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Building an energy efficient home could change your life

Updated: Feb 5, 2019


Sure, we all know being green is good for the environment. It just makes sense to be mindful for the greater good. But did you know that a more efficient home actually benefits you directly? Probably. You may guess that better materials, like insulation and windows would help your power bill. You would be right, but how much of a difference it would it make? There’s the grey area. With no concrete numbers on the combined benefits, how could the slightly higher costs be justified? I decided to build my own energy efficient home, but I had no idea how much it would change my life.


As a beginning architect, I decided to build my own energy efficient home. So many decisions. The opportunities were endless. Sort-of. You know, there was a budget. And a husband. He had his own ideas about our soon to be new home. You have probably heard how stressful it can be. Building a house, I mean, not having a husband. Joking aside, we tackled the project together as a team.


When it was time to choose the insulation and windows, we chose the standard upgrade for custom homes of the early 2000’s. Deeper exterior stud walls allowing extra insulation for better r-value. Double pane insulated glass windows, for improved performance. LED lights instead of incandescent. Then some of my earlier architect education kicked in. We employed passive solar techniques like the stack effect and good ole’ fashioned heating with a wood burning stove in a central location. The whole thing was clad with brick, which is a fairly standard thing here in central Alabama. As it happens, this thermal mass was an excellent passive technique as well. We kept the mature trees on the site and used deep overhangs which help to shade the house.

So, did it change my life? you bet! Most notably, the energy bill changed. After months of low bills, I realized this was not a fluke. We really did pay much less to heat and cool our home. My friend was in disbelief until I texted her a photo of my bill. I had imagined that there would be some savings, but not enough to notice.


But then, season after season, we observed how our house was always effortlessly comfortable. When I stayed home with our children in their preschool years, I found it capable of maintaining reasonable temperatures all day with little or no mechanical ventilation. During the warmer months, (which are many here in the southern US) we opened up the windows early in the morning, taking advantage of the cool air. Then, closing them mid-morning kept the cool air in.

Now, 10 years later, this home is the gift that keeps on giving. I don’t worry about power outages, high summer month bills, or whether the extra investment was worth it. This house has paid me back many times over in dollars and “good sense.”



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