Ideas on building a new home or renovating an older one.

Building a home is an amazing oddessy. As you would expect there are a wide range of choices you can make to improve your resource use. More and more builders are gaining experience in efficient and green building. There is a vast array of new materials and a wide range of opinions on what is sustainable or green. Efficiency tends to be the most cost-effective investment and is the cheapest and easiest to incorporate in new buildings.

General rules for building an energy efficient house include:

1. choose the right site
2. only build the house you need
3. maximize energy efficiency in the envelope
4. use efficient appliances including heating, lighting, washing ...
5. use passive solar
6. incorporate daylighting
7. use active solar or wind depending on your site

A key to integrated building design is the participation of people from different specialties of design: general architecture, HVAC, lighting and electrical, interior design, and landscape design. Working together at key points in the design process, these participants can identify highly solutions that would otherwise not be found.  

This link to BetterBricks will take you to a website that is primarily about commercial buildings. It illustrates Energy Effective Design and will give you some food for thought in designing.

http://www.betterbricks.com/default.aspx?pid=energyeffectivedesign

There are a range of incentives for different aspects of a home and will vary depending on your location.

Utility

Incentives will vary utility by utility. You can find these incentives at the Energy Star Northwest website. This site identifies builders who are building to a standard that goes beyond the current building code.

Energy Star Northwest

http://www.northwestenergystar.com/

State

There are state production incentives for solar and wind that can be found at.

Northwest Solar Center

http://www.northwestsolarcenter.org/

Database of State Renewable for Renewables and Efficiency

http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes/map2.cfm?CurrentPageID=1&State=WA&RE=1&EE=1

County

Built Green

http://www.builtgreen.net/

Federal

Federal incentives

http://www.dsireusa.org/library/includes/genericfederal.cfm?CurrentPageID=1&state=us&ee=1&re=1

Water

Saving Water Partnership

http://www.savingwater.org/

Other Links

Energy Tips

http://www.energytips.wa.gov/default.asp?src=home

Energy Design Resources

http://www.energydesignresources.com/

National Association of Homebuilders Green Home Building Guidelines http://www.nahbrc.org/greenguidelines/index.html

USGBC - Leed for homes

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=147

The Cottage Company - this company is building efficient houses in efficient developments http://www.cottagecompany.com/

Savings by Design

http://www.savingsbydesign.com/overview.htm

Alternative Energy

• Green Power Locator
• A 2005 Look at the Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Smart Energy Industries in WA State
• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - US DOE
• Alternative Energy Resources in Washington (EERE)

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

• Federal site for hydrogen and fuel cells
• ABC's of Hydrogen and Fuel Cells
• Hydrogen Now!
• Hydrogen links (EERE)

Ocean and Wave power

• Federal site for ocean energy
• Practical Ocean Energy Management System

Solar  

• Important stuff about solar - from FindSolar
• Technical Potential of Solar Water Heating
• Solar Washington
• DOE's Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy solar site
• The American Solar Energy Society
• Americans for Solar Power
• Shoreline Solar Project
• Find Solar