Last week we started looking at remodeling green vs. buying a new green home or building a new green home. So far we took a peek at:
This week we’re moving on to pros and cons of building or buying a new green home. Later we’ll round it all up and look at some resources for both.
Building or buying a new green home does have many pros…
Green home will almost always (if you build within size reasons) cost less to operate. Your energy, water, and other maintenance costs will all likely be lower in the long term. You can also save money with green building tax cuts.
Green homes last longer than a typical conventional (non-green) home.
Green housing can meet the needs of the community both in terms of affordable to run housing and in terms of keeping the community healthy.
Green structures are healthy for the people who live there and are healthier than conventional homes for the people who build them – i.e. cut down on indoor air pollution and involve fewer toxic materials during the building process.
If a home meets typical current green building standards, green building offers opportunities during the building process to save energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions, conserve natural resources, improve air and water quality, and reduces construction waste. Green building can also use up resources that might just be tossed – i.e. materials from a home deconstruction.
Green homes can be more relaxing. For example, a super energy efficient home is comfortable for the people living there and causes less stress because there’s not always a concern about how to cool or heat the home.
Green building or buying a new green home involves a learning curve for sure, but it’s not as hard as some think. Read the following for tips and ideas…
- Reasons Why Anyone Can Go Solar
- What is an ENERGY STAR qualified home
- Intro to Green Prefabs
- 35 Ideas for Building A Greener House
- Earth Friendly Building Materials
- Find the Best Green Real Estate for Sale
- How To Green Your Hardware Store Trip
- Building Green Can Save You Money
- 16 Plus Earth-Friendly Architects
- Eleven Recycled Houses
Tags: build a green home, build green, Cons of green remodels, eco home, eco remodeling, energy star architect, ENERGY STAR home, ENERGY STAR house, ENERGY STAR qualified home, Green Building, green building costs, green building worth it, green homes cost money, green homes save money, green remodeling, green remodeling pros, is green building worth it, new green construction, new green home, pros & cons of building new green homes, Pros of Remodeling Green, remodeling existing structures, remodeling green, Save Energy, Save Money, tour of an ENERGY STAR home
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Nice article Jennifer. I am glad to see you mentioned that being more relaxed can be a benefit of building green. I really believe that peace of mind is largely underrated when considering a new home purchase. I have started a site which tracks all of the best green new construction developments across the US. It’s called http://www.greenhousingdevelopments.com. If you get a chance let me know what you think.
Regards,
Luke
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