Green Building & Zero Energy Homes, Alternative Energy, Metal Roofing, Portable Buildings, Green Home Improvements, and Green Living Tips

Let’s take a look at the elements of green home design, and how we can build a zero energy home on a budget. If you are looking to make your existing home greener and more energy efficient, you should be able to extrapolate the main points and apply them to your existing home.

Renewable Energy Systems do not have to cost a fortune

Unlike what many people may think, designing and building a green home does not involve a fortune, and can be done on a budget that is comparable with what it would normally cost to build a traditionally constructed home. Further, if you would like to outfit your new home with PV solar panels, geothermal heating and cooling, or a solar hot water system, it does not have to cost a fortune if you keep these factors in mind; many states provide generous solar rebates to homeowners as an incentive to invest into green technology and renewable energy systems. In addition to solar rebates, many states require utility companies to buy back the electricity that your solar system generates at the rates that are often higher than what you would normally pay for a kilowatt hour.

Solar Payback Period

You may be able to make back the money you would pay for a professional installation of a solar power system in five to ten years. With an average life of solar power system being 20 years and longer, you would actually be earning money from your PV solar power system. Not a bad way to make a buck, appraise the value of your home, support the growth of renewable energy technology and support the environment.

If you are planning to put up solar panels on your existing home, I would recommend replacing your old roof with an energy efficient standing seam metal roof, which would make it easy for solar installers to attach PV solar panels to the seams of a metal roof with the help of a special mounting system. This method does not require any penetrations made to your roof.

By combining solar panels with a green metal roof, you will get a “penetration-free” roof, which will lessen any chances of a roof leak in your home, and will not require replacing at some point in the future. Factor in extra energy savings from reduced cooling costs, home appreciation, and looks to see why it is a no brainier!

If you live in the northern geographic zone, having a metal roof will also help prevent ice dams. It can be really messy when you have to deal with ice dams on a roof that happens to have solar panels, or a solar hot water system installed. Trust me, you do not want to be in that situation.

Passive Solar Design

Passive solar design is one of the least costly green home design solutions for new construction homes, and home additions. Passive solar design involves the use of longer roof overhangs to provide a shadow over the walls and windows of a house. Further, you can design your home to have rooms with glass walls and glass ceilings facing south for solar exposure. Inside the rooms you would have solar thermal mass floors, walls that can be made of bricks similar to the brick fireplace, or walls made from poured concrete. You can also use concrete blocks for easier assembly instead of mixing, pouring and forming concrete walls by yourself. Concrete is a good material of choice because it is reasonable inexpensive and has high thermal mass (HTM), which is what you want to have for effective passive solar design.

You can also integrate thermal shutters around your windows. You can close your thermal shutters at night to reduce the heat loss.

References:

https://www.thenaturalhome.com/passivesolar.html

Commercial Modular Construction can be a great sustainable alternative to conventionally  constructed buildings for educational facilities, commercial office spaces, healthcare, real estate development projects, and many other industries that may require custom design, speed of construction, structural integrity, compliance with the local building codes and US Green Building Council’s LEED accreditation.

Two Types of Modular Buildings:

There are two types of modular buildings that organizations can consider in order to best meet their needs for temporary and permanent spaces, in a timely and cost effective ways;

Relocatable buildings are designed for ease of transportation, deployment, and multiple relocation to different sites on as needed basis.
Temporary modular buildings can be partially or fully prefabricated using modular construction process in accordance with client specifications and state and local building codes. Relocatable buildings do not have the same status as permanent real estate, and can, therefore, be depreciated as equipment. Relocatable buildings can serve well as temporary office spaces, or temporary classrooms for schools that require additional classroom space to meet their growing enrollment needs.

Temporary relocatable buildings can also be leased, which provides flexibility and affordability to companies that require extra space, but are not ready to meet the expense to permanent building structures.

Permanent Modular Construction

PMC is a permanent modular construction method based on an offsite, lean manufacturing techniques to prefabricate single or multistory buildings using sections/modules that are delivered to the construction site, and then, put together to construct a whole building. Permanent Modular Buildings can be custom designed and built of wood, steel, or concrete materials. PMC buildings can serve as stand alone building solutions, or can be integrated into conventional site built projects.

Benefits and Advantages of Modular Construction

Permanent modular buildings can be delivered with integrated fixtures including lighting, plumbing, high efficiency HVAC systems, appliances, custom interior finishes, doors and windows, and other components that help make the building fully functioning in less time, with less waste, and a significantly higher quality control compared to projects utilizing conventional site construction methods.

Green Building, Sustainability, Custom Design and Flexibility

Modular Buildings are designed and build to meet the specific needs of a client, state and local building compliance codes, and can also meet green building LEED accreditation standards. For instance Triumph Modular, a modular construction company based in Massachusetts, provides custom modular classroom solutions that can contain integrated science labs, and restrooms to meet the specific needs of schools and daycare facilities requiring healthy, eco-friendly and energy efficient green buildings.

Triumph Modular custom designs and builds green classroom spaces that make use of green building materials designed for human health, comfort, and sustainability.

References:

http://modular.org/