Sustainable Homes For Better Living – Types and Price

Sustainable homes are one of the green buildings. To build a sustainable home, we have to consider the energy efficiency as the main concept. We need to concern on the energy efficient features. What we can do is adding solar panels, wind power, and geothermal heating. However, if you have those features in your home, it is still not enough to make it as a sustainable home.

Your home should have some more important things such as the right design, the right insulation, and the right glazing. A home with an excellent energy efficiency means that it allows the owner to use minimal energy to light, heat, and even run any appliances. By having this way, the owner can reduce the operational costs.

Read also: green homes a new perspective of eco-friendly homes

The Reasons Why You Should Move To Sustainable Homes

Of course, there are some benefits if you do not mind to go to sustainable homes. According to Scott Fylnn, the principal of Flynner Building Co., a sustainable home has a healthier home environment. It is because the building comes with the improved indoor air quality. The fewer temperature variations make a sustainable home is more comfortable. You will also get your investment back. It is because it does not require too much maintenance while help you save the energy. Living in a sustainable home means you will get a positive environmental impact. At the same time, you are helping the world by reducing the natural resources.

Melissa Rappaport Schifman, the principal at Resonance Companies, has more explanations about living in sustainable homes.  It can lower the energy bills with better insulation, sealed doors, and windows. Besides, it has a tight ductwork, efficient heating, and cooling, efficient appliances, and lighting. Those things let us have lower gas and electric bills. It can lower the water bills, too. In fact, the sustainable home works with dual flush toilets, low flow faucets or showerheads, and efficient irrigation systems. In the end, it can reduce the water bills.

Read also: green homes the solution to a more comfortable healthy energy efficient lifestyle

Building a sustainable home means that you will have healthy indoor air quality. It is because you are using low VOC materials such as paints, adhesives, finishes, and sealants to prevent the respiratory problems. Your home has fresh air with the air filters to let you breathe clean air.

Even if we have to compare with other standard buildings, sustainable homes are more durable. The quality lasts longer. Therefore, you can save money in replacement and maintenance costs. The last is that the sustainable homes have more value. Many studies have revealed that a sustainable home has 3 to 5% more value than other homes.

Sustainable Homes Types and Price

There are many different types of houses, especially for the sustainable home design. We have the list of sustainable home along with the price.

1. Prefabs

Prefab is the form of prefabricated homes. It means the homes built by using panels or module, then assembled on the site. Prefabricated houses cover the demand of a sleek and modern home design. We can say it is the ideal option for those in need of a low-income option with luxurious design.

It is the part of sustainability homes because factories fabricate the pieces for the particular building process. It offers less waste compared to site-built homes. Even it does not need guess-and-check, and you can quickly know the budget for the materials you need. Even many companies include the sustainable components in their design.

As other sustainable homes, you can save money, which is 10-20% less than a traditional stick-built home. It supports less labor time, quicker and easier to construct, less wasted materials, and more bulk purchasing. The most important, that FEMA explained it has high durability and low-maintenance.

LivingHomes C6.1 is the first low-cost prefab with a comfortable and complete design. It has three bedrooms, ample living room, big storage space, and two bathrooms. It also has LEED Platinum level features and lots of warmth, light, and storage. The base price is about 179,000 USD.

Another example is Method Home M Series. Method Homes offers modern prefab with green building certifications such as Passive House, Living Building Challenge, LEED, and others. M Series means Method’s most affordable selection. It makes the home is ideal for multiple interior and exterior finishes, for various locations and needs. The base price is around 162,000 USD.

2. Passive House

It is one of the sustainable homes with quantifiable energy efficiency and ultimate comfort. This sustainable home has extreme air tightness, high-performance windows, and door, as well as excellent insulation. Its highlight is to provide excellent indoor air and temperature quality.

With these aggressive standards, the benefits of having Passive House is to create innovative heating as well as cooling techniques, to use less energy and to reduce the carbon load. The most important part is the energy bill that you can save even more than 90%.

As one of the sustainable homes, the Passive House offers you everything. The example is Go Home by Go Logic. Go Home provides traditional design they can assemble less than two weeks. The option is from 600-square-foot to 2,300-square-foot. The base price is about 179,000 USD.

Domespace Rotating Prefab is the alternative for you. The designer of Domespace is Patrick Marsilli. It is a passive house with a revolutionary design. The house can rotate away from the sun, especially in summer and toward the sun in winter. It can deal with winds even more than 150 mph. It sounds more interesting with the magnitude eight earthquakes with no damage at all! The house is made of 100% FCS certified wood. It does not contain any harmful chemicals. If you spend 240,000 USD, you will get the base model with a 2,400 sq/ft.

3. Zero Carbon

The zero carbon homes mean it is so energy efficient that it has zero annual net carbon. Although it still tied to the grid, it has all in carbon-free with the support of the low energy, airtight, and insulation. We also know it as zero energy homes or net zero homes. The good thing is that the aesthetic design is still like other regular homes.

