Buildings & Shelters Section

Houses Made of Straw

Submitted by cactii on December 12, 2009 - 9:23am
Trenches for the Footings of My Straw Bale House

Straw bale houses are not a new idea stemming from green revolution participators. They actually have a lengthy history in the United States.

I've chosen to construct my home out of straw bales because of the thermal properties of the construction materials.

Currently, I live in a rented house constructed of the standard materials that are used in my area which are basically cement blocks and brick. It's widely accepted here that these are the best materials to build with because of their "thermal" properties. I don't accept the common belief and am sure there is a better and more efficient construction material available. Read the full article »

12 Volt Lighting and a Normal Off-Grid Home

Submitted by cactii on December 5, 2009 - 8:33am

When planning to go off grid there's a lot to think about when it comes to your electrical requirements. One of the things that should be taken into consideration is the electrical load and type of electricity you'll need in your house.

I was thinking about the efficiency of inverters and thought it might be a good idea to go with all 12 volt lighting in my house instead of the standard 120 volt lighting. I thought that I would save a little bit of money by being able to reduce my inverter size requirements and I thought that I may use a little less electricity because instead of going through an inverter, and losing some power to efficiency, I'd be wiring the lights directly to the battery bank. Read the full article »

Using Google Sketchup as an Eco-Tool

Submitted by cactii on November 9, 2009 - 8:48am
Sketchup Will Allow You to Show Shadows to Help You Plan a More Eco-Friendly Home

Google makes some pretty awesome tools and one of the really useful ones which can be used to help plan more energy efficient buildings but doesn't seem to be all too well known yet is Google Sketchup. You can Download Sketchup for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X.

Sketchup is a 3 Dimensional drawing tool, it's easy to learn and use. Within a few hours of playing around you'll be able to have some pretty complex drawings happening. Read the full article »

Tankless Hot Water Heaters Save Big

Submitted by cactii on November 4, 2009 - 7:19am

I had used tankless water heaters before in Indonesia and in Venezuela but about 3 years ago I installed my own tankless water heater and discovered that the benefits were real.

The biggest reason I decided to go with inline water heating was because I thought it was wasteful to keep so much water constantly hot. I believed that I, as an environmentally conscious person, could do a lot better than go with a standard hot water tank. It helped that I was also in the market for a new hot water heater and that I believed I'd be saving money in the long run too. Read the full article »