Energy - solar efficient house design and building for comfortable living
If you are in the market for a new house then the subject of "Energy Efficiency" will confront you soon. Is it worthwhile? Will it cost you, or will it pay you? Orientation Homes will help you find the right answers.
Energy Efficiency
Energy efficiency has become the hot topic for new houses these days. Concern for the environment suggests we should all do our part for this cause. But what is meant by ‘energy efficiency' and how does it concern new houses?
Using energy efficiently means that more work is done for the same energy, or else the same job is done using less energy. It does not mean turning off the switch and going without. Remember also that solar energy is alternative energy, which means it has nothing to do with using fossil energy efficiently.
Will your new house use fossil energy, or will appliances and gadgets use gas and electricity, and not the house? Will your house use solar energy, or will your water heater use solar energy? Unless these distinctions are made clear, getting the best and most economical result becomes difficult.
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Thermal efficiency
Most people, and particularly the media accept that insulation makes buildings ‘energy efficient’ because less heating or cooling is needed. But two seconds worth of thought should tell us that insulation controls heat flow. It makes buildings more thermally efficient, not energy efficient. Obviously less heating and cooling energy is called for because temperatures do not vary so much. So thermal efficiency is the real key to significant energy reduction and cost saving.
The design of a new house should include thermal efficiency so that residents will be comfortable. That's what everybody wants after all, and that's why Orientation Homes design comfortable new solar homes. Thermal comfort should be a first consideration, not last as so often happens. And this means that winter sun admission is important, and the passage of cooling summer breezes likewise.
Solar efficiency
These comfort factors are the province of solar house design. Such houses welcome warm sunlight during winter days and make that warmth available on winter nights. It is a relatively simple process of absorbing warmth by day, storing it, and releasing it back into the rooms by night. In summer, the house works similarly. Now night temperatures and chilly breezes cool the interior at night while the same thermal methods that stored winter warmth now preserve cool summer temperatures, by day.
Such houses use the sun's energy and cool breezes efficiently, which means they are solar efficient. Observe that winter warming is done hours before the need for artificial heating normally eventuates. This does away with the need for non-renewable energy for heating and cooling. Discomfort is avoided, and so it does not have to be corrected. Of course in order to work properly solar homes must be thermally efficient too. They must preserve the ideal temperatures they capture.
Design integrity
The difference between solar houses and others is found in their design. The relationship of the house (and its construction materials) to seasonal aspects of the climate is vitally important, so the building will work as the designer intends. Done successfully, the new house will procure comfortable temperatures, and because of that, undesirable temperatures will be forbidden. The bottom line is that unless a house is made to cultivate comfortable temperatures naturally, non-renewable energy must be purchased to correct discomfort artificially. And this is what happens in most houses.
Energy waste
Do you see the fraud we so easily perpetrate? The design and construction of a house fix the nature of the building relative to local climate influences. Designed and built appropriately, the house works as it should and the occupants feel comfortable. But without that benefit the occupants suffer discomfort regularly and are obliged to pay for heating and cooling repeatedly. They are stuck with noise, nuisance, pollution and repetitive expenses, because to alter the building to perform differently is usually very expensive.. We get one chance to choose natural, comfortable living only.
Choice
So we should insist on appropriate solar design in the first instance. Then the problem is solved once, and for all time. If not, we pay for this failure financially and through pain, inconvenience, and through atmospheric pollution.
Worse even , so long as we build new houses that ignore thermal comfort, as though some elementary design principles were beyond our grasp, so we reinforce dependence on non-renewable energy resources. And so we perpetuate the very thing that 'energy efficiency' is supposed to eliminate. Energy waste is occasioned by inappropriate house design and 'energy efficiency' will not correct that.
Energy efficiency is a blessing only when there is no other alternative. It can never be a substitute virtue for energy waste! We cannot afford that pretence at improvement any more.Design responsibility
If you want economical comfort in your new house, then have it designed to avoid discomfort. Notice how structural welfare and safety welfare are considered vital. Why then do we so willingly ignore thermal welfare. Corrective energy that overcomes this lack of forethought is no excuse, particularly because non-renewable energy is a finite resource that is fast running out.
Welcome temperatures are a building design matter firstly, not an energy matter. Heating and cooling should supplement what the climate is called upon to do, when at times it cannot. Energy should not be used in competition, to overturn problems that poor design permits. Discomfort is an energy matter, thermal comfort is not, and appropriate house design makes the difference.
Choose natural comfort in your new house
Orientation Homes take pride in putting your family's comfort and welfare at the top of the list. Isn't that what a new house is for?
What will you do?
Discover more about Orientation Homes and solar efficient house design.
Learn how solar houses can be made a very profitable business.
Choose a proportional shading device that controls sunlight automatically
Learn about fast dwindling energy supplies and how that will affect you.
Learn about new science and how Zero Point Energy might affect you.
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