Green House Design And Building Green Homes

Green House Design - Building a green home is not only in vogue, it may be the only environmentally responsible thing when planning construction of a new home.

With some advance planning, an eco-friendly design and house plan is an executable project.

The first step in planning a green house is drawing up a specific floor plan.

Each set of floor plans illustrates the layout of a property, highlighting details of each individual room, floor or the property as a whole. Each room will need to be scaled appropriately.

A common scale ratio is 1/4 inch to each foot of space.

The first step in scale planning would be to add the walls. The dimensions should be proportionate on the scale as they would be in reality.

Therefore, a 16 foot by 24 foot room would measure 4 by 6 inches on the draft. Each item that is added gives a plan more of a sense of reality. Sinks, windows, counters, even beds add another dimension to the design.

When planning your green house design, there are a variety of factors to consider.

Firstly, materials are the first place that house builders can affect a zero-carbon footprint. Reusable and sustainable materials need to be the first on a long list of notables. Green builders will keep in mind that cost isn't necessarily the number one factor in choosing materials. What kind of footprint will building this home impact.

A second point of consideration is how eco-friendly the design of the home itself is. A well-insulated house cuts down on energy consumption as does double glazing and utilizing energy efficient appliances.

Other energy efficient solutions point to utilizing sources of renewable energy such as solar panels on the roof, wind turbines that give back to the energy company and use of rainwater barrels to provide the landscape with its green.

Even designing the landscape with vegetation native to the land is an eco-wise decision.

In 2008, the Housing Design Award went to Oxley Woods in Milton Keynes. Woods' home used design elements such as an ‘eco hat’ –a device meant to recapture heat from "stale air" as a way to provide heat energy to the home.

It is important to consider location when building a green house too. The nearness of a recycling facility will improve the green value of the home as the convenience of recycling is made apparent.

Building green is not necessarily the cheapest route. With the economy sluggish and housing down everywhere, building green has definitely seen a weakening.

There is not necessarily any relief in the near future as areas struggle to overcome the economic downturn. However, with government incentives to building green, the long term outlook for green homes is not lost.

Need more reference?

I highy recommend these books to boarden your knowledge on green house design

Green By Design: Creating a Home for Sustainable Living, by Angela Dean, This book has a nice picture and basic information for green building. Great to add to your collections.

PreFab Green, by Michelle Kaufmann. I like how kaufmann explain that it is not only what you build but how you build. She integrated 5 basic principles of ecological design: smart design, eco materials, energy efficient, water conservation and healthy environment. Highly Recommend!

The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture, by Alanna Stang. This book suitable for small building. Has some tips on natural heating and cooling and how to refurbish older building.