Home Building Trends for

Todays Eco-friendly Home

Top 10 Home
Building Trends
for Todays
Eco-friendly Home
A rising trend of new superefficient, green homes has taken
center stage amidst a woeful housing market and skyrocketing energy
costs. A recent Yahoo! Real Estate study found that 50 percent of 1,545 U.S.
adults polled said they want a green home. Even large national builders such as
DR Horton have jumped on the green bandwagon. But what really makes a
house Green? Does adding a couple solar panels make a home green? The
answer to that is a resounding no. Truly sustainable houses operate as a highly
coordinated organism in which each part and assembly contributes to the
performance of the building as a whole. Ultimately houses are only as green as
the worst performing part. For instance, a house fitted with all the latest and
greatest green technologies but lacking insulated windows will see little energy
savings. That is why green homes tend to cost more upfront because it is not a
matter of upgrading one or two parts and assemblies or slapping on a few solar
panels. Every single assembly and material application must meet the same high
standards and operate together as a unit.

50 percent of 1,545 U.S. adults polled said

they want a green home.
--- Yahoo! Real Estate
Photographs shown within this whitepaper feature the homes from Native located in communities across Austin and Central Texas.

10 Prevalent Trends In Eco-friendly Homes Today

Locally-sourced materials
Eco-friendly homes take into account the
entire life cycle of the construction process.
This means that the source of materials is
just as crucial as material selection and
actual construction. In general, it is more
sustainable to select locally sourced
materials and assemblies. This reduces the
need for highly unsustainable truck-based
transportation. No matter how ecofriendly the home is designed, sourcing wood from the virgin forests of
northern Alaska and importing Egyptian marble wont be doing much for the
environment.

Low volatile organic

compounds (VOC) content
Eco-friendly homes are as much
about preserving the health of
the environment as they are
about promoting the health of
the occupants. Traditional
homes often employ pressedwood products and paints that
contain volatile organic
compounds (VOC) such as formaldehyde, an
invisible product of off-gassing and a known carcinogen. Eco-friendly homes
employ materials low in such toxic compounds.

Photographs shown within this whitepaper feature the homes from Native located in communities across Austin and Central Texas.

Natural ventilation
Eco-friendly homes also take
advantage of natural ventilation to
maintain good air quality and help
cool the building during relatively
mild weather. Natural ventilation
techniques such as solar-induced
ventilation, or stack effect, can be
used to cool hot air that
accumulates in the attic. It
operates on the principle that hot air rises and cold air
descends (convection).

Greywater reuse
Greywater is wastewater
generated from domestic
activities such as laundry,
dishwashing, and bathing,
which can be recycled on-site
for uses such as landscape
irrigation. Most homes simply
dispose of recyclable
greywater along with waste
from toilets. This is a huge
waste of reusable water that,
while not potable, is more
than adequate for watering plants
and eliminates the wasteful use of clean water for irrigation. In fact, greywater
often contains highly nutritious organic particles that can nourish vegetation.

Photographs shown within this whitepaper feature the homes from Native located in communities across Austin and Central Texas.

Xeriscaping
Another way to significantly
reduce water usage is to
cultivate regionally adapted
plants that simply dont
drink as much water. A
typical 25 feet by 40 feet
yard can drink up to 10,000
gallons each summer. In
many arid areas of the
United States, such as
California and Texas, this
has been ecologically disastrous
and has resulted in strict water-rationing laws.

Double-pane/triple-pane windows
Windows are fundamental components of a
home that let in light and views. On the flip
side, they also tend to be woefully
inadequate barriers of heat and cold.
Nearly 20% of heat loss occurs through
windows. During summer days,
unmanaged solar gain through windows
creates an enormous heat load that must
be removed through air-conditioning. There are two important
values to keep in mind: the solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) and the U-factor. The
SHGC operates on a scale from 0 to 1 where 0 means no heat gain and 1 is
maximum heat gain. The U-factor is a ratio that measures the rate of heat loss. In
both cases, the lower the number, the more efficient, and thus green the window.

Photographs shown within this whitepaper feature the homes from Native located in communities across Austin and Central Texas.

Geothermal
Geothermal (also known as ground
source) heat pumps offer significant
(greater than 2x) efficiency over
traditional air source heat pumps. A
ground source heat pump utilizes
water, which is cooled by the earth
in 250-300 deep vertical holes, to
dissipate the heat generated by the
compression of refrigerant. In
comparison, an air source unit attempts to cool the
compressor by blowing ambient outside air over it. When considering a zero energy
home, geothermal is a key feature to minimize the energy load requirements.

Smart monitoring systems

CES Smart Electrical Panels offer
complete energy management. These
panels will help save on overall energy
consumption through better usage
planning of lights, heating and
cooling, and other energy-consuming
systems. They also offer important
value-added services to residents
and tenants such as proactive
appliance maintenance. The panels will provide visibility to energy
consumption and savings. And the system will adapt to the electricity demands and
time of use pricing structures. Even better, the homes energy usage can be viewed
and controlled through a web based user interface.

Photographs shown within this whitepaper feature the homes from Native located in communities across Austin and Central Texas.

Quality insulation
Insulation is key. Insulation is
measured by its R-value. The best
insulation is spray foam insulation
because it fills all cracks and
crevices, thus creating a better
barrier not unlike the insulated
interior of a cooler.

Solar PVs
A well-designed, well-built home without energy generation can get pretty close to
net-zero energy efficiency, and energy generation takes it over the top. With solar
panel production costs at an all-time low,
generous federal tax credits, and local
rebates have made solar panels an
attractive way of achieving energy
independence and making a little bit of
money on the side.

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Photographs shown within this whitepaper feature the homes from Native located in communities across Austin and Central Texas.