Thursday, December 17, 2020

17 of the Best Books About Sustainable Home Design

This book presents a comprehensive overview of sustainable housing, starting from legislation and ending with the design and configuration of homes. A simple, clear, thorough, and complete explanation of basic building science applicable to any building in any climate. This book also includes sections on designing building enclosures, indoor air quality, choosing heating and cooling systems, and how to ventilate, heat, and cool different types of buildings. Beyond simply being energy-efficient, net-zero homes produce as much energy as they consume and are carbon neutral. In The New Net Zero, sustainable architect Bill Maclay charts the path for designers, builders, and homeowners interested in exploring eco-friendly home design’s new net-zero frontier.

building a sustainable home book

Going with the flow of our culture is hard to avoid, and unfortunately the flow is not in the right direction for evolving a sustainable future. One of the most momentous choices that any of us will make is the kind of house we live in. I have come up with a list of thirteen principles of sustainable architecture that can guide you in your housing choices. Living-future.org The Living Building Challenge framework will help you to create buildings that generate more energy than they use, capture and treat all water on site, and are made using healthy materials. Christopher Briley is principal architect at BRIBURN, a firm that designs and creates spaces that are energy efficient, durable, and environmentally friendly and that enhance the lives of their residents.

Education

The fact that doing the right thing is a motivating factor reflects a fundamental optimism in our future. Not only do we have to believe that one’s individual purchasing decisions can make a difference, we have to believe that humans can exist in harmony with nature. And that philosophical outlook is possibly the single best thing about the sustainability movement. While there are some examples of homes in the United States that have achieved or come close to achieving true sustainability , it is rare, difficult, and expensive. We did not aspire to achieve this BHAG ¹ because frankly, it sounded too hard, too expensive, and too unrealistic.

building a sustainable home book

Josh shows how to create a family home that is comfortable year-round, without the need for air conditioning or additional heating, how to integrate solar power to cover household needs, and how to reduce water usage by integrating rainwater tanks and greywater recycling systems. He also discusses how to cleverly incorporate organic food production in the garden while maintaining a highly attractive space that improves health and wellbeing. Illustrated throughout with photos, plans, charts, diagrams and useful statistics and measurements, The Sustainable House Handbook is an accessible, easy-to-follow resource for anyone planning their dream house, or thinking about how to live more sustainably. Sustainable housing is generally used to describe housing that is environmentally friendly and resource-efficient over the lifetime of the building. Homes are designed to have the least possible negative impact on the environment. This means energy efficiency, avoiding environmental toxins, and responsibly using materials and resources while having positive physical and psychological effects on inhabitants.

Designing Proven, Practical Homes

The quality is excellent and for this low price and 100% Money back guarantee, you have nothing to lose. Select the right-sized mechanical systems and incorporate renewable energy sources to achieve long term comfort and savings. It’s the perfect jumping-off point for those not yet familiar with the concept of compact living — and don’t let the relatively small size fool you. Their partnership with 1% for the Planet ensures that their donations are legitimate—no greenwashing here!

Anyone who even considers building or remodeling a home knows that the number of decisions a homeowner has to make, from architects and builders to styles, materials, windows, and furnishings, can be mind-numbing. But anyone—a client, designer or builder—can pick up thePretty Good Housebook and get a good idea of how to build a beautiful, efficient, right-sized home made of the right materials. It's all reasonable, sensible, useful information written by experienced designers and builders who actually know how to communicate. Provides a framework and set of guidelines for building or renovating a high-performance home that focus both on its inhabitants and the environment—but keeps in mind that few people have pockets deep enough to achieve a “perfect” solution. The essential idea is for homeowners to work within their financial and practical constraints both to meet their own needs and do as much for the planet as possible.

Charles Bloszies, Old Buildings, New Designs: Architectural Transformations (Architecture Briefs)

Our architect and builder could give advice, but they stood to benefit financially from green choices that cost more up front, because their fee was a percentage of total construction costs. So they were motivated, consciously or subconsciously, to encourage us to spend more. To me, that seemed like a conflict of interest, at least in the area of objective advice. And while they were quite skilled in their field, they did not perform cost/benefit analyses for me.

