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Four Rules On Green Home Design

As a people, our current wasteful lifestyles wont be sustainable for long. This is a fact that were becoming more and more aware of every day. Because of this, green home design is becoming a more and more mainstream part of the housing market. Some experts predict that green home design will soon make up a huge slice of the real estate industry.
In the United States, homes create 38% of the total carbon emissions. Especially if we want to stop global warming, building our homes with green home designs will have a significant effect on the future. For those who want to give their houses a bit of green home design, there are many little steps that can be taken. But for those into truly lowering their homes impact on the environment, there are four basic green home design rules to follow.
Rule 1 in Green Home Design: Go Small
Large homes are a symbol of wealth, status, and success. Unfortunately, large home need a huge quantity of fuel for heating and cooling-- fuel which is generally in for form of environment-killing fossil fuels. These homes also require more resources for building and create more waste as a result. So its important for you to build small if you want to incorporate a green home design.
Green Home Design Rule 2: Incorporate Passive Solar Design
Passive solar heating is one of the backbones of green home design. The relatively simple concept behind passive solar design is to design a home according to the climate. In warmer climates, homes are designed to absorb less heat. In colder areas, design is used to reduce the amount of heat lost. To do this, green home design is incorporated into the orientation of the building, the location of the windows, the flooring (stone is best), and other elements of the home to reduce the amount of energy wasted.
Rule 3 in Green Home Design: Recycle and Reuse Materials
Almost everything used in a traditional home harms the environment in some way, either by its manufacture (plastics and artificials) or its transport (naturals). Using locally produced renewable materials can help reduce the amount of damage your building can do. Consider installing bamboo or recycled wood flooring and incorporate a green home design using recycled materials, such as cellulose insulation and lumber composites, throughout the home.
Green Home Design Rule 4: Optimize your Heating and Cooling
Heating and cooling a home accounts for the huge majority of its energy consumption. And even though the thought of the hot summer months might make an oversized air conditioning system sound pretty tempting, this kind of cooling is as anti-green home design as you can get. Big air conditioning systems cool the air too much and too quickly, causing them to turn on an off constantly. Because of this, they dont last nearly as long as smaller systems, creating a huge amount of waste along with energy loss.

Article Source: http://www.articleadventure.com

For more about building a green home, read greenhomeguide.org.

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