Sustainable housing is making the most efficient use of resources and energy with minimal impact on the environment. As FirstandMainPM.com explains, sustainable housing is about making sure the home provides a better quality of life, with less waste, better reliability, lower life-cycle environmental impacts, less maintenance, and more reuse.
Making your home more sustainable doesn’t need to cause a lot of stress during or after construction. With the right architect, you can design with sustainability in mind. If your house is already constructed, there are lots of improvements that can be made to make it more sustainable. Some of these changes are immediate and cheap to male, whereas others are more expensive and time-consuming. For new-builds, there are lots more options to make your home more sustainable.
Insulate Your Walls and Floors, And Have A Ceiling Board
This will aid in cooling your home and help you to save on energy costs. Insulation will help in saving money on energy bills and make the house more comfortable, as insulation will stop heat from passing in and out of the house.
Insulation maintains a comfortable temperature inside, no matter what the temperature is outside. Insulation will help the temperature to remain balanced.
Install Double-Glazed Windows
Double-glazed windows help to insulate the house, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer during the winter. You can also use thermal blackout curtains in place of double-glazed windows if replacing your windows isn’t possible.
Make Use Of The Sun
Position your new home for maximum sunlight. This can make use of passive solar heating designs and making use of daytime light. With passive solar, the windows can let in energy, and the heat that is absorbed reduces the need for heating the house during cold weather. You can ask your architect for more ideas to make use of the sun.
Choose Appliances That Have More Energy-Efficiency
Swapping your regular electrical appliances with products that are energy-saving certified is highly desirable for a sustainable house.
Choose Non-Toxic Building Materials For Constructing The House
Non-toxic building materials will lower the life-cycle of the environmental impact that the house might pose after it has been built.
Use Local Materials
If you can use locally available materials, this is a great way to reduce the degradation of the environment during the transportation of the goods that you need for building your home.
Minimize Resource Wastage
During the construction phase, you can recycle waste to reduce the accumulation of waste as much as possible. For example, you can source materials by demolished products that have been recycled.
Use Renewable Electricity Sources
You can do this by installing a small-scale wind turbine or micro-hydro system. Choose a power company that generates renewable sources.
Choose Local Or Native Plan Life For Landscaping And Interior Decorating
This will make the house look more beautiful and visually appealing, and will also help to create a calm environment for sustainability. Plants are also natural air purifiers, so use some inside the house as well as in your landscaping.