The is a springtime view of my straw bale house that is featured in the “Building With Awareness: The Construction of a Hybrid Home” DVD and book. Click the image for a larger view.

While riding my recumbent bicycle home from the office the other day, I was caught by the reflections in my neighbor’s flooded field. They recently planted a citrus orchard and garden and were irrigating late in the day. I grabbed my camera to capture the soft glow of a typical New Mexico sunset.

When living in a straw bale home, Spring is the time to remove the insulation panels from the skylights (to prevent heat loss in winter) and to turn off the pilot light of the backup radiant-floor heating system (despite some nights that still dip into the 30’s, the home does not need backup heat at this time of year). The rainwater cistern is 80% full due to recent spring rains. This will supply enough non-potable water until the summer monsoon season begins in a few months. The photovoltaic electrical system generates more electricity in the Spring and Fall due to the fixed angle of the PV panels to the sun. It is also time to put the window screens back up as they are removed every Fall to maximize the amount of heat entering the windows from the low-angled winter sun.

The warm earthen tones of the home’s walls come from the mud plaster finish. The small workshop to the right is made of adobe bricks. These materials are very green as they come from the earth itself—with minimal processing.

If you would like to see how this green home was built, pick up a copy of the “Building With Awareness” DVD video and book combo. It is available at a bookstore near you and online. “Building With Awareness” is beautifully photographed and covers the complete design and construction process of building green with straw bale, adobe, and other natural materials. The purchase of our DVD video and book helps to support this blog and website on green building.

Article and photo by Ted Owens
You are welcome to use this photo on your website (for non-commercial use) as long as the photo is not altered in any way and that you link it back to http://www.buildingwithawareness.com

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…)