4 Jun
Building a “green” house: what elements to incorporate?
For a school project (AP environmental), we have to design and construct a model of a "green"/energy-efficient house. we need 60 (yes, sixty!) eco-friendly/green/energy-efficient components in the house.
ANY IDEAS??? thank you lots!! 
so far i have:
-adobe walls (control temp, cheap, eco-friendly)
-solar panels
-rainwater collection
-greywater recycling
-rain garden
-xeriscaping
Posted by pippa h on 04.06.09 at 8:39 pm
insulation made from recycled jeans (yes they really do make that)
energy star and high efficency appliances such as
refrigerator
washer
dryer
heater
air conditioning system
dishwashing machine
compact lightbulbs
high pressure showerhead ( it creates the illusion that there is more water and makes you take a shorter shower with less water)
salt purification system ( makes the water you send out of your house a little bit better for the world)
plant trees and other native plants
all natural building materials
I hope that helped
Posted by Nata T on 04.06.09 at 8:39 pm
in some states, you can not use rain water, so be careful, the state will reject your permit to build. Have parking for green cars in front of the building and put handicap back farther, that's how our latest building got LEED's certified, being green trumps being old and crippled. No elevators. Argon windows. Windows facing south. use Bamboo flooring. Use green appliances. Use geothermal heating/cooling.
Toto toilets with two stage flush. cut the zero scape, have no land. let nature own it and burn itself down as needed. all recycled building parts or reused. all paint has no VOC's.
google LEEDS for more ideas.
Posted by thanatos_azrael on 04.06.09 at 8:39 pm
LED and CFL lighting
geothermal heating and cooling
solar hot water heater
solar windows
composting machine to turn food scrapes and such into dirt
some kind of vertical wind turbine, or even a standard wind mill
use bamboo for flooring and other wood surfaces and structural supports
Posted by Stephen C on 04.06.09 at 8:39 pm
Make it a townhouse (shared walls mean less materials and heat gain/loss), don't forget good old fashioned insulation and triple-pane windows. Even older fashioned, a south-side roof that extends enough beyond the wall just enough to provide shade in summer when the sun is high in the sky, and let the sun in the window in winter when it is lower. Put a bench and fruit tree on the front yard for passing people to sit down in, to make the whole neighborhood more walk-friendly. Use fans instead of or in addition to aircon. Solar panels are the sexiest and most expensive of the solar choices: solar hot water heating is simpler, and solar lighting to interior rooms using fiber-optics or merely mirrors. The go read LEED standards for the check-lists…
Great assignment — I hope your class/teacher puts these all out on the web!
Posted by aaron b on 04.06.09 at 8:39 pm
LED lighting, on demand water heater, orient the house to achieve the most energy you can from solar, windows to capture the most natural light you can reducing the need for additional lighting, bamboo flooring/ bamboo cupboards using the extremely renewable resource, indoor plants that reduce the amount of pollutants, composting toilet if permitted by local code.
Posted by Noni M on 04.06.09 at 8:39 pm
well you probably want eco- friendly lights and if you are good with contracting you can go to a garge sale and buy a lot of nice things that you can fix and reuse.