What Is Green Home Or Eco-friendly House?
An environmentally low-impact house, exquisitely designed and built with materials and technology that reduces carbon footprint and requires less energy consumption, is known as an eco-friendly or green home.
However, being environmentally conscious in your home does not always imply that your roof is covered in solar panels or that you flush your toilet twice. It could be anything from using energy-efficient light bulbs and low-flow water fixtures to soy-based paint and large windows to let in more natural light.
In this article, we will briefly discuss how to build a green home, advantages, and features of an eco-friendly house.
Features Of Green Home
There are several legitimate reasons for building a green home that will make both you and the planet happy. Some of these are
1. Most appliances now have star ratings that indicate how much energy they use. A product with a five-star rating uses less energy than one with a three-star rating. These products can save a lot of energy while maintaining all of their features and functionality.
2. You will save both time and money, especially when it comes to home construction. Consider purchasing materials locally to save money on shipping and to support your local community. You can save time by using a green home kit with prefabricated green building options.
3. Using smart technology to reduce carbon emissions is a novel way to make your home more environmentally friendly. Smart thermostats, for example, can control the temperature in your home.
When no one is in the room, smart lighting can also turn off the lights. It entails using technology more efficiently as part of your daily routine to reduce energy waste.
4. Less carbon is released into the atmosphere as a result of improved energy and gas efficiency. Given that the construction industry accounts for 40% of all carbon emissions, a sustainable approach to your construction can help you avoid becoming part of that statistic.
5. Another important aspect of an environmentally friendly green home is its energy source. In a conventional home, fossil fuels are used to generate energy.
In an eco-friendly green home, solar panels, biomass boilers, and heat pumps generate energy cost-effectively. This reduces reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
How Can You Make Your Existing Home More Eco-friendly Green Home?
Here are some ideas to help you make your existing home more environmentally friendly turning into a green home:
1. Change to more energy-efficient CFL and LED bulbs and tube lights.
2. If you have a terrace or a backyard, consider planting a small garden to help soil erosion. Kitchen leftovers such as tea leaves, eggshells, and vegetable skin can also be composted because they are rich in manure.
3. Any appliances that aren’t in use should be turned off.
4. Install smart light sensors that can be adjusted according to one’s needs.
5. Make space for natural light to enter. To make the most of the available light, use light-colored curtains.
6. Indoor plants that act as natural air filters should be grown. Plants that absorb pollutants from rugs, furniture, and other equipment are also an option.
How To Build An Eco-Friendly House?
Make sure you’re building an eco-friendly green home by following these guidelines.
1. Use Eco-friendly Building Materials
If you want to build a green home, you should consider using environmentally or eco-friendly products, which can help reduce the impact of construction on the environment.
Roofing materials, construction materials, cabinets, counters, and insulation, as well as your flooring, should all be environmentally friendly.
Natural, renewable materials like reclaimed lumber, recycled plastic, and recycled glass, as well as natural products like bamboo, cork, and linoleum, should all be used.
Organic paints, too, help limit negative environmental effects by breaking down quickly and without releasing toxins.
2. Utilize Recycled Resources
When constructing an eco-friendly green home, you should consider the origins of your building materials. Consider using materials made from recycled materials or repurposing old ones.
Here are some examples of recycled materials you can use: rubber shingles made from recycled materials, recycled paper, and wood waste are used to make composite decking, countertops made of tree pulp from sustainably managed forests, carpets made from plastic bottles that have been recycled.
Consider these eco-friendly options when putting together the plans for your new home to help protect the environment.
3. Make Your Structures Smaller
A smaller home built with the same energy-efficient and environmentally friendly construction techniques will have a smaller environmental impact, regardless of how green the large home is.
Even though tiny homes are all the rage, just because you build smaller doesn’t mean you have to live in one. You can make your more expansive dream home plans with smarter yet smaller footprints with creative design principles.
Smaller housing options are becoming increasingly popular due to their efficiency, lower maintenance costs, affordability, and reduced environmental impact, and are being planned in urban and rural settings.
Simply put, when planning and building your home, think about how you will use your space. Design your home to fit your lifestyle while keeping the space manageable and affordable.
Consider square footage as an investment; instead of expanding in every direction, put it where you need it most.
4. Switch To Solar Power
The sun is the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly source of energy. You have a unique opportunity to plan for solar power use when you build, which owners of older homes do not have.
You can take advantage of light, positioning, and geography to get the most efficiency and energy for your investment by making solar power a native technology in your new home.
The placement of your home on its lot and the location of your solar panels can have a significant impact on the amount of energy you collect. Solar shingles are an emerging new option that may have a more appealing aesthetic than traditional solar panel installations, and Tesla is even developing a solar shingle product.
5. Use Your Land Efficiently
You’ll have easier, less expensive lawn care for the rest of your life if you design your home to take advantage of the surrounding landscape from the start.
Suppose your property slopes, plant water-loving willows in low areas, and conifers on higher ground to take advantage of its natural characteristics.
Consider xeriscaping, a water-saving landscaping technique that incorporates native plants and rock. Green land development strategies can help developers save money while also being environmentally friendly.
6. Utilize Geothermal Energy
Geothermal power requires a significant initial investment, but it provides nearly limitless energy to heat and cool your home.
With geothermal energy, the earth itself acts as a heat sink. Heat moves from deep underground to your home’s HVAC system during the winter; during the summer, your AC removes excess heat and dissipates it underground using the same principle as a heat pump.
Consider geothermal heating and cooling to be a method of moving heat rather than producing it through combustion.
In a nutshell
Some people believe that going green is an expensive or difficult endeavor. However, as discussed above, people use numerous methods to help you save money, and the time it takes to create a comprehensive green energy plan for your home. Because they are so simple and easy to overlook, some of these methods are frequently overlooked by people who develop green energy plans.
Author – Nafisa Nazneen Choudhury
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