The Gossamer Wind Ceiling Fan is EnergyStar rated and incorporates an advanced blade design that greatly improves energy efficiency.

I always stress that the design of a green home must start with the passive-solar-design elements before even thinking about the mechanical systems. If you focus on the overall efficiency of the entire building, you can then reduce or eliminate the electrical/mechanical systems—such as heating and cooling.  My straw bale home is designed to stay comfortable on hot summer days without the need for a conventional air conditioner. This is accomplished by careful window placement to prevent solar gain in the summer, well-insulated straw bale walls, R-55 cellulose insulation in the ceilings, and the use of interior thermal mass walls.  When the overall building is designed properly, you may find that you only need to reduce the interior air temperature by a few degrees—instead of twenty or more degrees. A ceiling fan may then be all that is needed to make a room feel comfortable. In the case of my straw bale house, a conventional air conditioning system would not only be unnecessary, it would also greatly increase the cost of the off-the-grid photovoltaic system that supplies all of the electricity for the home.

The Concept of the Ceiling Fan
Ceiling fans have made a comeback due to their energy efficiency. They were invented in the 1860’s to 1870’s and were the standard method of making buildings more comfortable for decades.  By the mid 1950’s, electric air conditioners began to appear in homes and the sales of ceiling fans waned. An electric motor spinning a propeller-type fan blade uses a lot less electricity than an air conditioning system that has both blowers and compressors. Dropping the apparent temperature of your skin is much easier than cooling an entire room. Ceiling fans work by evaporating moisture off your skin with moving air, just as a summer breeze can make a hot day seem quite comfortable. (more…)

Following are some pros and cons of building a straw bale house. Like any building material, it is always best to evaluate your needs and your goals before committing to a particular material. Green building offers a wide range of options in achieving energy efficiency. When appropriate for your project, straw bale construction has many benefits.

Advantages of straw bale construction
1. Straw bales are made from a waste product. Once the edible part of the grain has been harvested (such as wheat or rice), the stalks often become a disposal problem for farmers. By bailing the straw, a new life is given to the material. The farmer makes some money by selling the bales and the homebuilder gains an excellent insulation and building material.

2. Homes insulated with straw bale can have insulation values of R-30 to R-35 or more. The thicker the bale, the better the R-value.

3. Straw bale walls are at least eighteen inches thick. This adds aesthetic value to the home as thick wall are expensive to achieve with conventional construction. The thickness of the wall helps to reflect sunlight throughout the room.

4. Due to the thickness of straw bale walls, every window can have a window seat or shelf. This becomes both an aesthetic and practical design element. (more…)

The greening of this downtown loft apartment will be a topic in this new series on how to adapt older buildings to higher ecological standards.

In my DVD video and book, “Building With Awareness,” I show the design and construction process of building a green home from scratch. With an emphasis on green building materials and the benefit of having complete control over the constructions process, you can see each stage of creating an energy efficient home from the ground up. By using a variety of natural materials such as straw bale, adobe, and earth plasters, it is possible to build an extremely green home with off-the-shelf components. For those who have the opportunity to start with a clean slate and an empty piece of land, this is an efficient way to go.

But what if you need to buy or rent a home that is already built? What if you desire to live in a city and the ability to use less-conventional materials is limited? After all, retrofitting existing buildings and homes will be an even larger industry than building new green structures. Millions of homes already exist and the majority of them need to be brought up to better energy efficiency standards.  How do you improve energy efficiency, lower your power bills, and limit your carbon footprint? (more…)