 Reducing the amount of materials and energy required to build or maintain a home can help to substantially reduce your carbon footprint. At the same time, a green approach to home ownership ensures greater peace of mind, physical comfort, and preservation of a sustainable investment over the lifetime of the home.
Save money while living a more responsible green lifestyle – whether buying a condo, remodeling a home, planning new construction, or just wanting to take simple environmentally conscious steps forward. Here are some of the many interesting paths to a greener home:
Construction Methods
The use of recycled materials; formaldehyde-free insulation, nontoxic paint, and intelligent energy-aware construction methods are just a few of the ways to create a more Earth-friendly home.
· Optimum Value Engineering (OVE) techniques are those design and framing strategies for wood or “stick-built” construction that were developed by the Forest Products Laboratory in collaboration with the National Association of Home Builders. Buildings employing OVE practices use less lumber and achieve higher insulation values without compromising structural integrity.
· That translates into lower construction costs and less energy consumption over the life of the home. The amount of lumber bought, transported, wasted due to overage, and transported away from the site as trash is greatly reduced, while thermal and acoustic insulation is boosted.
· A study conducted by the National Association of Home Builders Research Center (NAHBRC) found that OVE framing techniques can potentially save as much as $1.20 per square foot when compared with conventional wood framing methods.
· Pre-fabricated architecture is also making progressive strides forward. An entire generation of green designers is offering aesthetically award-winning houses and condos that can be built quickly in a modular manner, because much of the work is done off-site. That not only reduces environmental impact but also saves the homebuyer substantial expense.
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