Designing and Building a Green Home
Green living isn’t just recycling soda bottles (although, our Mohawk Ever Strand carpet is made of recycled bottles)! Every phase of building a green home has an environmental impact. Through careful planning, these elements can be managed to create a sustainable, environment-friendly home. The location, planning, and design of the home and landscape each play an important part.
The location of a home has a lot of impact. When possible, a truly green home is convenient walking distance from public transportation. The home’s orientation to the sun, number of windows and more are taken into account for the energy efficiency calculations. The overall geography of the site is chosen to conform to principles of energy conservation which are carried out in the home’s floor plan.
The green approach applies to the construction process as well as the home itself. Materials-efficient planning can save time and money while conserving resources. For example, wall lengths conforming to standard sizes of building materials will reduce wasted materials. This also saves money, since custom-sizing materials takes time and labor. Many computer modeling programs are available to help designers pre-manage the materials to be used in a home. Plans are made in advance to use or recycle the waste produced during the construction of the house. Where possible, the surrounding landscape is preserved.
For maximum energy efficiency, the sustainable home features thermally efficient shell materials and insulation. A high-efficiency heating and air system is complemented by light-colored roofing materials, which help conserve energy. The principles of passive solar energy can make a new home extremely energy efficient, keeping it naturally cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. Following these principles may determine which direction the home itself faces, or the location of features such as the garage. Active solar energy collectors may also be used, as well as solar-powered exterior lighting, which stores up a charge during the day to be used overnight.
Natural lighting is an energy-conserving element that influences the floor plan itself. Natural lighting can be combined with task-specific indoor lighting and low voltage, high efficiency dimmers to greatly reduce the amount of energy needed to light the home.
Along with energy, a green home conserves water. Low flush toilets and low flow shower heads reduce the water wasted by everyday activities. Some sinks may be too remote for the hot water system to reach efficiently. Point-of-use water heaters can be used for these instead.
The outside of the house is also designed to conserve water and energy. Homeowners can channel rainwater to be recycled for natural landscape irrigation. Plants used in landscaping can require minimal water and be indigenous to the area.
Sustainable building is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It may not yet be practical – or possible – for everyone to implement all of these elements into a single new home. However, a little goes a long way when designing and building a green home. Even a few of these features, combined with energy and water efficient appliances and environment-conscious habits, will have a lasting positive impact.
The award-winning new home builder, CornerStone Homes, builds one-of-a-kind homes with outstanding quality craftsmanship and incomparable customer service. The company has received accolades and high honors for its excellence in homebuilding, customer satisfaction and community volunteerism. CornerStone Homes is the recipient of the Grand Laurel Golden Service Award for 2009 and 2010.
One of Northeast Florida’s premier new home builders, CornerStone Homes is building in the finest neighborhoods including Austin Park at Nocatee, Palencia, Payasada, GroveWood at World Golf Village, Kensington, MuraBella, RiverTown, Hunter Oaks, Doctors Inlet Reserve, Eagle Harbor, Eagle Landing and Rolling Hills. In addition, the company builds new homes on privately owned home sites from $59 per square-foot.
For more information, visit the homebuilder’s website at www.MyCornerStoneHomes.com or call at (904) 786-7000.
Resource for a majority of the blog content provided by: www.newhomeguide.com.
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