The benefit of having zero carbon home is the smart technologies and the renewable energies that become possible for you. It is sustainable because it does not have any contribution to climate change. It is an eco-revolution home for a quiet and comfortable atmosphere that at the same time helping you save more money.

99-2B By Cubicco is the example of zero energy home. Cubicco provides the R-45 insulation as the solution of an excellent insulation through floors, roofs, and walls. They built it from recycled Cellulose and a vermin control. It is a great home for those who have a big concern on reducing gas emissions. The windows and doors can deal with the winds even for more than 180 mph. It has cork exterior finish and central air. It is also available with solar energy upgrades, vertical gardens, as well as rainwater harvesting systems. This kind of sustainable homes in 1,025 square feet with two bedrooms and two bath models with the base price is about 160,000 USD.

Deltec Homes Classic is another option. Deltec Homes provide you the choice to achieve the level of sustainability based on your needs. They offer simple energy efficiency to net-zero. They build all options with 100%of renewable energy. The Classic Deltec models have its self-supporting roof system with no load-bearing walls to create any floor plan, as you want. This model has two bedrooms, two bathroom models with 2,075 square feet. If you ask for the price, the base is about 129,000 USD

4. Shipping Container

It is a sustainable home, constructed from steel cargo containers for its structural element. As we know that all shipping containers have the same size, that constructor tends to stick or piece them together to create a bigger building. The reason why it is the part of sustainable homes is that it used for low-income housing, dorms, and others. It is a great sustainable home for those who seek for modern, industrial and other home design styles.
Philip C. Clark was the first who started all things about shipping container homes back in the 1950s. It is an eco-friendly home because it is perfect for up cycling.

We do not have to waste tons of steel from unused containers. The fact is that we can turn the containers to fabulous homes. Constructors do not need to use new materials, and we can use the containers as the super durable homes. It also requires little labor, an inexpensive building to make. If you cannot wait for a DIY project, you can build a home from a shipping container with less than 35,000 USD to spend.

5. Tiny Home

It is one of the popular choices of sustainable homes. It is economical, simple and great as an environmental solution. Commonly, it is about 100 and 400 square feet. However, it can be larger or smaller than that. You may see this type on a trailer for its mobility so it can move to other locations. Mostly, it has convertible furniture, multi-use rooms, and lofts.
‘Tiny homes’ is one of the sustainable homes. It is because the concept goes with less energy, and use non-toxic or local materials.

How much is it? Blu Homes Cabana is the example of tiny homes with the modern, flexible, and elegant design. Its base price is about 190,000 USD.

6. Straw Bale

As its name, all straw bale homes constructed from bales of straw to complete the insulation. Bales of straw even used as the actual structural components. To create the wall, the designer stack the straw bales on one another. The designer also used it to create posts as well as beams. Then, the designer will cover the straw bale in plaster. Straw bale is perfect for those who love the stucco-like design with the rustic touch.

For many reasons, straw bale homes are more sustainable because it is 100% from natural material. It does not contain any harmful chemicals. Also, it makes straw useful. The interesting fact is straw is a superb insulator that can even lower the energy usage more than 75%, awesome!

Of course, to build straw bale home, a proper construction is the highlight. The straw should dry. The benefit of straw bale home is that it can last for years with the amazing insulation properties. It can deal with all weather to make you comfortable with the excellent soundproofing, as well. It has three times of burn resistance than a traditional home. Although it sounds unconventional, straw bale perhaps is all that you need.
Moreover, it only takes about 88,000 USD for its total construction. If you cannot believe it, you can learn the straw bale cost development.

 

7. Rammed Earth

It is a simple, sustainable home. The construction is from the tightly packed soil. With the combination of soil and a little water, pressed to plywood forms as the way to create walls, once the wall has dried, the designer removed the forms. As a result, it has layered rock appearance for a unique and sophisticated home design. We can see this technique in the Great Wall of China or the Alhambra Palace in Spain.
The strength of rammed earth is for its low maintenance, fire and pest resistance, durable, insulating, and breathable.

8. Earthships

It is off-the-grid home with a complete self-sustaining. The construction is from natural and recycled materials such as glass bottles, and old tires. It does not need any heating and cooling system since it can do it naturally. Earthship home can collect solar as well as wind power. Even it can harvest water from snow and rain, treat the sewage and produce food. These are perfect for those who need futuristic functions.

The first architecture who found Earthships was Michael E.Reynold through his experiment back in the 1970s. It is a sustainable home that available for rent only. This type of sustainable homes are not for sale, therefore to get the experience of living in an Earthship is to rent it.

Read also: 9 preparatory steps to building a modern prefab home

So, that is all we can tell you about the sustainable homes, the benefits of sustainable homes, why they are better than regular homes, the different types of homes, and the price.