Your Green Dream Home: First Things To Consider

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Temperature. The mechanism by which your building will maintain a basically stable interior temperature in the face of fluctuating outdoor temperatures.

Separation. How you'll separate your building from the destructive forces of nature (sun, water, wind and life-forms).

Connection. The ways in which your building will keep you in constant connection to those same natural forces — air, water, sunlight — because they are precisely what you need to survive.

Don't Trust Superlatives

While researching the basics, you'll encounter differing opinions. In fact, if you've ever seriously researched anything, then you've learned that experts tend to disagree. In home construction, experts don't just disagree, they sometimes live in alternate universes. I can't think of one basic building topic on which I haven't read credible, yet diametrically opposed opinions: venting, vapor barriers, building materials, insulation values, air exchange — the list continues. Experts debate these things, and best practices go through constant revisions and updates.

Another problem is misinformation. The fact is that many well-meaning people involved in the varied realm of green building see it as a crusade, a battle of good versus evil. In struggling to get people to listen, they can fall prey to painting a picture that's too rosy. The unfortunate result is that you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Heres' just one example: Until recently, it was common to see claims that three-string straw bale walls produce insulation values of up to R-60 (R-value is a measurement of resistance to heat flow). After the excitement cleared and the science floated to the surface, it seems that the more accurate R-value for three-string straw bale walls is in the low 30s. That's wonderful insulation, but it's about half of the original claims. There are similar myths for many other green building systems and materials.

The best protection against this problem is to distrust superlatives. If someone claims that a material or system is easy, cheap or the best, exercise at least a little skepticism. On the other hand, a plethora of useful information and wonderful, knowledgeable people are out there. You have to create a balance between your superior knowledge of your exact situation and the superior experience and general knowledge of experts.

Trust Local Knowledge

Because housing has to fit both the people and the places involved, theories and learning will only take you so far. When looking for guidance, you need to find people who share your green building point of view and have experience with your local environment, both climatic and human.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print