How To Create An Eco Friendly Home
Building is, by its very nature, not overly environmentally friendly. Lots of energy and materials go into creating products for your house but we need somewhere to live. Whether you are building new or adding to an existing home, here’s how to make your home more eco-friendly and energy efficient.
UTILISE YOUR SITE
A great place to start is the position of your house and site design. If you are building a house, think about how you can best get the winter sun inside your home. This can be an easy way to keep your home warm in winter. Another consideration is how you can use vegetation for shade and temperature control within your house over summer to save energy.
SELECTING DESIGN MATERIALS
Consider the materials used when designing your home – how can you use nature to achieve all year-round comfort? This could mean using concrete flooring for passive solar gain in winter, and overhangs on a roof for shade in summer. Where appropriate see what recycled and salvaged materials you can use in your home. An easy one for both new builds and renovations is to specify water-efficient appliances and energy-efficient appliances and lighting. It’s worth remembering if you can’t afford everything now, future-proof by installing appropriate pipes into your house and/or concrete slab so you can install solar hot water and hot water heating later on.
CHOOSING AN ARCHITECT OR DESIGNER
When choosing your designer, be well-informed and clear about what you want and then choose someone who understands what you want and with whom you can work. Ask how experienced they are at designing sustainable houses and ask to see examples of their work.
FUTURE PROOF YOUR HOME : 10 STEPS TO LONG TERM SUSTAINABILITY
It’s not always viable to make all your changes at once, but when you do any DIY work or renovations in the future, keep in mind these 10 tips for long term sustainability:
Design your home to take advantage of its location while saving power, water and money.
Use environmentally friendly materials where possible.
For maximum natural light, make good use of windows and skylights.
Good-quality insulation, correctly installed, will make your house easier and cheaper to heat – install higher-ratings than the minimum requirement.
Build water efficiency into your home through low-flow showers and toilets and grey water recycling where possible.
Good ventilation creates a healthy home – high moisture levels are linked to health problems like asthma and eczema and is harder (and more expensive) to heat.
Double-glazing will insulate your house while letting heat in to encourage passive heating. Investigate modern thermal window joinery.
Reuse or recycle building and renovation waste.
Good design and material selection can achieve high standards of energy-efficiency for little or no additional cost.
For internal finishes, use good insulators such as curtains and carpets and use products such as paints that are made with the environment in mind.
Poll: Have you ever had a scary flight?
A plane flying from Christchurch to Wellington on Sunday had smoke billowing out of the engine and upon landing, passengers had to open the emergency exit and jump out. Have you had any scary flying experiences?
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56.4% Yes!
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43.6% No, it's always been smooth flying
ALEXANDER ROAD SPEED LIMIT
Alexander Road in Trentham-Wallaceville of which 50% separates a golf course from a military encampment enclosure and the rest has mostly high fenced off industrial and residential areas on both sides, should have a 70km speed restriction.
Only a short time ago the road had a 80km restriction and was reduced to a pedestrian 50km much to the frustration of many. It has never been an accident prone stretch of road.
The several round-abouts ensure speed is reduced to 30-40km when these things occur.
I recently stayed a few days in Feilding - often given the title of the best town in NZ - and one of the lengthy main streets has a 70km speed restriction despite a predominance of unfenced residential properties on both sides.
LIVE Q&A: Financial well-being with Cat Rikihana
Today (Wednesday) we're having another Neighbourly Q&A session. This time with Cat Rikihana who is a financial mentor, educator and financial capability practitioner at Financial Freedom Trust in the Manawatū.
Cat Rikihana (Ngai Tahu) like many financial mentors around Aotearoa, works with individuals, groups and whānau to successfully navigate financial stress and hardship. Mentors work alongside whānau to increase confidence and skills in personal money management and advocate with and for clients. Cat enjoys delivering online and face-to-face workshops which provide opportunities to normalise money conversations and encourages people to make time to consider their financial well-being.
Cat is also an independent financial well-being coach, educator and indigenous life coach at Restore Wellness Network. She is a published writer and currently in the process of writing her first non-fiction book: 'A financial self-care guide for women in Aotearoa.'
She'd love to answer any questions you may have around your budgeting and spending habits, strategies for saving, retirement planning and debt. (Don't be shy, but be mindful about what you disclose!)
↓ Share your questions now and Cat will reply to your comment below ↓
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