There are many “passive” design principles you can use to make living in your home much more comfortable and ensure that green home building pays you dividends for many years to come.  All vital components in our quest to define green home building.

Consider Aesthetics

Google Images from BuildingGreenTV.com

For many people, using alternative materials in the construction of their green home building project is a major consideration.  Building green with straw is just one option, using non-toxic or low toxicity products is another.  A green home is often designed to create a healthy internal and external environment for the inhabitants.

So when searching for a holistic definition of green home building, this question of aesthetics must be considered.  Why is it that people are willing to go outside the mainstream in their search for a ‘look and feel’ in their green home?  Is this an intrinsic part of green home building or is it merely a response to mass production?  This and the answers to many other questions will inform a good definition of green home building for the 21^st century.

Think Global – Act Local

No matter how large or small your home is...

Applying this mode of thinking to your green home building or retrofitting project will mean that you source local materials, use local craftspeople, harvest local resources such as water (for storage for later use in your home) and sunshine (solar energy) and wind (wind power) and the amazing power of plants to feed yourself.

For many people a green home encompasses much more that the dwelling itself but include all that surrounds it.  The home may be exactly the same design and construction as all the other homes in the neighbourhood but it stands apart from them in terms of the thought and planning for energy use, waste recycling (think compost, worm farms and the like), water harvesting and food production.  The green home definition can be expanded to include many things.

So when we are thinking about green home building we need to expand our thinking beyond materials, building codes, design and size.  For true green home building we need to look more holistically at who will live here and how they will live – to live well we need to think about sustainability and all our needs and even some of our wants!  Green home building and green retrofitting of existing homes can become one of the solutions instead of our current situation where home are a major part of the problem.

The ‘Individuality Factor’ in Green Home Building

There is a common thread running through most green home building projects and that is the ‘individuality factor’.

In these days of mass produced everything including homes (be they project built or bought off the plan type projects), there are many people who are looking for alternatives and who opt to build green homes as a way of expressing the things that are important to them.  If ever you felt that you were disconnected from the things surrounding you then building your own home will certainly reconnect you and give you a sense of having been involved in creating something.

Just as there is a great desire to buy or own something unique and personal so too is there a great desire to create something unique and personal.  Many people are returning to ‘the old ways of doing things’ relating to food (think the slow food movement or growing your own food) and green home building appears to be the vehicle for people to get creative and express their unique needs and nature.  If you choose to build it yourself – that sense of connection, of empowerment and creativity just skyrockets.  Green home building for the owner builder is immensely satisfying.

Sustainability and Green Home Building

Your home is quickly becoming the place where you can express your desire to live in a more sustainable manner and may be part of the move towards green home building.  Whether your green impulse comes from wishing to save money by making your home more energy efficient or comes from a concern for the wider environmental impacts of your lifestyle, home sustainability is certainly a major component in the definition of the Green Home.

Image Photobucket

Urban sustainability will be a major issue facing the 50% of the worlds population who l live in urban environments. Sustainability certainly incorporates green home building and retrofitting existing homes, it includes energy efficiency that will reduce resource use over the long term, it can also mean that other environmental impacts are greatly reduced such as the amount and kind of materials used in construction, how much maintenance will be required, use of natural and local building materials, how much space it takes up and the possibility of using the home and its site to provide energy, water and food into the future.  Green home building isn’t just a passing fad, it is a step into a sustainable future.

There is Green Home Building  and GREEN Home Building!

Green home building…

is a complex issue and right at the beginning is coming up with a general definition.  It seems that homes being promoted as ‘Green’ and even ‘Eco-friendly’ can range from the simplest dwellings you can create to the most high-tech monsters you can imagine.  It appears that the range moves from low-tech, passive design and construction to high-tech, active homes and almost everything in between.
Despite their obvious appeal can huge houses ever be truly green?  Sure we can do better than we are currently as we churn out ever more “McMansion” style homes adding features to make them more efficient but will this ever lead to sustainable homes  - to true green home building?   This is a big issue and one we have to collectively address.

Does green home building merely mean energy efficient or does it move towards creating a really sustainable style of architecture for everyone?

No wonder we have trouble defining just what a green home really is.  As always it comes down to our personal definitions and level of awareness.  Any steps towards reducing our energy consumption are to be applauded, likewise any steps toward reducing our impact (including our cultures addiction to shopping) will be rewarded in the long term.  As more people demand green home building options perhaps we will begin to collectively deliver viable alternatives.

Defining the Green Home

Green home building …

is a growing trend all over the world but there are differing opinions about what actually constitutes a green home.  This can lead to confusion and frustration for home builders – especially those open to new ideas and considering green home building.  Increasingly, home buyers are also wishing to consider greener options as they make decisions about their own green home.

Some countries around the globe are now mandating that people selling their homes must provide prospective buyers with evidence of their eco-rating – how well a home performs regarding energy consumption to heat and cool it.  These kinds of measures will go some way to improving the performance of our homes and perhaps lead to green home building becoming the ‘business as usual’ alternative. Imagine the incentive for people to consider green home building if, when they want to sell it, they will potentially attract more buyers.