Fundamentals of a Green Home

Whether you're a Developer, Builder, homeowner, home buyer, or a renter, you can live in a green home. We can help you know if your home is green, or what to look for if you want to make your next home green.

So what is a Green Home? It is a home that is built using techniques that will ensure you get a healthier, safer surrounding. It will be a high-performance home that costs less to operate and has fewer environmental impacts.

New homes and neighborhoods may be built on environmentally sensitive sites like prime farmland, wetlands and endangered species habitats. A green home Developer would never do this. They understand the impact of the human imprint on the earth, and the conscientious ones are doing something about it. They would choose a property like former shopping malls, broken down factories, or torn down or dilapidated buildings.

Green homes would also take advantage of public transportation such as bus lines, city rail systems, or subway systems. This would help in fossil fuel reductions as you can leave your car home, and easily walk or ride a bike where you need to go.

Regardless of the green building elements that go into your home, if you build a 4,000-square-foot green home, it still consumes twice as much natural resource than a 2,000-square-foot green home. Think in terms of more heating, air conditioning and lighting, water, and other factors.

To reduce the amount of electricity for lighting needs, the house would be situated on its site to bring in more natural daylight into the interior. It would also take advantage of any natural wind currents and breezes. To save on air conditioning, use sunshades, canopies, green screens and trees. Using Dual-glazed windows also reduce heat gain in summer and heat loss during cold months. If your roof is light-colored instead of the common black or brown, it will be heat-reflecting. You could go a step further and utilize a Green Roof System. See our article on those.

A green home is constructed or renovated with healthy, non-toxic building materials and furnishings. They would use low to zero-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints and sealants. Non-toxic materials for the sub-flooring, wood-based features would be of bamboo or others which come from rapidly renewable sources. A green home would also use salvaged materials like kitchen tiles and materials with significant recycled content.

Green homes have an abundance of non-toxic insulation, made from materials like soybean or cotton. They would have a high R (heat resistance) factor in a home's roof and walls which will prevent cool air leakage in the summer and warm air leakage in the winter.

The Windows and Exterior doors would have high energy ratings, again to avoid heat gain in summer and heat loss in winter.

A green home will save water by using a conserving irrigation system and water-efficient kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Many times there will be a rainwater collection and storage system. These will be much more common in arid and drier regions where water is increasingly scarce and expensive.

Last but not least, your landscape will be green rated too. Use vine-covered green screens, large trees and other landscaping materials which can shade exterior walls, the driveway, patios and other hard-scaped areas to minimize heat pockets. Yards should be landscaped with drought-tolerant plants and grasses.

Most importantly, the Green Home should generate some of its own energy. This can be achieved by using technologies like photovoltaic systems.

See our other articles on Green Homes and Buildings to get more ideas how to remodel or build a Green Home.