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We explain what a sustainable home is and what its main characteristics are. Construction costs and sustainable prefab houses.
A sustainable home could be described as the embodiment of living comfort and all the principles of green building. In fact, onesustainable homemust be able to meet all modern comfort standards without burdening the environmental balance in terms of:
- material used
- energy requirements
- geographic location
- water consumption
A sustainable home should be designed to ensure a rational use of resources. There should be no lack of management systems and automation for energy saving, as well as systems for self-production of electricity.
Today, the costs of building a sustainable home are much more affordable. Thanks to the diffusion of increasingly innovative materials and greater environmental awareness. Plus, they existsustainable prefab homesmade both in concrete and in the most ecological wood. Before talking about thesustainable prefab house, let's focus on what are the characteristics of green architecture.
Sustainable house, features
When we talk about a sustainable home, we refer to a home that embodies the good principles of green building. We are talking about a house where the inhabitants take an attitude that respects the environment. Descriptively, we can reduce the principles by onesustainable homein 10 simple features.
# 1 - A sustainable home uses renewables
The sun is the oldest energy source we have: in just one hour, the Earth receives from the sun an amount of energy equal to the world consumption of a year. With a solar panel it is possible to produce hot water and satisfy domestic needs. Furthermore, solar cooling is able to cool the house in the esthete as well as heat it up in winter.
In short, with solar energy you can really provide for everything. In the photo above, the photovoltaic district of Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) which has made photovoltaics its strong point.
# 2 - Appliances and ad hoc lighting
Lighting accounts for 20 percent of the world's electricity consumption. LED lamps, even if they cost 10 times more than halogen or incandescent bulbs, last 8 to 10 times longer and consume much less. Those who live in asustainable housingcan contribute to the cause by turning off the bulbs that are not needed, in this way a family could save about 60 euros a year. To further save you can count on home automation with timers or sensors that regulate the switching on and off of lamps.
Not just lighting. Every appliance and appliance should also be appropriately sized. The energy label of the appliances is a good reference point for those who want to furnish one sustainable home.
The appliances of energy class A ++ allow high electrical savings. Smart appliances will have to follow an equally intelligent attitude: putting dishwashers and washing machines on full load will save water up to 8,000 liters per year!
# 3 - A sustainable home is well insulated
Asustainable homefor the environment it is well insulated and does not have heat losses. A house without insulation increases heating and air conditioning costs. The insulation allows to drastically reduce energy consumption.
In fact, most of the principles ofsustainable architecture focus on ensuring good insulation to lower the energy needs of the entire building structure. In this sector, the construction materials and the presence of a suitably designed building envelope are of fundamental importance.
# 4 - The openings of the casing do not affect the bill
The heat can be dispersed above all from the windows: the windows are the weak link in thermal insulation.
A'sustainable housingfeatures smart windows and windows that allow natural lighting and ensure good insulation. By using windows made of insulating material, the house's electrical needs will drop by at least 33 percent.
# 5 - A sustainable home is inhabited by environmentally conscious people
The habits of each inhabitant have a concrete impact on the energy balance of a house. Let's start with the little things like remembering to turn off the LED light that indicates the standby status of televisions, washing machines, microwaves…. up to those more harmful habits such as leaving the fountain open while not using the water.
To overcome the problem of standby consuming electricity, it is best to connect all electrical appliances to a power strip with a switch. When you do not use appliances, just turn off the switch of the central socket and thus save up to 80 euros per year.
# 6 - A sustainable home is designed to handle waste well
It is very sad but in Italy, very few of us sort waste. It is estimated that only 50% of Italian citizens are committed to separate waste collection. Asmart home, reallyecological, puts the inhabitants in a position to manage waste in a simple way, therefore ... in the kitchen, it provides ad hoc compartments to make separate collection without keeping bags and bins here and there!
# 7 - A sustainable home cuts waste
With insulating materials and low energy consumption appliances, electricity wastage is cut, but water and food waste are not limited.
Every year we throw an average of € 9 billion in food in the trash. This is a huge waste of money and resources. Newly designed, low consumption refrigerators are spreading to help draw up a smart shopping list and monitor the expiry date of foods! A valid help not to feed waste.
Not just food and energy, every Italian consumes about 300 liters of water in a day. In a'sustainable housinga water-saving shower head for the shower, a cistern for collecting rainwater and attentive inhabitants must not be missing.
# 8 - A sustainable home has a green space
Idealistically, onesustainable homepresents a green space, a vertical garden or a vegetable garden on the balcony where you can grow and consume at zero km. The extensive or intensive green roof is an optimal solution forsustainable homewhich rises in the city.
The green roof, in addition, offers an excellent degree of insulation for the roof, gives clean air around the perimeter of the house and helps us make the world a better place.
As an alternative to the green roof it is possible to create hanging gardens or vertical gardens like those shown in the photo above: the hanging gardens of One Central Park, Sydney (Australia).
# 9 - Low impact display and placement
Under ideal conditions, onesustainable homeit must have 30-40 per cent of its gross surface facing south in order to maximize solar radiation in winter and avoid overheating in summer.
Not only the exhibition, an ecological house, designed to have a low environmental impact, should be built in an appropriate landscape context. A ecological house it should never be complicit in unauthorized building or due to coastal erosion phenomena, land consumption… it is better to replace old buildings with demolition permit, rather than occupy new land.
# 10 - An ecological house includes sustainable materials for use
Aecological houseit should be made with low environmental impact materials. We are talking about non-toxic materials, safe for the health of the inhabitants and for the environment. Of the materials, undergoing project, it will also be necessary to evaluate the duration or the guarantee of thermal performance. Many insulation materials tend to lose performance within 10 to 20 years, which is too little for a home!
Prefabricated sustainable house, costs
Prefabricated houses can now also be built on projectand you don't have to fish from a "pre-made" catalog! The final price of one sustainable prefab house it can see an average of about 1800 euros per square meter but it can increase or decrease according to the requests of the final user.
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