How Do Green Home Designs Incorporate Energy Efficiency?

With the US buildings being directly responsible for 40% of the total energy consumption, green home designs are becoming necessary. These designs are eco-friendly with modern architecture and use a smart approach to use less energy for the same outcomes.

Green buildings are doubtlessly the future of the real estate industry. From raw materials to finished projects, these designs use an eco-conscious approach to save the planet and offer sustainable solutions. Here’s how these homes incorporate energy efficiency.

Reduced Cooling and Heating Needs

Considering how energy costs have skyrocketed worldwide, this is probably the best feature of a green home design. Reduced cooling and heating needs help people stay comfortable, decrease energy consumption and save money on increasing bills.

Typically a lot of cold or hot air from HVAC systems escapes through the cracks and holes in a traditional home design, leading to increased energy consumption to maintain a comfortable temperature. Eco-friendly home designs have well-insulated windows and walls that help keep air from escaping or entering from outside. These homes also have intelligent designs for attics and other openings to make sure that your HVAC system doesn’t have to use much energy.

Many green building companies offer home energy audits where you can see whether air is escaping from your home or not. They use thermal mapping to identify the area and offer appropriate solutions.

Making the Most of Natural Sources

Besides HVAC, lighting also contributes to energy consumption. Green home designs are intelligently designed to reduce the need for using lights during the daytime. These designs replace conventional products and appliances with energy-efficient appliances such as LEDs, automatic daylight shut-off, etc. Did you know that LED bulbs use 90% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs? They only need 20–25% of the energy compared to other light bulbs and last much longer, so you don’t need to replace them quite often.

Green builders make the most of sunlight for heating and lighting purposes; they add large windows where natural light illuminates the most. These design elements add an aesthetic appeal and freshen up the whole space, making your home look bigger and better. In addition, these homes also have solar panels to use sunlight as their energy resource.

Smart Appliances

Green home designs incorporate smart appliances and technology that promote less energy consumption than traditional appliances. For example, the Internet of Things (IoT) is a great technology that increases the energy efficiency of appliances. These devices are connected via the internet and help homeowners track, monitor and reduce their energy use to keep their house as efficient as possible.

ENERGY STAR is a government program that rates different appliances according to their energy efficiency. Green builders incorporate such appliances in home designs to preserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.

Eco-Friendly Construction Materials

The process of making a house energy-efficient starts from construction. Sustainable builders use eco-friendly materials to build green homes. These materials limit carbon emission, are biodegradable, reduce toxic wastage, and last much longer. In addition, builders try their best to source them locally to reduce travel and fuel consumption.

At GH Builders, we follow all the green practices and methods in our home designs and construction process. Every step of our home building ensures sustainability and eco-friendliness. We also have ISO 50001 certification that encourages energy efficiency in everything we do. If you want to check out our green custom home designs or have any queries, reach out to us now.