Building a green house

Green home construction is the new age style of construction using concepts that are as old as the hills. The focus of green home construction is to live in harmony with the surroundings. Artificiallly heated and cooled homes suffer the aftermath of unhealthy fumes and emissions and people are increasingly turning to natural elements like wind and solar energy as healthier options of heating and cooling.

Steel and glass that form the façade of many modern constructions have gone green because recycled steel from salvage yards and building demolition sites and glass from old glass bottles are used. Sites Particle board made from recycled material is used for partition screens and furniture. People who prefer green home constructions prefer to walk with recycled flooring material like rubber from car tires and eco linoleum underfoot.

Stucco and straw bale walls are an excellent warm and eco friendly option to the conventional concrete walls. The air one breathes in a green home is good for health because of the non toxic substances like paints used on the walls. Green home construction is not a cheap method of construction but it gives residents long term benefits of good health, energy bill savings and low maintenance costs.

To save on energy bills green home construction should be adopted when you construct a building. The EPA gives energy star certification to construction material that reduce energy consumption specifying what can be used in green home construction. All Energy Star certified products reduce water and energy consumption by 10-50% and are the material certified for use in green home construction.

Using low VOC (volatile organic compound ) paints that contain no lead or formaldehyde makes green home construction good for your health. Sealing your home from damp using insulation in green home construction prevents mold from setting in and affecting your lungs. . Green home construction uses light fixtures that emit light but not heat. The upfront cost of green home construction material was high but people found that in the long run the user saves on medical and energy bills.

Increased demand for green home construction has made the cost of green housing material on par with other construction material. Mass production of green home construction material that is fabricated and brought on site and put together has helped reducing the costs of green housing material. Green home construction saves money, saves energy and saves you from bad health.

What does it mean when people say that they are building a green home? There are several features that most green homes have include using the sun and land for natural heating and cooling, reduced construction waste, using sustainable resources, and/or using energy efficient appliances and fixtures. There are many ways that these features can be implemented in both building a green home and in updating existing homes.

So, in what way can you go about building a green home? There are really some very simple steps you can take to improve the home that you have now or to take into consideration when building a green home. A huge step you can take on the road to greenness is to update fixtures and appliances, most importantly, those which use water.

An essential step to take is to update your toilet. Old toilets use much more water than updated ones and can be replaced relatively easily. Another important group of fixture to check are your faucets. Gallons of water can be wasted each day from leaky faucets and you may not even realize it! I realize that replacement is expensive, but top-loading washers do use more water than do front loading washers. I am not saying that you should run out and buy a brand new washing machine, however, you should keep that in mind if you find that you are going to be purchasing a new washing machine.

Another thing to keep in mind for either building a green home or updating an existing structure is the type of windows and insulation that you are using. When building a green home, energy efficient windows can really help cut heating costs, especially with fuel costs the way that they are. Additionally, proper insulation can help cut both heating and cooling costs.

I do know that it isn’t always possible to spend a lot of money on updates for your home, but there are inexpensive updates that can make a big differences. I think the most inexpensive thing that I have done to make my home more green is to purchase a water-saving showerhead. I only paid seven dollars for it, and it uses half of the water that my old showerhead did. Building a green home or updating and existing home is actually pretty simple and does not need to be expensive.