Environmental Science Sustainable Home Creation Essay

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Complete the “Sustainable Home Creation” resource that is attached. The home’s geographic location is Phoenix Arizona.

Sustainable house

It is fact, that now days households and other living areas in which people live, or reside most of the time, contribute CO2 emission and green house effects as much as global warming, which threatens to all humans and their health, as well as natural resources which balance is disturbed a long time ago. Sustainable house or Green house or Eco House is one of possible solutions, which with one part can contribute in solving of this global burning issue.

There is a question, how this house, or what makes it good for living! That is house which is energy efficient by itself, environmentally healthy, respectful for the natural environment, comfortable for family life, in other words to be sustainable designed, built of green or recycled materials, and this house should use alternative energy resources.

In the broad context, sustainable architecture seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings by enhancing efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, and development space. Most simply, the idea of sustainability, or ecological design, is to ensure that our actions and decisions today do not inhibit the opportunities of future generations.This term can be used to describe an energy and ecologically conscious approach to the design of the built environment.

Sustainable homes have three key elements.

1. Environmental sustainability

The house is designed to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions, save water and energy and reduce waste

during construction and the house’s lifetime.

2. Social sustainability / universal design

The house is designed to prevent injuries through built-in

safety features. It has security elements to reduce crime

and improve the occupants’ sense of security. Features

are also used to provide flexibility and comfort for people

of varying abilities and at different life stages, including

children and people with limited mobility.

3. Economic sustainability

The house is designed to save money during construction

and over the lifetime of the house. Careful planning avoids

the need for major future renovations and reduces costs

associated with energy use, water use and maintenance.

Building placement

One central and often ignored aspect of sustainable architecture is building placement. Although many may envision the ideal environmental home or office structure as an isolated place in the middle of the woods, this kind of placement is often detrimental to the environment. First, such structures often serve as the unknowing frontlines of suburban sprawl. Second, they usually increase the energy consumption required for transportation and lead to unnecessary auto emissions. Ideally, most building should avoid suburban sprawl in favor of the kind of light urban development. Careful mixed use zoning can make commercial, residential, and light industrial areas more accessible

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Social sustainability in architecture

The building structure must also be considered. Cost/effectiveness is an important issue in sustainable architecture projects, and one of the most efficient designs herein is the Public housing approach. This approach lets everyone have their own sleeping/recreation space, yet incorporate communal spaces eg. Mess halls, Latrines, public showers…

Sustainable design can help to create a sustainable way of living within a community. While the existing social constructs can be seen to influence architecture, the opposite can also be true. An overtly socially sustainable building, if successful, can help people to see the benefit of living sustainably. The same can be said for environmentally sustainable design, in that architecture can lead the way for the greater community.

Art can be a powerfully positive social force. It can help to reduce stress in many situations, lowering the risk of stress-related health problems, both physical and mental.

Sustainable energy

300px-Passivhaus_section_en

The passive house standard combines a variety of techniques and technologies to achieve ultra-low energy use.

Energy efficiency over the entire life cycle of a building is the most important single goal of sustainable architecture. Architects use many different techniques to reduce the energy needs of buildings and increase their ability to capture or generate their own energy.

Heating, Ventilation and Cooling System Efficiency

The most important and cost effective element of an efficient heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system is a well insulated building. A more efficient building requires less heat generating or dissipating power, but may require more ventilation capacity to expel polluted indoor air.

Significant amounts of energy are flushed out of buildings in the water, air and compost streams. Off the shelf, on-site energy recycling technologies can effectively recapture energy from waste hot water and stale air and transfer that energy into incoming fresh cold water or fresh air. Recapture of energy for uses other than gardening from compost leaving buildings requires centralized anaerobic digesters.

Site and building orientation have some major effects on a building’s efficiency.

Passive solar building design allows buildings to harness the energy of the sun efficiently without the use of any active solar mechanisms such as photovoltaic cells or solar hot water panels. Typically passive solar building designs incorporate materials with high thermal mass that retain heat effectively and strong insulation that works to prevent heat escape. Low energy designs also requires the use of solar shading, by means of awnings, blinds or shutters, to relieve the solar heat gain in summer and to reduce the need for artificial cooling. In addition, low energy buildings typically have a very low surface area to volume ratio to minimize heat loss. This means that sprawling multi-winged building designs (often thought to look more “organic”) are often avoided in favor of more centralized structures.

Windows are placed to maximize the input of heat-creating light while minimizing the loss of heat through glass, a poor insulator. In the northern hemisphere this usually involves installing a large number of south-facing windows to collect direct sun and severely restricting the number of north-facing windows. Certain window types, such as double or triple glazed insulated windows with gas filled spaces, provide much better insulation than single-pane glass windows. Preventing excess solar gain by means of solar shading devices in the summer months is important to reduce cooling needs. Deciduous trees are often planted in front of windows to block excessive sun in summer with their leaves but allow light through in winter when their leaves fall off. Light shelves are installed to allow the sunlight in during the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky) and keep it out in the summer (when the sun is high in the sky). Evergreen plants are often planted to the northbuildings to shield against cold north winds.

In colder climates, heating systems are a primary focus for sustainable architecture because they are typically one of the largest single energy drains in buildings.

In warmer climates where cooling is a primary concern, passive solar designs can also be very effective. Masonry building materials with high thermal mass are very valuable for retaining the cool temperatures of night throughout the day. In addition builders often opt for sprawling single story structures in order to maximize surface area and heat loss. Buildings are often designed to capture and channel existing winds, particularly the especially cool winds coming from nearby bodies of water. Many of these valuable strategies are employed in some way by the traditional architecture of warm regions, such as south-western mission buildings.

In climates with four seasons, an integrated energy system will increase in efficiency: when the building is well insulated, when it is sited to work with the forces of nature, when heat is recaptured (to be used immediately or stored), when the heat plant relying on fossil fuels or electricity is greater than 100% efficient, and when renewable energy is utilized.