Lovely Energy Efficient House Design - Save Big, Save Now

You work hard to save money; why shouldn't your house do the same? Enter the concept of energy efficient house design.

An idea that has been around for some time, energy efficient house design puts the focus on making your house as energy friendly as possible. An energy efficient home has many advantages - the most obvious is, of course, saving on power bills. Other benefits include increased comfort thanks to improved ventilation and the use of natural light, better resale value of your house (believe it or not, more and more homeowners are looking for energy efficient homes), and the satisfaction you get from knowing you are helping out the environment by decreasing your use of fossil fuels.

Any home can be made energy efficient. Typical features of such a house include:

a carport placed on the south side (this creates pockets of cooler air, which will come handy for cross ventilation during summers);
quarry tiles or dark ceramic used for flooring;
minimal glazing on south and east walls (plus no glazing whatsoever on the west wall);
plants, particularly dense evergeen, planted next to the west wall (this provides barrier against those cold winter winds and protection from the hot summer sun);
large windows that face the north (these capture free solar energy from the sun);
air sealing (great air-sealing alone may reduce power costs by 50%!);
controlled ventilation (this reduces the risks of exposure to indoor pollutants and at the same time, lowers the odds of structural damage caused by moisture build-up).

Many homeowners take the concept of energy efficient house design further by investing in their own generator.

But if you think you have to be wealthy to own a wind or solar generator, think again. You can build one yourself, using materials you can pick up from the local hardware. Earth4Energy provides blueprints you can use to start generating your own solar and wind power fast. Imagine how much you can save and even earn when your house actually starts producing more energy than it uses up!

Awesome Alternative Home Energy Ideas

Home energy consumption is one of the main problems of people today. The fact is, we all need electricity to power our lives. We need the level of civilization that can be provided by electricity. However, most people think that the price they pay is just too much for the amount of electricity they get to consume.

In the true spirit of humanity, people did what they always do whenever there's something that does not completely satisfy them about life: they innovated.

Alternative home energy has been on the roll ever since people have made designs efficient enough to make them feasible. People may think that alternative energy is just a recent development, but in fact, alternative home energy has been around even before electricity was discovered.

Consider these types of alternative home energy:

1) Wind energy – Nowadays, windmills are used in homes to run small generators. These generators produce and store electricity to be used in running small home appliances. However, windmills have been around for a long time. If you take a look at the word "windmill" you will realize that this type of alternative home energy device was used for a purpose other than producing electricity.

Yes, the windmill was indeed, used to mill grain. As you may well know, grinding grain my hand is very hard work. So in order to make life more convenient and the production of flour more efficient, windmills were used to turn the large grinders.

Seeing as how this was so effective, it was inevitable that the windmill evolve into the 21st century in order to be used as a power source.

2) Solar energy – Many people think of this type of alternative home energy as something that's technologically advanced. In a sense, harnessing the power of the sun to produce electricity is. But this alternative home energy has already been in use for a long, long time.

Think about this word for a second: clothesline. Aha, you get it now, don't you? Yes, we have been using solar energy to dry our clothes for God knows how long. Think about that spin dryer or hair dryer you have and think about how much electricity it uses to do a task that the sun has been able to do for years, albeit at a slower pace.

This alternative home energy is harnessed nowadays for a variety of tasks. Some use it to heat their homes, others use solar power to heat water, and other people use solar cells to power small appliances and save a little on that electricity bill. The efficiency by which we are now able to convert solar power into electricity is of such a degree that it is very possible to power a whole house! Now, isn't that amazing?

3) Hydropower – This type of alternative home energy makes use of water currents in order to turn turbines to run generators. Once again, this is not really a new technology. Like windmills, waterwheels were often used to harness the power of a nearby river in order to grind grain into flour.

4) Biogas – This is another alternative home energy source. Biogas is produced naturally via the decomposition of different biological material. By using biogas instead of the common LPG, home owners can cut back on their heating bills.

As you can see, there are a lot of different types of alternative home energy. What you need to do is explore these options and discover which type is the best for you to use. You have also been informed as to how we have used these energy sources in the past and how they are being used today.

Unfortunately, some of the methods of harnessing these different alternative home energy types may yet seem impractical to the common homeowner. However, as technology continues to evolve, you can be sure that the use of alternative energy will be more efficient.

By using alternative home energy, you accomplish two things: you save on your expenses and you help create a better world. You see, alternative home energy sources do not produce any harmful effects to the environment. By using these sources, you harness relatively free energy. Some people may say that the devices used to harness these sources may be too expensive, but in the long run, you"ll end up saving so much more than you spend.