These days, understanding what is a sustainable home is more important than ever. As people grow more conscious about their actions and lifestyles’ impact on the environment, the concept of sustainability continues to grow.
Housing is a significant factor in how humans impact the environment, making sustainable house designs vital when considering where to live. Sustainable housing features are a part of the overall equation in a sustainable home, which calls for a deeper understanding of the concept to help you choose the best possible place to live.
So, what is a sustainable home? Let us define the term and look at what makes a home sustainable.
What Is the meaning of a sustainable home?
A sustainable house ensures comfortable and healthy living while utilising the least environmental resources, such as energy use, while releasing the least possible waste to the environment. This building strives to be as harmonious with the environment as possible.
So whether you want peace and quiet, or are running a business from an apartment in Melbourne, you’ll have everything you need.
What should a sustainable house include?
A sustainable house designer needs to ensure that whatever final concept they come up with adheres to certain rules to ensure sustainable home building:
Energy Efficient
Part of sustainable house features includes having to be saving energy as much as possible. Minimising energy usage minimises the depletion of natural resources.
That calls for using natural light as much as possible, relying on energy-efficient lighting when necessary, such as LED bulbs and automated lighting, and reliance on alternative energy sources, such as solar power.
Additionally, the building has to incorporate sustainable housing materials that help save energy, such as double glazing on windows to prevent heat loss.
Environmentally Healthy
Proper waste disposal is vital when building a sustainable house, which calls for a robust and gentle waste management system. All waste from the kitchen, bathroom, exhaust fumes, and other wastes needs to be disposed of in a manner that doesn’t negatively impact the environment.
Therefore, carbon emissions, heat from air conditioning, etc., should be managed appropriately.
Comfortable
Occupants of sustainable homes should enjoy their stay. This calls for adequate lighting, minimising environmental noises, proper temperature regulation, supply of fresh air, and easy access to all amenities.
Therefore, a sustainable house designer should include double glazing on windows or triple glazed windows to keep excess noise out, good insulation to prevent erratic temperature changes, efficient air conditioning to maintain proper indoor air quality, proper heat flow to prevent the sun’s heat from making occupants uncomfortable, and similar measures.
All these features will help you whether you’re a permanent resident or a student studying in Melbourne.
Use Recycled Materials
Building a sustainable house also requires using sustainable materials to help plough back the dumping of waste in the environment. Additionally, recycled materials help ensure sustainable, affordable housing.
Combining natural and recycled materials helps minimise reliance on synthetic materials, which wreaks havoc on the environment.
What is the most sustainable home?
As you design sustainable house concepts, you have to keep three things in mind:
Environmental sustainability
A sustainable home design ensures the structure minimises greenhouse gas emissions, ensures no lost energy or water wastage, energy savings, and keeps waste production minimal from construction up to occupancy.
Economic sustainability
A sustainable house is designed to save as much money as possible during construction and occupancy.
The designer ensures the plan is solid, robust, and diverse, so minor renovation is necessary later if any. Such changes usually increase construction and maintenance costs, thus defeating the principle of sustainability.
Additionally, the building incorporates cheap and renewable energy sources, fewer materials, etc., to keep running costs minimal, use less energy, and operation less harmful to the environment.
Social sustainability
A sustainable home also ensures its occupants are comfortable and safe, find using its amenities easy, and remain accessible to practically anyone. For example, children, the elderly, the physically impaired, and those with limited mobility should not have a hard time using the house.
How do you create a sustainable home?
When creating a sustainable home, keep these tips in mind:
- Settle for an eco-friendly layout and location to effectively support all other sustainable goals you may have for the house.
- Use more recycled building materials, which reduce waste dumping in the environment by converting some of them into useful materials.
- Install energy-efficient windows and doors, such as triple-glazed windows and similar considerations, to minimise heat loss, noise pollution, etc.
- Break away from conventional house designs, such as opting for prefabricated homes and shipping container homes. These save a ton of money in construction, make use of structural elements that would have been discarded, and ensure energy efficiency.
- Make solar power your primary energy source as it is abundant, infinite, and cheap in the long run, despite the high initial investment cost when you install solar panels.
Final words: what is a sustainable home?
Whether you’re studying in Melbourne or running a business from an apartment in Melbourne, it is wise to do your part by finding sustainable Melbourne apartments for rent.
A sustainable home is the best living place as it positively impacts the environment, thus ensuring enough natural resources for generations to come.
To live sustainably, you don’t need to spend a lot of money, but planning ahead is crucial.
