Building an eco friendly home

A truly ecologically friendly home needs to take into account both the construction phase and the workings of the completed home. The materials that go into constructing your eco friendly home should be as low impact as possible, as should your building methods. The home itself needs to be constructed so that you can use as little energy as possible, to be easily cleanable with non toxic methods, and to minimise water use.

Building your eco friendly home

The catchphrase, 'reduce, reuse, recycle' is really the cornerstone of eco friendly living, and applies to building too. As far as possible, reduce the amount of materials and energy used to build your home. Unless you have six children, you probably will not need the most enormous house. The smaller the building, the less impact it will have.

Reuse materials as much as possible. Second hand building materials are easy to source (check the Yellow Pages or the internet for dealers near you), and usually add charm and individuality to a home. Most are in excellent condition, and will cost you and the environment a fraction of the price of new, as they do not require more mining, energy use, felling timber, processing, and other practices to make.

Wherever possible use recycled materials for building if you cannot source used ones. Ensure that any materials you use can be recycled eventually.

Eco friendly building & energy usage

An eco friendly home should be conservative in its energy needs, particularly for heating and cooling. Building orientation, building materials and insulation are all vital components in achieving this.

• Build your home with the main door and windows facing north, for maximum heating from the sun in winter and protection from it in summer
• Consider utilising building materials which are good insulators. Rammed earth, straw, mudbricks, steel and similar materials can be a cheaper and far more energy efficient way to build than using brick veneer
• Insulate your home as a priority. Skimping on this now will cost dearly in heating and cooling in the future, and create lots of those horrid black CO2 balloons!
• Be creative! A roof covering of earth, perhaps even a living roof with plants in it, is excellent insulation
• Install solar heating and even electricity if you can. Current rebates make solar hot water very affordable, even free

Eco friendly home building & water usage

You can reduce water use dramatically by installing greywater systems for watering, composting or at least low water use toilets, low use shower heads, and a rainwater tank in your new home.

Your eco friendly home

Building a new home literally doesn't need to cost the earth! Planning around 'reduce reuse and recycle' in the building process, as well as building in design elements to reduce energy and water consumption can make a big difference to your environmental impact. Even better, you will end up with a stylish, unique home and teeny power and water bills.