Green Home Building

Green Home Building - A friend of mine has recently built an extension to his house and he used a product called ECOBlock (see picture), basically it works by insulating the walls substantially better than most other building methods, the other day I received an email from him telling me that it had been 5 celcius (41 f) outside in the morning and inside his home with no heating it was still 18 c (64.4 f). It made me realise that we need to think outside the square when trying to build greener homes, and we need to remember that we are creating a home structure that if built well will last for 50 or more years.

The main elements to building a green home

- passive postioning, trying to build so your home living windows face South (Northern hemisphere) or North (Southern hemisphere) depending on where you live. This will ensure that during winter you receive the most possible sun and be shaded well during summer months.

- sealing gaps, use good quality windows and doors that don't allow warm air to escape in winter. You can also use products on existing windows and doors that seal gaps such as Raven.

If you carrying out a major renovation or building project, try to build in as many green options as you can within your budget, generally it's is easier to spend slightly more when building than trying to retrofit double glazing, grey water systems and other green building ideas later on. For example if you are spending $150,000 on building, adding say 10% or $15,000 won't seem as bad as having to find $15,000 later on down the track. Also the extra money you spent up-front will easily pay for itself in reduced utility bills, electricty costs, heating/cooling, etc.



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