Your home is your safe zone. Every person finds sanctuary and peace from the hectic world in their homes they built with utmost care & love.
Well, above is the philosophy with which every human on this earth builds their dream house. But are we building our homes to be energy efficient? Energy-efficient apartments and homes are a buzzword heard these days. Many homeowners complain of hefty amounts of energy consumption charges burning holes in their wallets. So incorporate the tips given below to build an elegant home that is equally comfortable and energy-efficient.
Contents
Heat Insulation is Crucial
The highest amount of heat loss occurs due to improper heat insulation. Home insulation helps you create a comfortable interior despite the temperature outside. There are many innovative ways to insulate your home. The main focus is to seal your internal walls, ceilings & floors with an insulation rating up to an R-value of R20. The idea here is to maintain heat dissipation into interior spaces to a minimum. You may use thicker wall constructions, insulated concrete forms and blown-in foam all are viable solutions to achieve an energy-efficient home.
Here are some of the materials to insulate your home:
Slab insulation
The slabs are made of sawdust, cellular rubber, mineral wool, and corkboard. These slabs are fixed to roofs & walls to ensure heat is not lost & maintain the temperature in the room.
Blanket insulation
Blanket insulation is made of cotton, wood fibers or animal hair are available in the form of paper rolls or blanket shape which is directly fixed on the wall or ceilings.
Batt insulation materials
Batt insulating materials are similar to blanket insulation but batt insulation is thicker than blanket materials. These are also spread on the ceilings or walls to prevent heat dissipation.
Reflective sheet materials
Reflective sheet materials have high reflectivity & low emissivity. These materials have high heat resistance. The reflective materials are fixed outside the building structure to prevent heat entrance into the building. These materials help heat reduction once the solar energy strikes and reflect from the reflective material.
Energy Saving Tips Without Using Insulation Material
Here are some methods that help in heat insulation without using insulation material:
Roof shading
Constructing roof shading for the building at the areas where sun rays directly hit the building in the peak hours helps to decrease heat. The roof shading should be placed in particular angles to offer shading from the sunlight.
Orientation of building
It is always said that you need to construct your home building concerning the layout of your land. The layout of your land depicts the orientation of the sun and also the direction of the wind on your land. So, construct your homes keeping in check the orientation of the sun to warm up your homes during winter & let the cool wind blow away the heat in summer.
Heat recovery
Heat recovery is an integral part of the design of energy-efficient homes. Incorporating technologies such as wastewater heat recovery systems & flue gas heat recovery systems can help you save a lot of money.
Use LED lighting
The lighting you use plays a major role in deciding how energy efficient your home is. Incandescent & fluorescent lightings result in high amounts of heat losses. So LED lightings are an efficient way to reduce heat loss & help you save a lot of money.
Maintain air tightness
Your dream for an energy-efficient home is a combination of finer details. The gaps between the doors, vents, floors, ducts, sills, and joints are major reasons behind air loss in your homes. You need to ensure that you must use weather stripping, caulking & door sweeps to maintain the right temperature inside your home. It is very important to build an effective ventilation system. You can reduce cooling & heating costs for your home by ensuring you ventilate right & ensure you seal every gap possible.
Shading
Find ways to keep your home cool using ways to shade the spaces. Try using pergolas, window awnings, vertical gardens, and green roofs to keep your home cool in the summer.
Thermal mass
The building material you use for construction also decides how energy efficient your home is. Choose high-density materials like tiles, bricks & concrete that store heat. These materials help significantly reduce heating & cooling bills.
Glazing
You may gain a lot of heat through windows. It is recommended to reduce the size & number of windows on the western and eastern walls of the house. Place the largest windows most likely double glazed windows on the northern wall of the house. Curtains or blinds on the windows also increase thermal comfort.
Add skylights
Try getting natural lighting into your internal spaces by using clerestory & skylights. The skylights help you avoid using artificial lights thus reducing energy bills. Skylights also keep your homes cool during summer.
Proper ventilation
Try adding maximum cross-ventilation by adding well-positioned doors & windows. Proper ventilation helps in maintaining air circulation inside closed spaces. Ventilation offers cool internal spaces during summer reducing the need for fans & air conditioners.
House layout
Ask your architect to come up with house plans without mezzanine levels & voids. Houses with voids & mezzanine are very difficult to heat & you will have to look for expensive heating options. Closed off spaces are an efficient layout for energy-efficient homes.
Use mirrors
You may use mirrors as decorative pieces to reflect natural lighting inside the house. Mirrors are big-time decorative elements that light up homes as well as they make you feel your internal spaces maximized.
Energy-efficient appliances
Buy appliances that have a higher rating so that power consumption is less. You may check for water efficiency labeling schemes when you buy you washing machines & dishwashers. Avoid using dryers to dry clothes. Dry your clothes under the sun.
Solar power
Power your homes with solar panels. Use the energy of the sun to light, heat, cool and run your appliances in your home. The initial installation cost of solar panels may seem costly but when you consider the hefty amount of energy consumption bills, the initial cost of solar panels is negligible.
Landscaping
Let greenery surround your home. Plant native plants to keep your surroundings cool and protected from wind & sun. Reduce usage of water by planting drought-tolerant plants in your garden. Landscaping helps in improving the energy efficiency of your home. Planting trees on the south & west side of your home offers cooling shades during summer and lets sunlight heat your home passively during winter as the leaves fall off during the autumn.
Final thoughts
Designing a home that is comfortable and energy-efficient may seem scary. But, your home is a lifelong investment you make. The lifelong running cost of a home is not a simple thing. To reduce your home maintenance expenditure use smart ideas that we stated above to build the best energy-efficient homes.
