Angels Log Homes Inc: Our Commitment to Supporting Green Home Design
We are working towards a healthier world through choices that we make with regards to products that go into your home construction. Because so many decisions regarding a green home are made at the design stage, we have created this leaflet to jump-start the process, if you haven’t already started, that is!
Here are some of the products that we choose to use:
- We use a “yard guard” that has been rated as environmentally preferable, certified by Environment Canada’s EcoLogo program. This protects logs against rot, mold, UV breakdown and insect damage during construction.
- We use sheep’s wool batting, not fibreglass, to insulate between lateral grooves and notches. This is safer for everyone (you and your builder), and environmentally friendly – not to mention readily renewable!
- We use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified logs when possible in construction. We also commit to an annual tree-planting of one tree for each saw log (house log) used in our previous years construction.
Green Home Options: Possibilities to Consider
You can start the process of building a green home by seriously considering how big your home really needs to be. Try reading Robbin Obomsawin’s book Small Log Homes: Storybook Plans and Advice, and Inside the Not so Big House : Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life by Sarah Susanka for ideas on how to make your home more space-efficient. After all, where do you really LIVE in your home? The bigger your house, the more resources are required to build & maintain it. Then consider the following, as you commence designing your house: a building that heats and cools itself by:
- its orientation to the sun (how your house will sit on your lot);
- use of overhangs, to reduce sunlight in summer but allow it in winter;
- use of nearby plant material to cool in summer, and cut winds in winter – what can you do to protect the trees on your lot?
- use of radiant heating and cooling from the building itself – for example, flooring materials that store heat during the day and release it at night;
- windows that provide cross-ventilation for cooling.
It is a good idea to consider how all of the systems in your home (water, power, heat, and ventilation) will impact each other – a reduction of need in one area can have a domino effect. There is a lot of great information at www.energyalternatives.ca
Building solar: www.builditsolar.com is loaded with helpful ideas, plans, resources, and links for every stage of solar home construction.
Incorporating any of the following products into your home could help you to make a difference to the environment, the quality of your home, and your health – not to mention reducing your long-range bills!
- Upgraded insulation
- High-performance, low-e windows
- Geothermal heating
- Passive solar heating (part of the design process)
- Solar-thermal water heating
- Solar-thermal radiant heating
- A Masonry heater
- Fibre-cement siding (in timber frame applications)
- Photovoltaic electric system (for all needs or as supplement)
- Wind energy (where reliable wind source is available)
- Mini-turbine (where reliable water source is available)
- Tank-less (Hot water on-demand) water heater
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) rated wood products
- Recycled, reclaimed, or re-used wood flooring
- Low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints and finishes
- Urea-formaldehyde-free building products
- Energy-Star labelled appliances
- Carpet made from recycled plastic or wool
- Linoleum flooring, bamboo flooring, FSC-certified hardwood flooring
- Compact fluorescent and/or LED lighting
- Water-conserving taps and shower heads
- Two-button flush toilet
- Composting toilet
And outdoors, consider installing:
- water storage tanks at downspouts (for outdoor water use),
- Clothesline (dryers use a lot of energy)
- native, drought-tolerant plants mulched to reduce evaporation,
- trees and shrubs to reduce building heat loss during winter, and to shade during summer,
- contours to hold water in soil.
Grants and Incentives Available for
Green Home Initiativeshttp://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/incentives.cfm
Federal grants and incentives are available to homeowners and small and medium-sized businesses, industry and public institutions to help them invest in energy and pollution-saving upgrades. In addition, selected provincial, territorial and municipal entities also offer grants and incentives to homeowners who conduct energy saving upgrades. Cruise this website to see what is available where you live – it all adds up!Check this government website for free brochures on alternative energy sources: http://www.canren.gc.ca/prod_serv/index.asp
Earth-Friendly Landscape Design
By Karin DorishIn Earth-friendly landscape design, the relationships between plants, animals, people, and buildings are taken into account –
creating a healthy, sustainable whole.Karin’s goal is to provide a landscape design that fits with who you are, that will respond to your home’s structure, and that requires a level of maintenance that you will feel comfortable with. Service includes one free hour of initial consultation, a scrapbook that contains your design, tips for maintenance, recommended reading & plant resources, as well as “before” photos to jump-start your project. This design becomes your ACTION PLAN for your yard – no matter how long it takes to implement, the result will be a cohesive whole. Karin can also provide maintenance training, and instruction or information sheets on a wide range of topics.
Karin has been gardening for over thirty years, with a focus on landscape that is healing to a space, as well as those who share it. If you would like to make your yard wildlife-friendly, Karin will include plants, trees, and shrubs that will feed and shelter them. Focusing on native trees, shrubs and plants not only reduces water dependency: it helps us to fulfill our role of Earth Stewards. Karin also likes to increase your own food self-sufficiency (by planting shrubs that bear edible fruit, for example) and to incorporate water conservation techniques in her designs.
Not necessarily in order of preference, if you are looking for ways to make your home more environmentally-friendly, recommended books include (but are not limited to!):
A Healthy House: a Practical Guide for Architects, Builders & Homeowners, by Paula Baker-Laporte, Erica Elliott, and John Banta.
Good Green Homes: Creating better homes for a healthier planet, by Jennifer Roberts.
The good house book : a common-sense guide to alternative homebuilding, by Clarke Snell
The homeowner's guide to renewable energy : achieving energy independence through solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower, by Daniel D. Chiras
Green building A to Z : understanding the language of green building, by Jerry Yudelson
Green Building Products: The GreenSpec® Guide to Residential Building Materials, edited by Alex Wilson and Mark Piepkorn
The not so big house : a blueprint for the way we really live by Sarah Susanka
Creating the not so big house : insights and ideas for the new American home by Sarah Susanka
Green This! Greening Your Cleaning by Deirdre Imus
Organic at home, by Diana Hill
Green roof plants : a resource and planting guide by Edmund C Snodgrass