The growing energy consumption is directly leading to the destruction of the environment. Directly or indirectly, we use fossil fuels to satisfy great part out of energy needs. Not only the fossil fuel are nonrenewable, in addition, burning them also leads to a significant amount of pollution. Therefore, it is necessary that we replace them with renewable alternatives. Since housing and our day to day electricity usage have a significant impact on the environment, by opting for eco-friendly houses we can certainly bring a change.
Amazing Eco-friendly houses from the world
It is high time when we look forward to the alternatives that help in reducing energy consumption starting from our homes. With the creation of innovative solutions, you can make a lot of change for energy consumption level and make our home eco-friendly or green. This current style of dwelling will diminish carbon emissions. Here are some eco-friendly houses that will inspire you to have green homes.
1. Portable Martin House
One can think of Portable Martin House as the most practical house of the planet. You can easily shift this house whenever you like and wherever you like to live. Furthermore, the house consists primarily of the weatherproofed roof. Even NASA approves this roof and its insulation and can withstand extreme weather conditions. In addition, the floors of the house consist of bamboo and windows are so large to let in natural light.
2. Plastic Bottle House
Plastic Bottle house in Honduras constitutes of 8,000 PET plastic water bottles. The roof of the house has a cover of grass that helps in increasing the quality of the air and helps in maintaining the internal temperature. In addition, the home also has ah self-sustaining compost toilets and solar water heating system that reduce the energy consumption.
3. Fish House
The brainchild of Guz architects in Singapore, this wonder lies on the oceanfront. The house utilizes the open space concept providing ventilation in hot humid climate. Photovoltaic cells cover the rooms generating home energy. Furthermore, it also utilizes steel, wood, and glass in the construction of the home.
4. Nomad Micro Home
Nomad Micro homes are tiny pre fabricated homes. The strategy involved in the designing of the house is saving the space that has turned 100 square feet into usable. The energy supply is extremely flexible and it allows the owner live off the grid. It consists of solar panels and rainwater collection system for the supply of water for the house and ahs a gray water treatment.
5. Casa Mar Azul
Casa Mar Azul designed by Luciano Kruk/Bruk Arquitectos is located in Argentina. The architects used wood of pine trees as a material for the construction by making it the platform to preserve the environment. The windows of the house are made large to let in the sunlight, a water tank used to collect the rainwater, and the concrete provide sound insulation. The interior part of the house is created using recycled pinewood.
6. White steel Villa
White Steel Villa is 100% self-sufficient home created by Robles Arquitectos. The home is built using steel and has its own water, energy and sanitations system. There are two hydroelectric turbines along with photovoltaic solar panels supporting the home’s electricity. The water resources of the forest are used as water resources.
7. Gatehouse
The Gatehouse is designed by DeBoer Architects created in curvy and dreamy design with sustainable features. It consists of earth-plaster walls and radiant heat floors that are stabilized with linseed oil. The house is designed in open floor plan and is in small in size with rows of large windows allowing sunlight.
8. Bloom House
Bloom House structure is created form locally harvested oak structural columns and remains left from where shipwreck form nearby barns. The house is well known for its unique structure in the form of trapezoids with ripples flowing through the structure representing like fish and water concept.
9. The Remainder House
Remainder House built in British Columbia in an area consisting of dense forest. Designed by Don Gurney created the home in such a way that people can live in dense forest area. The house was constructed without removing any trees and the material from a warehouse was used for construction.
The future of eco-friendly houses
The home-building industry has adopted many new changes in an effort to make homes more efficient in their design, purpose and structure. In order to realize the same, the implementation of more and more eco-friendly designs and equipments during construction is obligatory. In fact, a nationwide survey in homebuilding has estimated that more than 50 percent of houses built in and after 2010 are green.
Leading the eco-friendly way
Living in an eco-friendly house means that the house has its design in such a way that it allows the residents to practice various ways of energy efficiency and power efficiency. Moreover, it does not make any negative impact on the surrounding environment.
These houses utilize the spaces in a very efficient manner. Furthermore, the placement and size of windows specifically allow natural light and air to fill the inside of the house as much as possible for saving a good deal of power energy every day. The design and construction of these houses are based on purely green principles in order to make you live and enjoy a healthier environment along with lower energy and water bills. So, besides saving power, you can also save money in the long run by simply living in an eco-friendly house.
The eco-friendly materials
For making less impact on the environment, these green home constructions utilize a lot of recycled and environmentally friendly materials. The foundation, for example, consists of blocks of Styrofoam. Furthermore, instead of using toxic fiberglass, recycled paper and denim scraps find use for insulation purpose. Besides this, the interior of the house flaunt earth-friendly options, such as countertops used in the kitchen made from recycled yogurt containers, bamboo or coffee cups. Moreover, it also gives you the option of applying environment-friendly low-VOC paint to the walls as per your taste.
Implementing a water-saving mechanism
Water is precious and eco-friendly houses have made it a point to save every drop of this precious liquid by implementing many modern water-efficient mechanisms. These houses use many water saving methods like collecting gray water for reusing in other non-drinking areas, installing proper equipment for rainwater harvesting, using efficient bathroom fixtures like dual-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads for reducing water consumption. However, besides the function of the water-saving equipment, it also depends greatly upon the residents to use it without wasting it.
Summary
It is important that we start working for our preservation of natural resources starting very first from our homes. The homes in the list were not only energy-efficient, along with that they also made use of eco-friendly building materials.
