5 Fresh Tips for Designing a Sustainable Home
You’ve heard of solar panels and energy-efficient windows, but these considerations are just as crucial when building an eco-friendly home.
Opting for sustainable design not only helps the environment but also benefits your wallet. By spending less on heating, cooling, and lighting in your home, you can do more with your budget and feel good about your environmental impact in the process.
While choosing energy-efficient windows and installing solar panels serve as obvious strategies for shrinking your carbon footprint, there are also plenty of other, lesser-discussed tips for designing a sustainable home. As you work with your home design team to create the custom home of your dreams, keep these considerations in mind.
High-Quality Materials
One way to make your new home more sustainable and eco-friendly? Build something that will last. While many big box builders are willing to cut corners and opt for cheaper materials in order to cut costs, with custom building you have the power to choose high-quality builders and long-lasting materials. By building the exact home you truly want, just the way you want it, you also reduce waste over time by foregoing the renovation trash and wastefulness that too often comes with buying an existing home.
With Atmos, buyers have the opportunity to choose from vetted builders that align with their specific home vision, location, and priorities. With the guidance of your dedicated Project Manager, you can take a streamlined path to choosing the most sustainable options for your new home.
Smart Appliances
Smart features help make homes more convenient, but they also allow for more targeted, energy efficient practices. The latest heating and cooling technology, for example, allows homeowners to select the exact zones they’d like to keep within a certain temperature range. That means no more keeping the storage room at a comfy 68 degrees in the summer heat, and no more heating the unused guest bedroom to a cozy temperature in the winter months.
With the specificity and easy targeting of smart appliances and zoned thermostats, users can save big on energy use. This advantage extends to smart lighting and even outdoor uses like drip irrigation for the garden. The daily impacts of these developments may appear small at first glance, but they add up to make a lasting difference.
Insulation
It’s not as flashy as solar panels or smart appliances, but insulation is still the core of sustainable and eco-friendly home design. Keeping the temperature-controlled air from escaping your home is crucial no matter the weather. Proper insulation around doors and windows, in attics and roofing systems, and throughout the walls and foundation can work wonders for keeping your energy investments efficient and effective. This is the same reason energy-efficient windows are key: without them, households lose 25-30% of their heating and cooling energy, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Outdoor Elements
Solar panels, insulation, and smart technology go a long way in creating a sustainable and eco-friendly home, but outdoor features play just as large a role in these efforts. For example, draining away resources on watering huge lawns full of grass species that don’t benefit the ecosystem can do real harm over time — both to your wallet and the environment.
In designing your landscaping, consider incorporating a variety of native plant and flower species that will benefit the local bees and butterflies. Opting for a pesticide-free yard allows nature to thrive in your outdoor space. Better yet, grow a garden to boost the self-sustaining properties of your home.
Taking steps to care for the environment and connect to nature can not only save you money over time, but also benefit your overall joy in nature and your home. There’s no one size fits all in working toward eco-friendly and sustainable living — just like every person and family has differing needs when it comes to homebuilding! Decide what works and resonates for you, and design your dream home to fit your eco-friendly vision. With Atmos, design a home based on your unique needs and priorities. Get started today!
