Green Home Designs

Dome homes are made with concrete and steel rebar. This concrete is thoroughly insulated from the inside out, which allows the heat to be stored inside for use at a later date. Dome homes require only about half of the energy use as conventional homes. The isolating shell on the outside of the concrete keeps the temperature steady, which results...

Wattle and daub (or wattle-and-daub) is a building material used for making walls, in which a woven lattice of wooden strips called wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6,000 years, and...

Cord wood construction is basically using firewood that is cut to a specified dimension as fill for a mortar supported wall. Think of it like this, instead of using bricks, you use wood. Cord wood walls vary in thickness from 8 to about 16 inches depending on the weather conditions prevalent in the area. In colder areas, a thicker wall...

Since adobe is essentially an inert material, the "toxic" content of the structure is hugely reduced. This makes adobe construction, when feasible, a very attractive Green Living alternative. Adobe construction is a reasonable way to achieve sustainable living spaces appropriate for us and the...

Cob is a mixture of earth, straw, sand, and water. It's been around for thousands of years, and is used in New Zealand, Africa, Central America, Europe, Asia, and just about everywhere. Have you seen the photos of those charming little cottages that dot the landscape of Ireland? Most of those are made of cob. They are coated with a...

Bamboo has inspired human beings for millennia, and has been a benefit to people throughout the world. It has been used as a building material with the strength of steel; for writing and musical instruments, fuel, food, and medicinal products, just to name a few. 1500 varieties of bamboo grow naturally throughout the world’s tropical and...

A zero energy building (ZEB) or net zero energy building is a general term applied to a building’s use with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. Zero energy buildings can be used autonomous from the energy grid supply – energy can be harvested on-site. The net zero design principle is overlayed on...

Enertia is energy made useful by a shift-in-Time. In the 1980’s Architectural Inventor Michael Sykes coined the term “Enertia” for the useful energy that can be captured from thermal, rotational, or electrical inertia. Using inertia, 80% of world energy needs can be met with a simple shift-in-Time. Summer thermal buildup can be shifted to fill...

EarthCraft is a program with guidelines ensuring that homes reduce energy by using tighter building construction, air sealing, controlled ventilation, as well as more efficient duct work, HVACs, and vents. Water usage is also reduced, which cuts down on utility bills. Last, the interior and exterior paint is low VOC. These homes are also supposed to have better indoor air...

Although industrial hemp is very well known all over the world even in the United States where it is banned there are some countries that are starting to utilize the incredible properties of this amazing eco-product. In Spain for example newly built ecological homes are being made from industrial hemp. The outer walls of these...