Get Rid of Mould

The 4 basic elements to build a green house

Green building is more than the actual construction of your home, despite being a part of the process. It's a start to end process that begins with the selection of your land, designing your dream home, materials and practices during construction and, finally, how to operate and maintain your dream home once it is completed. You can enter as many or as few of these elements in the design your home as you choose.

You decide how green you want to be.

Let's look at the four basic elements in the Green Building:

1. Increasing energy efficiency

2. Selected materials for the construction of your house

3. Increased use efficiency water both inside and outside your home

4. Improving air quality, improving health and productivity of your family

There are many parts of each element. Let's look at each of these in a little more detail

1. Increased energy efficiency

• Advanced Framing – Use a contractor of frames that can be applied advanced technology development during the construction of your home. This creates a structurally sound home with greater energy efficiency and reduces material and labor costs. This technique replaces the wood with insulation material and maximizes the wall that is insulated, improving the R-value of the house. On average, Advanced processing uses 30% less wood, reducing construction costs and save 2% to 4% of total energy consumption.
• Heater Water – Water heating can account for 14% to 25% of the energy consumed in your home. To increase the efficiency of your hot water heater, place it near the point highest use. This is typically near the cabin, closely followed by the washer.
• Pipes – Insulate hot water and cold water pipes within 3 feet from the hot water heater. This reduces standby heat loss. The hot water heater is constantly heating the pipe and the water in it, even when no water to be used.
• Appliances – A green building has a home, to be as energy efficient as possible. The Department U.S. Energy Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection have developed a program called Energy Star labels to equipment meeting strict energy efficiency criteria. The typical household spends $ 1,900 a year in energy bills. As you can see in the diagram above, a large amount of energy that is consumed by the instruments in your home.
  • ENERGY STAR qualified appliances incorporate advanced technologies that use 10-50% less energy and water models standard. Just look for the ENERGY STAR. The Federal Trade Commission requires that refrigerators, freezers, water heaters, washing machines, dishwashers and window air conditioners are labeled with an Energy Guide label.
  • The label of a hot water heater shown here. It uses hot water heater 268 therms per year of energy and being compared to other similar models that use anywhere from 238 to 273 therms per year. This model estimated annual operating cost is of $ 162.When comparing different brands of appliances for your new home, be sure to look at your estimated energy consumption. This will affect the cost of operation his home for the next few years.

• Air Sealing – This is advanced caulking is part of the approach airtight drywall (ADA). In concrete, plaster or putty seal is installed on the exterior walls on the top and bottom plates, windows and door frames, interior walls in intersections with exterior ceilings, and electrical, plumbing or mechanical penetrations in the drywall. This approach minimizes heat loss in your home. Working with Plaster your contractor to see if he / she uses this method.
• Radiant Barrier – reflect heat away from your home by installing a radiant barrier (A sheet of aluminum foil with paper backing) on the underside of the roof. This significantly reduces cooling costs by reducing their profit heat through your roof by 95%.
• Insulation – Adding insulation to your attic to keep heat in your home. There are some environmentally friendly insulation products made from recycled blue jeans, soybeans, cotton or newspapers.
• Solar Energy – If the sun shines in your home most of the day in the winter, you has the potential for solar energy to reduce their energy costs. A good solar design allows the winter sun to reach a thermal mass as a tiling, that retains and radiates heat into your home for a period of time.
• Lighting – Install lighting high efficiency lighting controls advanced. This allows light to use only when needed. Replace traditional incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs for energy efficiency. These foci consumption are 75% less electricity and last up to 10 times longer. In the design of your home or remodeling project, introducing natural light in as many places as possible.
• Thermostat – Use a programmable thermostat to provide you and your family the comfort that you want the clock and minimize the use of heating when not required.
• Ducts – Seal ducts with mastic and isolate the I-11. This minimizes heat loss in your home.
• Paintings – You can mix non-toxic ceramic powder in paint interior walls to isolate and reduce the amount of heat that passes through to the outside. These ceramic particles to create a radiant barrier that reflects heat into the room.
• Redirect The Heat – If you have a ceiling fan, redirect the heat back to your room reversing the direction of the blades on the left. This makes the heat down in your room.

2. Selected materials for the construction of your house

• Plastic Wood – This product can be used for nonstructural applications, such as fences, benches, terraces, retaining walls, and picnic tables. It's the weather and insect resistant, and will not crack, splinter or chip. You do not need painting and will not leach chemicals into the ground or surface water. Thus, reducing the amount of wood used in your home, reduce ongoing maintenance costs, and will not damage the local habitat.

U.S. is home to 4.5% of the population but is responsible for more than 15% of global consumption of wood.

