Thoughtful planning makes any process easier, whether it involves building a new house or something else. Climate change, high energy bills, and receding natural resources are grave concerns facing the human generation. While things are not going to improve in a day, your efforts can eventually make an impact. For example, try to build an energy-efficient home. It would save energy consumption and your hard-earned money too. At the same time, your house will become a comfortable haven. Since utility bills are getting expensive, you can consider this to be a much-needed feature. With such designs and renovations, you can reduce your carbon footprint quickly.
Achieving this will not be a headache if you work on your budget and selection. Explore everything that helps you meet your goal. For example, the reason behind choosing an undermount basin for the new kitchen can be about easy maintenance and care. Similarly, you can think of items that allow you to use fuel, electricity, and other resources smartly while contributing to the aesthetics. Here are a few aspects that can be worth considering in this regard.
Location
When constructing a new home, you have to pay attention to its location, shape, and choice of building materials. All this will impact heating and cooling needs. To be precise, you have to know how much sunlight your house will receive, affecting its temperature. An intelligent design will try to leverage all the angles of the sun. For instance, the sun will be higher during summers and low in winter months.
If you live in a cold place, your windows should attract plenty of sunshine. The position of the home should take advantage of this to bring down heating and cooling bills. A north-side home will have shade in its backyard during summer noontimes, while a south-side house with a north-facing street will get lots of sunlight at its back. South-facing homes generally remain sun-kissed during colder weather.
All these can be a strategy to figure out the best shape and location of your house to avoid the issue of overheating or lack of sunlight.
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Ventilation
It is a must-have ingredient for any comfortable home. Another benefit of this system is the proper utilization of electrical appliances. Since it also helps with indoor air quality, you would want to take care of this. Windows and fans are two critical and healthy components in this. Hence, it is necessary to rely on them. These increase the energy efficiency of your house by ensuring proper air and moisture circulation.
Devices
Advanced technological devices can also come in handy. They consume less energy and perform better than standard appliances. As a result, your electricity bills reduce even more. You can buy items like smart thermostats, bulbs, blinds, AC units, and kitchen tools from americabestappliances.com online for a better price and quality. The latest AC models provide better air conditioning as per the user’s needs. Since most of them use sensors, they can increase or decrease the temperature or even shut off when nobody is in that area, enabling you to save nearly 25% on your monthly bills.
Home protective layer
You cover your smartphone with screen guards and outer covers to protect them against scratches. Building envelope does the same thing for your home. This external structure has a tremendous role to play in the energy efficiency of the house. It shields your abode from weather elements. It will keep your home cool in hot summers and warm in chilly winter. However, what insulation material you use can ultimately define the indoor environment. In this, materials like wood, drywall, glass, veneer, and others become an integral part.
Solar panels
Many American homes are turning to solar energy. If you live in a hot area, you can find this even more beneficial. Maintenance is not an issue. There will be high upfront charges, but you can recover this cost over time. Since solar panels are eco-friendly, the adverse effect of greenhouse gasses will reduce. You can use solar energy for heating bulbs, water, or any other home appliance. For Solar panels installation you can hire the best solar panels companies from Bradenton as they have years of experience in this industry.
Water-saving design
A lot of water gets wasted when you use the shower, washing machine, and others. If you install a system that diverts this water to your garden, you end up reducing water wastage by increasing its use by about 50%. It will affect your water bill also. Greywater recycling systems can be one such solution. Other options for the mindful use of water are leak-free faucets and shower designs.
Lighting
Lighting fixtures affect the consumption of energy. A house needs both interior and exterior lights. Usually, 14% of the utility bills account for this expense. If you want to see an improvement in this, use LEDs and fluorescent bulbs. These produce less heat and more light. Plus, you can expect excellent returns.
Another thing is the window. As hinted at already, windows should get enough natural light to reduce your dependency on electricity in the daytime. Also, choosing aluminum cladding for wooden window frames can be better for its insulation.
Landscaping
It can keep the temperature of your house low by about 6 degrees. With proper shading, it wouldn’t let your home absorb too much heat. Trees and canopies can come in handy for this purpose. Some people use Yellow Buckeye as shade. If you wish, you can also do the same or opt for something else. Experts say that deciduous trees make a fantastic option for stopping summer heat and getting sunshine in colder months. Your job becomes easy since these trees grow in the spring and summer seasons and shed leaves during winter. If you need protection against gusty winds, dense growth can help.
At the time of planting trees, you again have to keep in mind the directions. Trees on the east, west, and south will protect your home from high heat. East trees will cover your house with shadows in the morning and South trees in the mid-morning and early afternoon. The ones on the west will not allow the hot sun to invade your house in the afternoon.
Since it is easier to ensure energy efficiency in new construction, it can be one of the design goals for your dream house.