Eco-friendly homes are built using processes that are resource efficient and environmentally responsible. All facets of the home from the interior to exterior design are provided with eco-friendly features. Even construction, maintenance, and operation are performed in ways that don’t affect and endanger the environment.
Building
- Site Conditions: Before planning in building your new home, you should consider the best site. Choose an area that suits your wants and needs. It should be able to offer space for various solar accesses, water, air, privacy, gardens.
- Building materials: If you really are after building an eco-friendly home, you should use environmentally friendly materials. You can use ceramics, cement, aluminum, bricks, steel, and glass as the raw materials. Before wood is considered as a primary material in eco-friendly homes but because of the illegal logging issue, it was replaced with aluminum and mild steel. In addition to that, you should also use non-toxic paint, LED lightings, recycled tiles, recycled glass, recycled aluminum, as well as other recycled products and materials.
- Rooms: Consider room locations and the amount of natural air and sunlight that can enter through it. Also, consider the amount of natural heat to enter the rooms in a certain time of day.
- Home Layout: Most eco-friendly homes are equipped with open design layout to reduce the cost of construction. It also enhances ventilation and light. It is also easier to manage and arrange furniture with open spaces.
- Roofing: Green roofing – it's attractive and very cost efficient. With green roofing, you will be able to have extra insulation keeping your energy consumption low.
- Wall Materials: Use materials that have the ability to absorb solar heat such as fabricated or natural brick. Bricks that are made from cement, lime, sand, etc. are great because they are resistant to fire, they absorb heat from the sun, and they have lower water absorption.
- Flooring Materials: Depending on the function of the room, you can actually choose from varieties of flooring options and materials such as parquet, marble, terrazzo, granite, wood, bamboo, and ceramic. But when it comes to an eco-friendly flooring, bamboo and laminated wood can be the best option especially when it comes to the bedroom.
- Utilize Solar Panels: Solar panels are becoming more and more popular to eco-friendly consumers. These are being used as an alternative source for electrical energy. Aside from its economic benefits, it can give you protection from short circuits and fires.
Having an eco-friendly home is a simple step that can help save the environment in some ways and it also offers potentially vital benefits to homeowners. This is a simple yet excellent way of exerting an effort that aims toward the improvement of the earth – a role for nature. Thus, instead of designing your home for your benefit, why not consider building it instead? Try to consider the number of resources and energy that you can save from building it. This is already helping the environment. And it also helps you in giving your family a healthy, assured, and safe future.
