This week at Green Home Building we are going to take a look at some essential aspects of building an efficient home from the ground up. We have already discussed one of the most important aspects of a new green project, choosing a location. Take a look at that article before we go onto the next step of green home design.

 

Green home design is highly dependent on the lot you have available. The whole idea is to take advantage of the natural resources and energy available at your location. You will be building a full custom design catered to your location. Do not design the home then try to find an appropriate location. If you do so you will find yourself restarting your design and wasting a lot of time.

 

 

Size Requirements

 

The first major design goal is to determine how big your home will be. Smaller homes will always be more efficient than bigger homes. They use less electricity, heating, building materials, money, and are cheaper to maintain. Large homes usually contain a lot of space which is rarely used. This is where major decisions need to be made with regard to comfort and living space. You do not need to build a small shack, but by building an unnecessarily large home you will completely defeat the purpose of green design. Decide how many people will be living at the home, and try to comfortably fit them into as little space as possible.

 

 

Internal Green Architecture

 

Even though you need to keep your overall space to a minimum, you can design your green home to feel big. Avoid the use of long and wide hallways. Hallways are essentially wasted space since you will not be able to utilize the space (it is only used to walk through). Design the rooms so that they can all connect without any hallways. This can be done by having all bedrooms and bathrooms opening up into the main living area. All utilities, storage, and laundry should be placed in one room. Avoid creating many small rooms throughout the house. This wastes space that can be utilized for living area. If possible make small bathrooms with higher ceilings; this creates a spacious effect without using valuable floor space.  You can also add sunroofs to your main living area. This will make the room seem bigger, with the added bonus of harvesting solar energy in the winter. There are many small things you can do as a green architect. If you think about your design carefully, you can design rooms that feel large, as opposed to room that are largely inefficient.

 

Careful planning is required for efficient home design. Do not rush or speed through this process. The biggest mistake people make is spending too little time in the planning phase. A longer design phase will save you a lot of money and headaches in the future.

 

 

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See Part 2 Here