From heating and cooling solutions to wind energy systems, solar paneling, thermal glazing, and even Trombe walls, the ideas featured inside are complemented by photographs and architectural plans of gorgeous, sustainable houses around the world. If you’re looking for details about building a green home, this isn’t the book for you. But, if you’re looking for inspiration, you’ll find more than your fair share in this 504 page tome. There’s a little something for everyone in this tale of what makes a home truly water-wise. In this book you’ll find crystal-clear DIY guidance for the planning, design, and implementation of different systems, with gorgeous and relevant illustrations at every turn.

Download Sustainable Housing Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

(In reality, we have learned that nothing about a home is low maintenance, so that should not be anyone’s expectation.) The financial benefit is that we spend less money and time replacing things that wear out quickly. So, we decided that any house we built would be as healthy and sustainable as possible and fit within our budget and program requirements. I had already been educating myself on sustainable design, going to workshops and trade shows, and subscribing to magazines and newsletters on green building. This was my opportunity to find out how the green products available in the marketplace would play out in a real home. 150 Best Sustainable House Ideas features the latest innovations in environmentally friendly home design.

building a sustainable home book

My love for nature and the outdoors, the place where my soul is nourished, necessitates caring for Mother Earth. So the seeds of a green lifestyle were sown in my genes and my upbringing. But it was when I became a mother that a new, fiercely focused dedication to creating a healthy home for my family sprouted. Have you found yourself wondering what the benefits to prefab homes are? Koones spends plenty of time dispelling the myths surrounding prefabricated homes, in an approachable manner that would appeal to even the biggest skeptics.

Associations Look to Magazines to Enhance Membership Experience

When we started this process in 2008, only about five hundred homes had been LEED certified. As of October 2017, more than twenty thousand homes have been LEED certified, with 30 percent at the certified level, 30 percent at silver, 23 percent at gold, and 17 percent at platinum. My goal for our home was to reach at least silver, hopefully gold, but never platinum. I figured that those homes that reach the platinum level were simply spending too much money—paying a lot more for relatively minor benefits, just to achieve the highest level. I wanted to be at the top of the curve, not at the point of diminishing marginal returns.

A highly illustrated, practical handbook, covering the different methods of sustainable and eco-friendly construction. Circularecology.com offers a downloadable database of embodied energy and carbon footprint data for various building materials. Custommade.com This infographic explians in some detail the value of the LEED program for evaluating green buildings. Buildingscience.com has a searchable database of articles about building physics, systems design concepts, and awareness of sustainability.

We had registered the project with the United States Green Building Council , the organization that runs LEED, and performed all the necessary requirements during the design and construction process. But even after we moved into our home in early 2009, we still needed to figure out which points we earned and submit all the documentation for final review and approval. And by we, I mean me, because I was the only one who really wanted a LEED certified home. There’s a powerful connection between individual building design choices and the global energy and environmental crises — and world-renowned author Carl Stein provides the perfect explanation.

building a sustainable home book

It’s extremely visual, drawing its core strength from well-executed photographic essays rather than words. Each of the 64 stunning projects featured in this book are documented completely, through their many gorgeous photographs as well as architectural drawings, illustrations, and floor and site plans. Anyone seeking to boost the sustainability factor of their next project is sure to find bountiful inspiration in this nearly 600-page read. May be focused on living small, but it’s clear that the author is not afraid to think big.

Continuing Education Credits Available

Feeling good about it rests on the premise that there is something to feel bad about how we, as humans, have been behaving as it pertains to consumption choices. While not quite pervasive across the entire American psyche, this consumption guilt is a growing trend as people become more educated about global climate change, air pollution, scarce natural resources, water pollution, and how all of this affects our food supply and health. Is far from a how-to guidebook — and truthfully, very different than the other books we’ve included here — but it provides the perfect visualization of the positive impact that eco green building trends have on the planet. If you’re wondering whether your green design choices will really make a difference, you’ll find the answer here. This book is written by leaders in the housing industry that really know building science, sustainability, and health for homes.

Energyconservationinfo.org has numerous links with descriptions about alternative construction and energy. Mcdonough.com William McDonough's site features articles by and about him and his radical ideas for transforming design into an art of creating no waste. Homebuilding.co.uk The A-Z of Green Homes from the UK's Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine. The books shown below are arranged according to when they were published, with the most recent ones at the top. 2+ hours of video lessons, digital construction graphics, expert guests, live round-table discussion, and Q&A.

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