When someone intends to build their own home , two of the fundamental priorities are usually that it be as ecological and self-sufficient as possible . Self – sufficient ecological homes and PassivHaus are the most demanded by those who want to build a new home that is responsible with the environment.
If you want to be inspired, you can do it with these ecological houses with a very original design , either because of their unique personality or because of their efficiency. This is how the construction of an ecological and self-sufficient house can be achieved.
Construction of an Ecological and Efficient House
1. Sustainable construction and with recycled materials.
Ecological houses must be built in a sustainable way and with natural materials or with low environmental impact both in their manufacture and placement, as well as in their maintenance.
The price of these materials is not as expensive as it is believed. For example, cork, bamboo, adobe, wood or earth are usually used as materials. A good example of houses made with sustainable materials are cardboard houses .
We can also choose to use recycled materials for construction , you can discover these interesting examples of ecological houses with recycled materials that will impress you to achieve the construction of an ecological and self-sufficient house.
2. Bioclimatic Architecture
It is essential to save energy to take advantage of the location of the house and its bioclimatic conditions .
For example , the windows have to be oriented towards the place where there is more sun and more heat is received and they have to be large to take advantage of this energy.
If we take advantage of the currents and the convection of the air, it will be possible to regulate the interior climate in an efficient way. It is also important that there are trees around to protect the house from the sun in summer.
3. Passive systems in the home, such as thermal insulation
It is important that there is good insulation in the house with sustainable materials as it is a passive system that helps save a lot of energy in air conditioning.
Ecological houses made with straw are a good example of houses with good thermal insulation that use natural thermal insulators such as straw , in addition, they are usually inexpensive homes to build.
Another good idea to improve thermal insulation is the construction of vertical gardens on facades and also inside the house.
4. Renewable Energy Systems
Passive efficiency systems in a home are important, but so are active systems.
Many times, for greater efficiency, curious energy production systems such as solar panels or wind turbines are used .
5. Use local resources from the area, lower costs and complications
It is also a good idea to take advantage of the natural resources of the area for which we will have to find out, for example, if there are wells or natural springs whose water we can use directly or purify.
Benefits of an Ecological and Efficient House
An ecological and self-sufficient house can bring many benefits to us as owners but also to the environment where it is going to be built. The main one is the low energy consumption since we will try to make it possible to save on heating and electricity consumption .
These houses use alternative energy sources, thus limiting dependence on conventional energy sources such as natural gas or oil.
They also tend to cost less to maintain because they are built with high-quality, durable materials. It must be made of materials that also insulate the home from noise and the outside temperature.
home heating
To heat the house we can opt for photovoltaic, geothermal, wind solar energy, biomass boilers, biofuel generator, thermal solar energy… We can obtain hot water and heating at the same time and with some we can also cool the environment and use that clean energy as a source of electricity.
Another good idea is to install a biogas or solar cooker that uses renewable sources that can come from our garden or natural biomass or a pellet or biomass boiler.
An ecological house can not only be self-sufficient from an energy point of view, but it can also generate excess energy that can be sold to third parties if it has the necessary infrastructure and the relevant permits.
But the ecological and self-sufficient houses of Spain are still not allowed to sell surplus energy to third parties in such a direct way.
As a last piece of advice when we go to settle in it, we will have to maintain a life in accordance with the ecological characteristics of the house to achieve the construction of an ecological and self-sufficient house.
We will have to reduce, recycle and reuse to maximize the efficiency of the technology, the usefulness of the waste, for example transforming it into fertilizer or purifying the water that we find in the wells or springs in the area.
