A small home can make a big impact when it comes to reducing a home’s environmental footprint. Energy-efficient and sustainable homes tend to be smaller homes, which inherently have fewer square footage inside and fewer acres outside. The interior costs less to heat, cool and light, leading to lower energy consumption, and a minimal sized lawn, if any, requires minimal maintenance, reducing emissions and contributing to a much greener environment. healthy. But there’s more to a “green house” than meets the eye.
A green home doesn’t need to look like it was built in the year 2100. In fact, many green homes look, from the outside, like other homes built in new subdivisions. But inside and in some places unseen on the outside, these abodes are unusual. Features such as rainwater harvesting systems, a roof designed for solar installation, carpeting made from recycled materials, and wind power are just a few of the ways a home is built with the environment in mind.
The greenest of the greens are residential homes built to be certified to the highest standard of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. Based on standards provided by the US Department of Energy’s Building America program, LEED has long been used for commercial and government buildings, but home certification is a relatively new phenomenon. One way a green home is defined is its rating of being at least 40 percent more energy efficient than standard code homes.
Purely as a matter of construction cost, smaller houses are more likely to be built as “green” houses. Many of the systems that are built green don’t come cheap, and fewer solar panels and smaller self-contained heating and cooling systems equate to a smaller building budget. The elements that make a home a green home have come down in cost in recent years, but a basic LEED-certified home still costs about $3,500 more to build than it would cost to build a typical home. The highest-tier LEED-certified home costs about $29,000 more. The smaller the house, the less expensive the process will be. The same concept applies to existing home renovations or “greening” an older home.
An example of a company successfully merging the concepts of “green” and “small” is seen with the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company founded by Jay Shafer. Shafer started building small houses out of his concern about the impact of a larger house on the environment. More than 10 years later, these “tiny” portable homes not only minimize square footage, but the green homes are fully insulated with double pane windows and a proper heater.
More and more homebuilders are greening the American Dream. It is suggested to verify a builder’s credentials by applying for their ANSI-approved ICC-700-2008 National Green Building Standard certification (see http://www.nahbgreen.org for more information). Check out these builders online:
Atlas Home Contractors, atlashomecontractorsinc.com
BPC Green Builders, bpcgreenbuilders.com
Castalia Homes, castaliahomes.com
Dominion Homes, dominionhomes.com
Grady O Grady, gradyogrady.com
Builders of Integrity, homesbyintegrity.com
Jurenka Custom Homes, jurenka.com
Ondra Housing, ondrahomebuilding.com
RC Green Builders, rcgreenbuildersaz.com
Summit Custom Homes, Summitcustomhomeskc.com
Zero Energy, zeroenergyllc.com