One of the biggest benefits of building yourself a custom home is that you can set it up to be green from the very beginning. There are so many modern building techniques and materials that will make sure that your carbon footprint is much lower than if you bought an old house.
It is easy to get overwhelmed when designing and planning your house to overlook the ideals of going green. However, when you make it part of the plan then there is nothing more complicated about building it than with any other traditional home builders. In this article, we will go over how you can make sure to go green with your new custom built home.
1. Make it passive
The ideal way to go green is to use as few resources as possible to heat and cool the house. There are a lot of ways to generate passive heat and for the house to keep itself cool. It all comes down to the design and it doesn’t even need to be technologically advanced.
Even in ancient times the concepts were the same. For example, if your house faces south and you have big windows, then this is going to cause a sort of greenhouse effect in which the sun. although low in the sky, will heat the house without needing any fuel source.
In the summer, using low eaves to block the sun as it is higher in the sky will create shade and thus the house will be cooler naturally. Make sure to position it in such a way to take advantage of where the sun is in the sky in each season.
2. Use green material
There are many materials that are excellent at keeping heat in the house as well as keeping it out in the summer. Using these materials is also a way to keep the house passive. They are also very good at distributing heat to where the house needs it the most.
An example is a cool roof that is made out of material that helps reflect the sun’s rays away from the roof so the house stays cool in the summer.
3. Use a grey water system
Having a lush, green lawn involves using a lot of water. This is starting to become a scarce commodity which means that many people will face water bans and a brown lawn. Unless you install a grey water system from the very start.
This is a system that takes the water from your sink and shower drains and channels it into your yard where it is naturally filtered and used to water the soil at the root level of the grass and other plants.
4. Make it smart
Using automation is going to save a lot of resources. This involves using smart thermostats that use AI to determine the best times to turn the HVAC system on and off as well as the parts of the house that need it most. You can expect to save up to 30% off of your energy usage just by making your house smart.
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