Sustainable homes are healthier, more durable, more energy-efficient, more comfortable, and their footprint on the environment is smaller than conventional homes.
Here are some green basics recommendations for sustainable building: Small - can be nice and cozy.
Large houses usually use a huge amount of energy to heat and cool.
This energy comes from the combustion of fuels, depleting these resources and emitting greenhouse gases and pollutants into the air.
The larger the house, the more materials go into its construction; materials which have their own environmental consequences.
A home should be just the right size for its occupants.
The key to this is good organization,efficient use of space and keeping possessions to a manageable level.
Heating with the Sun and Cooling passively There is nothing more comfortable for body and mind than living in a good solar-heated house.
passive solar design will give just the right amount of sunlight into the rooms to be absorbed by the surrounding thermal mass.
This way, the heat will be given back into the rooms when the sun goes down.
A proper design is crucial to the comfort of such a house.
The thermal mass is a kind of "heat battery" that stores the warmth, absorbing it to keep the room from getting too hot during the day.
As important to thermal mass is insulation (such as crushed volcanic rock or straw bales) that will keep that heat inside.
The final solar design will use the materials in the right places, blending utilitarian design with thermal dynamics.
It's Cool In a well designed solar house the temperature tends to stay fairly even.
its warm when you want it and cool when you want it;.
A good way to keep coolness in the house is to dig into the earth.
Not more than 2 meters under the earth, you will find that the temperature varies by only a few degrees year-round.
you can use the stability of the earth's temperature keep your house nice and cool year-round.
Local Materials Nature has provided us with some wonderful materials to build with.
The environmental and economic costs are low Because these materials require little processing or transporting.
Some are renewable resources like straw and trees and some are abundant, almost inexhaustible like sand and rocks.
The beautiful thing about building with local materials is that they seem to fit naturally with the feeling of the place.
Sharing Facilities through Intentional Communities Share what you have with others is a basic tenet of sustainability.
by doing so we can diminish the need for unnecessary duplication of facilities.
In this way a group of people can have less appliances, tools or functional areas, and benefits both the environment and the person.
Growing your own Food Living among green plants, is a pure pleasure, especially when they are edible.
, It is easy to see why people become attached to their attached greenhouses.
Recycle Materials It's fun, satisfying, and economical to reuse old building materials.
In the western society 'used' has a stigma.
We value 'new' above all else, we believe the advertising forces that claim that used is low or bad.
A great place to look for such stuff is the local dump because it is often perceived as valueless.
The local dump actually has an area set aside for potentially reusable items, and they encourage people to sort through it.
Renewable Energy Using the sun, water or wind, to produce electricity are among many ways to conserve the use of fossil fuel; Whether we are getting our electricity from alternative sources or from the grid, it pays to choose energy-efficient appliances.
Front-loading clothes washers, such as, use much less electricity, water and soap than the top-loaders.
Conserve Water It is possible to get by just fine on one tenth of the amount of water we use today in the west.
Flow restrictions at shower heads 'the use of low water capacity toilets are fairly common now.
More radical conservation approaches include diverting gray water from bathing, clothes washing and bathroom sinks to watering plants; catching rain water from roofs and paved areas for domestic use and switching to composting toilets.
These can be very effective and safe means of water conservation if done carefully to avoid bacterial infestation.
Build to Last Durability is a prime ingredient of sustainable architecture.
it would be a waste of a lot of embodied energy if a building doesn't last for a long time, from both the resource and the human perspective.
Its a matter of consciousness, that's all it takes for building to last; we need to value old architecture.
Many times builders will do shoddy work or make poor choices of construction materials cause it really only needs to last a few decades, and then it will be torn down, creating space for the almighty NEW.
There are many other aspects and ideas to explore about sustainable building, it's mainly changing the way of thinking and acting.
Ah, and enjoying it..