Why Build A Green Home?

Posted by in green homes

What Is A Green Home?

Green Homes are becoming more and  more prevalent in the UK due to them having a wide ranging number of benefits for the homeowners that occupy them. For many it is a chance to build something of their own that suits their tastes and needs.

As shows such as Grand Designs grow in popularity, these lead to inspiration to budding designers of what you can do with a budget and a plot of land, in order to build your dream home. But a green home also has benefits for the environment and long term savings in terms of bills.Kirkwell-002

But what is a green home? A green home in simple terms, is a type of house that is designed with being environmentally friendly in mind. This equates to using building materials energy and water efficiently and ideally make use of materials that are renewable.

Modern building materials offer you the chance to create a home that is as strong and as spacious as a house built out of traditional building materials, but with the added benefit of being better for the planet and helping you to make savings on energy long term.

What are the advantages of building a green home?

Some of the main reasons to build an eco friendly home include:

–          Cost  – one huge benefit of having an eco friendly home, is that it will help you to reduce the costs of bills. With rising energy costs this is one way to help avoid the sting of that. If you combine excellent insulation such as SIPs with methods of self powering the building such as photovoltaic can really drive down your energy costs. If you also generate more than you use from these, and put power into the national grid you qualify for rebates, which means eventually they pay for themselves.

–          Carbon Impact –  green home building materials like SIPs help you to reduce the impact your home has on the environment. Being better insulated helps to cut out the heat required by fires and boilers, combining this with renewable energy sources like solar and wind help you to make a difference to the environment.

–          Materials – using SIPs as a building material not only makes your home eco-friendly, but also  the construction process. This is because they have less of a time and mess impact due to the simplicity of putting the materials together as they are manufactured off site and transported to the area ready for assembly. This means damage to the surrounding area is significantly less than a new build with traditional materials.

 

Green Homes Vs. Traditional Homes

Overall when it comes to choosing your next home you need to weigh up the advantages of both methods and consider the fact that when you build an eco-friendly home from scratch you can build it to any design that you wish; whilst also having long term savings. When you buy an existing house you will have to add the personal touches to someone else’s work and then also factor in that it may not be in the best terms in terms of energy efficiency and heat efficiency!