Changing a light bulb or buying energy-efficient appliances are easy ways to improve your carbon footprint and lower your energy costs over time. However, you can incorporate energy efficiency right into your Middle Tennessee custom home while you’re still in the design phase.
Passive (and Natural) Solar Design
Designing your new home with plenty of windows on the south-facing side lets the sun’s warm rays heat your space in the winter. Awnings or deciduous trees can shade your windows in the summer, keeping the space cooler.
Passive solar is an easy consideration to include in your design that will help your home use less energy all year, every year. You don’t have to do anything but open the drapes.
Investing in the Right Insulation
As you construct your home, you’ll make choices about the quality and quantity of your insulation. Even in our temperate climate, good insulation will improve your home’s energy efficiency. A well-insulated home stays cooler during the summer and saves energy on air conditioning.
Be smart about R-values, which denote the insulating power of a material, and don’t hesitate to add a couple more inches of insulation (especially in the roof). This way, your indoor temperatures will be more consistent and you’ll use less energy.
At-Home Energy Production
You don’t need to design solar panels and wind generators into your home. You can add them later, but if you know you’re going to want to produce at least some of your own energy, including them during the design process will help ensure you’re placing them where they’ll be most effective.
Although we’ll discuss this during the design process, it’s important for you to know that the angle and orientation of panels affects their productivity.
Smart Homes = Smart Decisions
Building smart features into your home can really have a positive effect on your energy use. A programmable thermostat, for example, will save energy by keeping the climate in your home comfortable while you’re there and prevent you from wasting energy when nobody’s home.
Motion-sensing lights can turn themselves off when no one is around. You can connect doors and windows to software that opens and closes them, draws the shades and performs a number of other functions to help control airflow, light and temperature—all automatically.
Remember, the choices and investments you make now will affect your home’s energy consumption in the years ahead; make sure they’re the right ones.
Now’s Your Chance!
Let us help you design the perfect space so you can live the way you want to live. From Nashville to Arrington (and everywhere in between), we’re helping people create the energy-efficient homes of their dreams.
Call us at 615-824-6970 or get in touch with us online. We’d love to hear about your plans and answer your questions about how we can make it all happen.[gravityform id=”9″ title=”true” description=”true”]