There are many ways to ensure your home is energy efficient, and plenty of benefits - not only can it reduce your bills, but also your carbon footprint.
In Part One of Practical Ways of Building an Energy Efficient Home on the Sunshine Coast, we will look at building smaller, choosing solar power, and cooling your roof.
Build Smaller
There are usually three options when building your energy efficient home on the Sunshine Coast - build a large home using sustainable principles, opt for a tiny home to save money, or build smaller using creative design techniques.
Unfortunately, no matter how green you build a large home, a smaller home with the same energy efficient and eco-friendly construction techniques will have less of an environmental impact and while “tiny homes” are popular, they can restrict your choices. The good news is that building smaller doesn’t mean that you need to compromise your lifestyle, by using creative design principles you can make your dream home plans have a smarter yet smaller carbon footprint.
Smaller housing options are becoming popular because of their efficiency, reduced maintenance costs and lower impact, and are being planned in both urban and rural settings. The Shed House can help you make thoughtful decisions about how you use your space when planning and building your home, based around your lifestyle, keeping the space manageable and cost effective.
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Go Solar
The sun is the ultimate source of clean, low-cost energy. When you build an energy efficient home on the Sunshine Coast, you have a unique opportunity to plan for solar power use in a way that owners of older homes cannot. By making solar power native technology in your new home, you can take advantage of light, positioning and geography to get the most efficiency and energy for your investment.
How you situate your home on its lot and where you place solar panels can have a significant impact on the power you collect. When you combine solar power with other green building ideas, you can generate enough energy to start selling back to your utility company. In fact, by law utilities are required to purchase excess power from grid-connected home solar systems at a rate equal to what it costs the power provider to produce power itself. If that isn’t incentive enough, there also are grants, tax breaks and other government incentives related to the use of solar power in your home.
Cool Your Roof
The material used on your roof can make a dramatic difference in your home’s energy efficiency. You may want to consider a product that reflects the sun’s energy away from the roof, cools faster at night and holds less heat in order to help reduce energy costs and usage related to heat. A couple of products available with varying degrees of green benefits include special membranes and lighter coloured metal roofing. Ask The Shed House about other ways to cool your roof.