“Green building” homes to be more energy efficient, even power independent, is something that has really increased in popularity these days, as more and more people are realizing the effects that our energy consumption has on the planet, from the rising costs of energy expenses. , and even where we get our energy and fuels from. There are a few angles of approach to getting to energy efficiency, and truth be told, taking them all is the best and most efficient way to achieve this goal. What are some of these approaches?

The many ways to go green by building a home towards energy efficiency, or indeed, energy independence, can be seen as coming primarily from four main areas: Sun, Earth, Water, and Wind. This almost brings to mind the philosophical elements of the alchemists, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, not very far, actually, in the alchemy of energy conservation. Of course, when it comes to the sun, we have solar energy, either active or passive. The Earth would be geothermal energy, and the other two are even more obvious. Let’s look at geothermal…

For green building a house to use geothermal energy, a great way to use this also takes water into account. Sending simple water pipes a few feet underground under the house to circulate inside the house and back underground and back inside again is a great way to heat and cool your house and your water at the same time. Former US President Bush’s home in Texas uses this same technology and has for years; many houses in northern Canada do as well. This is a great example of “green building”. Homes that have this type of technology installed can basically run off the grid, as far as heating and cooling air and water are concerned.

Solar energy, as I mentioned before, can be both active and passive. The active form uses solar panels, which these days are much more efficient than decades ago, and also much less expensive, and the passive form is usually built into the green building of the house itself: its general shape, how expensive, the exposure of windows, the use of convection envelope designs in the structure of the house itself using a “double hull” design, etc. Building green homes with these designs in mind has a much smaller impact on our environment and also helps to erase the huge “carbon footprint” we have left on Earth.

Wind and water are other angles of focus, whether you use windmills or water wheels to generate electricity, or maybe even both at once. These systems typically use a battery with a few cells, such as those used in cars, or a single cell, such as those used in forklifts, to store the energy created for continuous use. Using all of these angles of approach, we can see how building green homes with all of them in use can create a fully energy efficient home, even energy independent living.