If you are willing to spend time on the major design principles, you can give your home the ‘sustainable’ touch without forking out additional costs. Simple recyclable non-toxic materials and recycled products can do the trick for you. How about straw bale walls for insulation and a magnesium oxide board working as a cladding? How about a metal cage exterior with crushed brick finish?
A home should be in sync with its surroundings
Any sustainable home must work in sync with its surrounding environment. This is important to keep in line with the heating and cooling needs; without dishing more than negligible expense, that is. For maximising the potential of any site for passive heating and cooling, it is important to figure out its orientation. A lot is determined by the room layout. For Australia, the ‘aspect’ to consider: keep your main living area facing north or north east.
Building envelope
The building envelope is just as integral to the sustainable theme. This includes the ceiling, walls, floor and windows. In this context, reuse of greywater, capturing of rain water, solar panels, heating and cooling modules and type of glazing is important to note.
Passive solar designs
Passive solar designs can also be incorporated for existing buildings. All that’s needed is keen retrofitting. Reorienting rooms so that they can maximise solar retention and improve on water and energy efficiency and insulation is the key.
Go Green!
Green roofs and facades go a long way in ensuring sustainability. Not only is the thermal performance of buildings enhanced this way but stormwater drainage is also curbed. If the quest is pursued collectively as a society, it will lead to biodiversity, cleaning of urban landscape and preservation of various habitats.
Window options
For windows, there is a diverse range of configurations running in the market today. You can try a low e-coating film or a transmission film or a thermal break. You can even improvise with an inert gas fill. Look to achieve thermal mass while designing a new home or redoing it. This can be effectively achieved by allocating all the utility areas towards the west or the south. There is an added advantage. The laundry or the garage, this way, can soak up the harsh afternoon sun on the western flank of your home.
Sustainability
For promoting sustainability, look to maximise cool breezes and reduce the impact of harsh sunlight. Aim for deciduous plantation. This lets the winter sun percolate and offers shade during the summer months. Quite a relief both ways if you look at it!