Act Green Blog

Archive for the ‘Green Building’ Category

Green home is synonymous with healthy family. If you design your home green, then you have already ensured that your loved one are well guarded. With green home designs, you can be assured of a durable flooring that needs no remodeling for years. This saves money and harassment both. Green home designs should include the use of non-toxic paint and sealants as much as possible for cleaner air to breathe.

You can go for the lumber that is certified by the environmentalists as safe. When you think of building green home, the initial costs may be high but in the long run it saves money. You can utilize wind and sunlight to generate power in your green home. This reduces cost of electricity bills. The Gray water system is another green home design that recycles the use of water from one part of the household to the other. All these minimize your cost and make you happy.

Green roofing is good for your family and also our planet. With the signs of global warming, we must do our bits like roofing with eco-friendly material. Some green roofing solutions for your home are:

• Using the Spanish Roof Slate:
Slate is a natural roofing material that doesn’t harm the environment as it born out of nature. Installing these will cut your cost at it needs no regular maintenance and is very durable.

• Using living roofs:
Suck kind of roofs are layered with plants and grasses that also reduce your heating and cooling costs. In summer, they provide an insulation that makes your home cooler and warmer during winters. You can even use it for gardening purposes if you have less space around you.

• Using metal roofs and solar panels:
Metal roofs are green options as they can be made out of recycled materials. Using solar panels are another great idea to reduce electricity bills and go completely green.

These green roofing solutions are amazing ways to reduce toxic around us for a healthy living.

Green household requires considering a few things. Some tips for a green household are:

• While remodeling, always remember to make use of sunlight, wind currents, shade to the optimum
• Call remodeling professionals who use green products and are licensed for that.
• Recycle woods from the existing structure and also use building materials made from recycled products.
• Use appliance with Energy Star rating is highly efficient as it uses less energy; this also reduces your cost.
• Use carpets made from non-toxic material and not the ones that allow bacteria to breed.
• Installing insulated doors and windows, using solar panels to heat water etc are some of the technique to go green.
• Attic and wall insulation with green technology is the best way to save energy.
• Most importantly, allow lighting that saves energy like compact fluorescent lights.
• Don’t forget to install HVAC system that is energy efficient.

Getting a green household is the need of the hour for our wellness.

Green home renovation requires a lot of thinking and effective use of material. It is not necessary that you need to renovate your entire home yourself! There are professionals who will do that properly and effectively. What are the things that you need to consider during the whole process?

• While green home renovation, make sure you abstain from lead based paints and use low VOC paints.
• Make use of green materials like wood. If the Forest Stewardship Council certifies it, it is safe.
• Use construction items made form recycled goods like plastic, wood etc.
• Besides using eco friendly material while renovating, stress on installing skylights for letting in natural sunlight.
• Use solar energy to heat water and outdoor pool. This also reduces your electricity bills.
• Incorporate natural insulation in your home, this is energy efficient.

Green home renovation not only requires eco-friendly products, but also an attitude to say yes to the power of ‘green’.

The desire to switch over to the solar power is increasing day by day as we are becoming the slaves of power companies by paying heavy bills. Our lifestyle is tied to the power supply and with the depleting resources the focus has shifted towards solar power which is never ending. With the recent state of solar technology it I snow much easier to convert the solar power. If you want to make the conversion simpler you can hire a professional to manage the task but this involves large investment and is expensive so the best way to do so is to build the solar panels by yourself.

Building the solar panels yourself can greatly reduce the cost and it becomes very easy for anyone to convert the solar power. You can save your pocket and go green just by reducing usage, determining the energy usage, building panels and getting an electrician to fix it for your house.

The size of your solar equipments depends on the energy consumption of a family. There are some people, who think that solar equipments are expensive, but if some things are taken care of, you can get better out of the solar power energy utilization.

Using energy efficient bulbs and lights in home can help in reduction of electricity usage and you can turn over to get the cheaper billing for use of electricity, than before.

Lowering the temperature of thermostat can help for the reduction of electric consumption.

Usage of switch water heaters also helps in many cases. The best way is to cover your hot water tank in an insulated place and decrease the thermostat level, to the least one possible. This reduces the usage of extra electricity.

Turn off the lights and fans, not required at a particular time. Make it a habit to switch off the electrical equipments, before leaving any room.

Little changes in your life style can lead to less usage of electricity and hence, less cost will be incurred for the solar power equipments.

Green building is a phenomenon that aims at instilling environmental-friendly practices in contractors and others involved in construction of buildings. Some of these trends that have been adopted include: substituting cement with other materials that are less toxic. These include fly ash, rice hull, silica fume and slag. Just like cement these materials are durable but cause no adverse effects on the environment. Another trend is use of low or no volatile organic compounds paints that are a major air pollutant. An alternative is the latex-based paints.

Another trend is use of bamboo for making floors as opposed to the hardwoods. Bamboos are beautiful and grow very fast. Further still, builders can incorporate equipment used for harvesting and storing rain water in the buildings as this reduces demand on the country’ s water supply. Installing of solar panels is also a green building practice as it makes use of the sun-a natural resource.

Using green building products will not only help in protecting the environment but will also reduce the land field expansion. If you are considering a renovation in your home, then the best thing you need to do is buying green building products most of which are recycled materials.

For this, you have to find out a building contractor who has specialty in using green products only. He will not only be able to use the products more efficiently and usefully, he will also suggest you which products are suitable for your kind of home and which are the latest green building products coming up in the market.

Also make sure that the products that you are purchasing are really green, because there may be product manufacturers that may claim their products to be green but actually, they are not. You can also visit a nearby green products store so that you can choose the products as per your individual choices and requirements.

The world is increasingly becoming more and more environment conscious and scientists and researchers are doing their best to help save a little bit of energy from here and there. It has been proved in latest green building innovations that houses made up of wood remain cool without the need of extensive air conditioning. This will help in saving not only your electricity bills but will also help in saving electricity that is already on the brink of getting exhausted very soon.

Because green building innovations focus on using natural sources of energy and materials, no harmful chemicals and toxic substances are involved in them, and in this way, a safer and healthier living environment is created for the home owners.

Made up of natural substances and materials, green building technologies also create a natural look and feel to your home, making it aesthetically very appealing, attracting, warm and comfortable.

Green building, in other words, the construction of highly energy efficient office buildings, hospitals, schools, etc., may not be as popular in headlines as global warming or renewable energy, but it is no less important in the fight against climate change.

Thomas Friedman outlined the underlying problem in his new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. He discussed the importance of switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs, recycling, and being as energy efficient as possible. But then Friedman inserts a reality check, identifying several growing cities in Asia. Some small cities in China are booming with population growth, new construction, and with thousands of new cars on the road each week. Any of the progress made here at home with improved recycling and energy efficient light bulbs just went down the drain.

During the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, there must be a strong emphasis on the benefits of training laborers to build buildings and infrastructure of new and growing cities to be highly energy efficient. Without new growth becoming energy efficient, or better yet, having a net of zero emissions, no significant progress will ever be made to fight global climate change