• Engineered Wood – This combines the raw materials veneer and fiber with adhesives to produce plywood like wood veneer, I-beams and ceilings and floor joists. The manufacturing process uses rapid growth, small diameter trees, allowing more than 80% of the record to be used in the final product. This produces a product that is very consistent and stable while which reduces the impact on a natural resource.
• Fiber cement cladding – This is a composite of cement and wood fiber reclaimed from waste processing timber or small diameter, fast growing trees. There is a detour that is durable and low maintenance. Many fiber-cement composites offer a 50-year warranty, which increases the value of your home and reduces maintenance costs.
• The manufacturing process of extraction of clay bricks for brick material results limited to no avail. Brick has an unlimited life and can be recycled or recovered after the demolition.
• Recycling – Efficient use of materials when building green comes in two forms. First, the recycling of construction waste and use of building materials recovered during construction when appropriate. Once your house is finished, the responsible recycling of the materials you use every day.
• Design – When working with the architect or designer, use standard dimensions, engineered wood stacked and plans to reduce the total volume of wood used, and the volume of waste.

3. Increased efficiency of water use both inside and outside your home

• Porous Paving Schemes – watertight or "impervious" surfaces such as paved roads, driveways and sidewalks do not allow stormwater to infiltrate the water systems the floor. Use non-compacted stone gravel, crushed and open or porous pavers for walkways and other light traffic areas minimizes the number of impervious surfaces in property, allowing storm water runoff.
• Rainwater Collection – Rainwater collected from your roof is a free source of landscape irrigation water. This collection system consists of a proper roof and gutter system, a storage tank and a simple filtration unit.
• Low Impact Development (LID) – This innovative approach imitates the original method of land runoff rather than cause and treatment of storm water in large and expensive, at the end of pipeline installations. This may come in the form of open spaces, vegetated rooftops, reduced street widths and sidewalks, parking lots and sidewalks permeable medium and other areas with more vegetation buffer.
• Plumbing – Design your home to use recycled water for toilet cleaning. Use ultra flush toilets and low flow showerheads.

Some older toilets use 3.7 gallons per flush, while an ultra low-flow toilet uses less 1.6 gallons per flush.

A family of 4, each shower of 5 minutes per day using 700 liters of water per week – a 3-year drinking supply for 1 person in the U.S.. The use of a showerhead uses high-performance 1 to 1.5 liters of water per minute – up to 60% less than a traditional shower head.

• In Your Yard – Mulch exposed soil in your garden beds and improve the soil with compost to a depth of 8.13 inches to increase the capacity to retain water. Select plants that have water low pesticide needs. Planting trees not only beautifies your garden, but also increase the value of your home while decreasing the impact on the environment. A single mature tree can provide nearly $ 300 in energy and resource value in terms of cooling, control of erosion and pollution. In addition to reducing their carbon footprint. "

Place the plants in full right place and the development of quality, healthy soil means less irrigation during the summer, less need for chemicals and less waste to worry about.

• Chemicals – Avoid outdoor chemicals and oil set and other fluid leaks to prevent water pollution runoff.

According to the office of NY Attorney General, 95% of pesticides used on residential lawns are considered possible carcinogens by the EPA.

• Hot Water – Use recirculating systems for centralized distribution hot water or use "on demand" systems vs. traditional hot water tanks.

4. Improving air quality, improving health and productivity of family

The EPA ranks indoor pollution among the top 5 environmental risks. polluted air is up to 30% of new and renovated buildings. The electricity generated by fossil fuels for a single home puts more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere of 2 California cars.

• Carpet – Using a low battery or less allergen attracting carpet and pad greatly improves air quality. carpets of wool or PET (pop bottles from recycling) are good choices. On the other hand, installation, carpet tacks, does not stick, to reduce pollutants. Many designs Green, built to minimize the use of surface carpeted, replacing them with hard surfaces that do not have these pollutants and are easier to keep free of dust, mold and mildew.
• Paints – Use low VOC (volatile organic compounds, such as formaldehyde) paints.
• Ventilation – While you want to seal your home to avoid loss heat, this creates a need for mechanical ventilation. Ventilation can be provided by quiet fans with automatic controls or recovery ventilators heat. Talk to your HVAC contractor for the best system for the design of your home.
• Building Materials – To prevent microbial contamination, select materials that are resistant to microbial growth.
• Drainage – Provide effective drainage from the roof and the surrounding landscape and to allow adequate drainage air conditioning coils.
• Window treatments – window coverings Avoid synthetic or which can not be cleaned easily.

Although it is a no brainer to use green building techniques and principles, is manageable and feasible. We here at UBuildIt can help you work with your architect or designer, subcontractors and suppliers to help you build or remodel your dream home and to minimize its impact on the environment. Taking the time to plan and build or remodel your dream home with UBuildIt and Green Building will positively impact you and future generations.

About the Author

Chuck Warrender, an experienced custom builder, opened UBuildIt in 1988 to show people how to become Owner-builders and save money or gain equity on their own custom home building and remodel projects. Chuck designed the UBuildIt System for Owner-builders who want to build more home for their money by directing their own construction projects. UBuildIt’s Construction Consultants guide Owner-builders every step of the way and provide a proven system, professional advice and trusted resources. UBuildIt now has over 100 franchises across the US. Learn more about Chuck and how to build or remodel your own custom home at UBuildIt.com

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