How to Design a Sustainable House
It is easier to reduce energy needs than to use alternative sources to provide the energy. For example, reducing energy use by 75 percent makes sustainability with alternative energy sources much easier. Therefore, improving efficiency is the greatest tool to designing a sustainable or off-grid house. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Awning
- Special windows
- Mass wall
- Vents and ducts
- Solar panels
- Pipes and a geothermal pump
- Windmill
- Evacuated glass tube solar heaters
- Sunroom
- Concrete foam forms (ICF)
Instructions
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Increase Efficiency
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1
Install LED and compact fluorescent lights.
They are more efficient, and LEDs give off less heat, reducing the need for house cooling. -
2
Use concrete foam forms (ICF) to build the walls.
Not only does this provide insulation, but it also hurricane-proofs, fireproofs, and termite-proofs the house. -
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3
Install superwindows.
Windows with evacuated or gas-filled space between pane, and special coatings are available in such variety as to keep out heat in Phoenix or to warm a house in a Buffalo winter. -
4
Use a white roof.
White or silver roofs have become part of the Chicago building code, to reduce air-conditioning costs.
Passive Solar Techniques
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5
If the home has not been built yet, site it to face toward the equator.
This allows winter sun to warm the house. -
6
On the equator side, add an awning on each floor with windows.
The awning should extend enough to block the summer sun, but not so far as to block the winter sun. -
7
Install dark-colored concrete or stone flooring where the sun enters.
This will serve as a thermal reservoir, pulling away heat if the room is warm, and releasing it at night when the house cools down. In other words, by having a large proportion of the heat content of the house, a thermal mass serves to moderate temperature. -
8
Install a sunroom on the equator side.
A sunroom differs from a greenhouse in that a greenhouse is not a source of warmth to other parts of the house. A sunroom can have a duct feeding warmth to other parts of the house in winter. During warmer months, vents to the ducts can be closed, and vents in the top and bottom of the sunroom itself can be opened. The resulting convection of air through the sunroom can serve to cool a thermal mass placed adjacent to the sunroom, to cool off the house. -
9
Install an exterior vent low on the house, and high on the side facing the wind.
The wind will help pull out warm air, to help cool the house during summer months. Vents can be opened and closed manually or be programmed.
Alternative Energy Sources
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10
Install solar panels.
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11
Install evacuated glass tube solar heaters as the sole source of energy to heat hot water.
Such collectors have become so sophisticated that they can provide hot water on cloudy days and in freezing temperatures. -
12
Install a windmill.
Make sure it will be high enough to be in a reliable wind stream. -
13
Install pipes a few feet underground, to pump temperate fluid into exterior walls and temper the outside temperature.
Use a geothermal pump to move the fluid from the underground pipes into the house walls. This will serve as an insulation layer both in the summer and the winter, since several feet underground, the temperature stays between 40 degrees and 60 degrees year round.
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Tips & Warnings
A house can be sustainable in terms of its energy use or having no carbon footprint, but it can also be sustainable in terms of its use of physical resources. For example, bamboo is preferable to other kinds of wood because, being a grass, it is fast-growing and quickly replaced as a carbon dioxide consumer.
