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Come to think of it, isn't the green choice to buy a home that already exists instead of building a new one?
In a lot of cities, from a commute perspective it certainly is - you can buy an existing home and have a 15 minute commute or build a new home well outside the city and have a 40 minute commute.
I agree with everything you said. I have long said ICFs are the future. I am a Logix distributor and my son is an installer. We are in middle Tennessee. Where are you?
Every time oil goes up a dollar, or we have another storm. Like the ones in Macon Co. here in Tennessee. ICFs look a lot better. And they can be finished in any manner you wish. Brick. stucco, siding, or anything else.
We are now doing a 22500 sq/ft three story Super 8 motel, And a 12000
sq/ft electric membership corp. building all ICF. Commercial is starting to see the benefits of insulated concrete form construction. It is the new wave of green.
Working on what you might call green.
Building a -
1500 sq ft home on 40 acres. Compressed Earth Block from dirt excavated for foundation
and from site, (negative points for 6% Portland cement for stabilization), adobe floors
throughout, vigas and latillas cut on site. Solar electricity, (been off grid for 8 years),
(Solar battery bank was a rescue from disposal of an underground earth mover battery
considered waste by the coal mine - appears as though it will function for the foreseeable future. Grey water used to irrigate vegetable garden for the last 8 years.
We Love our outhouse, but will install a composting toilet in the house.
Rainwater harvesting designed in. Grubka Russian masonry stove to burn wood
sustainably cut from property. Horno adobe oven going on patio this summer. (casting
my own blocks for that one). Do we get extra points for at least 80% of the items that
we use being bought used or acquired from people who considered them waste and
wanted to dispose?
It can be done.
BTW - We have no debt and are building without a mortgage.
Also, sometimes, it takes only a few years for the product to actually pay itself off in the money that it will save you in electricity/water/etc. bills.
The greatest thing about building green is that you don't have to do it all at once. If you are building to be totally toxin free, than its' another story. If you are building to be more independent from energy bills and the like, then there are ways that you can make these changes more inexpensively, and make a larger difference.
Another is to use a solar water heater in conjunction with a gas water heater. DON'T use electric/tank heaters, because they are constantly heating water...even when you aren't using it. Gas heaters work on demand, so they are cheaper.
On the other hand, if you want to go crazy with being green, and still want to be inexpensive, there's always this option:
Also, sometimes, it takes only a few years for the product to actually pay itself off in the money that it will save you in electricity/water/etc. bills.
The greatest thing about building green is that you don't have to do it all at once. If you are building to be totally toxin free, than its' another story. If you are building to be more independent from energy bills and the like, then there are ways that you can make these changes more inexpensively, and make a larger difference.
Another is to use a solar water heater in conjunction with a gas water heater. DON'T use electric/tank heaters, because they are constantly heating water...even when you aren't using it. Gas heaters work on demand, so they are cheaper.
On the other hand, if you want to go crazy with being green, and still want to be inexpensive, there's always this option:
if you truly are going to build green, it must all be started at construction, insulations, type of construction, orientation of the house, addition of items such as a solarium (aka, sun space) that has design criteria for inside and outside for it to work properly, and other items that are only really economically feasible during construction phases. Solar and other form of energy use are not the only green things to be thinking of. The construction of the house is going to vary between a standard build and a green build home.
DON'T use electric/tank heaters, because they are constantly heating water...even when you aren't using it. Gas heaters work on demand, so they are cheaper.
Regular water heaters, both gas and electric, try to keep all the water in the tank at one temperature. It turns on when someone uses hot water and cold water replaces it, it turns on when there is enough heat loss in the tank that the water drops below a set point. Gas heaters (tank or otherwise) lose nominal heat out the vent but recover slightly faster than electric water heaters. Both gas and electric tank water heaters need the scale and deposits cleaned out of them on a regular basis, and the gas water heaters need the flues and firing mechanisms cleaned.
On-demand tankless water heaters, both gas and electric, work only when hot water is needed. Tankless water heaters of either form are not cheap, and the electric variety takes a large amperage dedicated service which you may or may not have available. The gas variety takes a pretty large supply line and a flue vent.
Before I shelled out the money to switch to instant-on, I'd insulate the heck out of whichever water heater I had (including the piping) and I'd make sure it was running properly. In my area, natural gas is supposedly going up 40% this year, compared to electricity's 10% increase, making the cost comparisons between the two sources much less clear.
Of course, I went with solar thermal, so that's all moot for me....
Last edited by PNW-type-gal; 07-16-2008 at 06:40 PM..
Noahma, I find that interesting the styrofoam panels cost more than the concrete.
I have been reading everything I can but still have much to learn. I am playing with design ideas for a home I plan to build in NW Arkansas. I am a multi-media artist/sculptor. I want to get a basic sturcture built that I can then finish.
Noahma, I find that interesting the styrofoam panels cost more than the concrete.
I have been reading everything I can but still have much to learn. I am playing with design ideas for a home I plan to build in NW Arkansas. I am a multi-media artist/sculptor. I want to get a basic sturcture built that I can then finish.
they are not just foam boards, they do have more to them, a couple of sheets of ply, a strong adhesive, and what not, plus they have the whole "green" tag associated with them which by itself drives the cost of things up (notice the cost of organic cleaners compared to normal cleaners) Concrete is actually a very poor insulator. If I can remember correctly it is something like 1.5 R to every inch in thickness, which puts your typical concrete wall at around R-12 or so, you can get a blanket of fiberglass insulation that is equal to that with an installed height of less than 3" and a rigid insulation at 1" installed thickness.
Remember when having a home designed with these to design for the panel IE you need to find out what standard sizes they make them in and use each dimension on the exterior of the house to conform to the dimension of the manuf. panels. I personally like to work with Green block, which is a concrete / foam block, they come in a standard size much like any other CMU or brick, very easy to design with.
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