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Green Home Buying: Getting Techie
Energy Star Homes
An energy efficiency certification program run by the United States EPA. Over 750,000 new homes in the United States are now certified by Energy Star, and typical energy savings are estimated at between $200 and $400 a year. Energy Star features in a home are likely to include snug construction and ducts, effective insulation, efficient cooling and heating equipment, and high-performance windows. Energy Star homes are independently tested. Keep in mind that Energy Star certified homes achieve their ratings by calculating reduced energy use in a home only, and don’t take concepts like reducing the square footage of your home or using environmentally friendly materials into consideration.
HERS Index
The Home Energy Rating System, a scoring system established by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET). The lower a home’s HERS Index, the more energy efficient it is; the score determines whether or not a home qualifies as an Energy Star Home.
Passive solar
Aconstruction technique that aims to use sunlight in its natural form to heat and light a house. Typical features may include large, south-facing windows with low-emission glass, and heavy concrete or stone floors and walls with huge thermal mass. The idea is that the sun heats the house during the day, and the floor and walls store this heat and radiate it out during the night. Careful angling of windows and use of shade-giving blinds or plants can prevent overheating in summer while letting light in during the winter. Passive solar systems require no additional energy to operate and therefore have zero operating costs, emit no greenhouse gases in operation, and usually have low maintenance costs.
Active solar
A collection of technologies that are used in construction to convert solar energy into usable heat, cause air-movement for ventilation or cooling, or store heat for future use. Active solar uses electrical or mechanical equipment, such as pumps and fans, to increase the usable heat in a system; as such, they're more costly to purchase and maintain over time.
Co-housing offers the ideal mix of private home ownership with shared community facilities, such as a common house with guest rooms and a communal kitchen, shared gardens, or nature reserves. When sharing an abode, each family unit can live with less on a day-to-day basis, retain their privacy, and still enjoy the luxury of shared facilities when needed.
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