How should I prioritize green products for my new home or remodel?

May 30th, 2009 by Matthew Leonard

There’s so much out there about being “green” and everybody has an angle on how their product is environmentally friendly.  So when building a new home, where do you get the most bang for your buck?
Let me start by saying that there are a lot of great products out there that minimize their impact on the environment. Recycled glass counter tops, bamboo flooring and no VOC paints. However if you look at a home which will be around for 100 or more years, the counter tops, paint and flooring will get changed as owners change.  The things that won’t are the structure itself and something you may not think about but the performance of the house won’t change either, unless it’s poorly built and air leaks start to open up. Even if great care is taken to minimize jobsite waste and use renewable materials, if the structure wastes even a small amount of energy, that gets multiplied by the number of years that structure exists. So wasted energy can add up to a huge thing over time and not only negate but wipe out any one time positive elements placed in the home.

That’s why building the shell with durable high quality Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), combined with good passive solar design maximized by using high R-value with low or high solar heat gain windows in the right places, maximized foundation, box sills and ceiling insulation all can yield a house that will have a minimal impact on the environment for the life of the home and on your pocket book while you’re living there.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 30th, 2009 at 2:45 am and is filed under Energy Efficiency, Green, Save Money, Structure, Uncategorized.