Innovative Ways to Build a Sustainable Living House

Some basics on going green.

Here’s an informative article from ConserveEnergyFuture.com:

SUSTAINABLE HOUSING is one that makes efficient use of resources and energy with minimal impacts on the environment. The overriding principle in sustainable housing is ensuring it promotes a better quality of life and involves less waste, better reliability, lower life-cycle environmental impacts, less maintenance and more reuse. These are some of the ways that are used to make a home more sustainable.

Making our homes sustainable is a simple task and does not need to cause a lot of anxiety during or after construction. If a house is already constructed, there are many improvements that are needed to make it more sustainable. Some of them are immediate and are cheap, while others take longer and are more costly. For new homes, there are so many ways it can be made sustainable.

Most of these sustainability aspects are applicable when renovating or when constructing a new building. Here are 35+ innovative ways to build a sustainable house.

1. Insulation of walls and the floor and having a ceiling board
This will help to aid in cooling purposely to save on energy costs. Insulation will help in saving money on energy bills and make the house more comfortable because the insulation will bar heat passing in and out of the house.

It will maintain a comfortable temperature inside regardless of the outside temperature. Insulation allows the temperature to remain balanced even in winter or summer.

2. Install double-glazed windows
Double glazed windows help to insulate the house, making it cooler during the summer and warmer during the winter. One can as well use thermal blackout curtains in place of double glazed windows in case they are too costly.

3. Make use of the sun
Orientate a new home for maximum sunlight. This involves passive solar heating designs and making use of daytime lighting fully. By the use of passive solar, the windows can let in energy, and the heat absorbed reduces the need for warming the house during cold periods such as winter. Seeking advice from the architect for more ideas is necessary.

4. Choose appliances that have more energy-efficiency
Swapping of the regular electrical appliances with energy-saving certified products is highly desirable for a sustainable house.

5. Selection of non-toxic building materials for constructing the house
Non-toxic building materials lower life-cycle environmental impacts the house might pose.

6. The use of local materials
Using locally available materials is appropriate to reduce the degradation of the environment during transportation.

7. Minimizing resource wastage
During construction, recycling of wastes can be done to reduce the accumulation of wastes as much as possible. For instance, materials can be sourced by demolished products that have been recycled.

8. Usage of renewable electricity sources
This is done through the installation of a small-scale wind turbine or micro-hydro system. Choosing the power company that generates renewable sources is also recommended.

9. Building the house with comfort taking care of the future will make it more sustainable
If the plan is to stay longer in the room, then the indoor and outdoor access will be a requirement; it will also avoid future extension of the house as well as renovation so as to reduce future expenditure in the house.

10. Selection of local or native plant life for landscaping and interior design is an essential element
It will make the house look beautiful and attractive, as well as creating a calm environment for sustainability. Plants also act as natural air purifiers.

Read the rest of the article here.

 

November 2021 News