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Division of Math & Science / Building Green
An Introduction to the Green House Project
Throughout the course of the spring semester, the Environmental Science students at Brewton Parker College have worked tirelessly to design and create a home that is fully functional and that conserves both energy and water. The budget for the production of this home was $325,000 ($300,000 for the home and $25,000 for our car).
The home that we have designed is approximately 1800 sq. ft., enough room to comfortably fit a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children). Our home is earth sheltered which is something that is rarely seen in this part of the country but very popular as you move into the Midwest. The process of earth sheltering involves the excavation of dirt from the home site and then the re-covering of the home with the excavated dirt once it is built.
This house was constructed with two concepts in mind. The first was to build a fully functional house that was completely energy efficient and the second was to build this house in a manner that we conserved as much water as we could. The energy crisis is a major problem in our society today. With the diminishing fossil fuel reserves, it is extremely valuable to have a home which uses little, if any, of these fossil fuels. Another factor is the damage to the environment that fossil fuels create. The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the air which contribute to the steady warming of our planet. Less energy used in our homes equals a lesser amount of fossil fuels burned which in turn helps conserve our environment. We have designed and constructed our home with these thoughts in mind and believe that we have created a home that is completely energy efficient. The second concept that we wanted to achieve with this project was to conserve as much water as we possibly could. Most of us do not realize the amount of water that we consume, or better yet waste, in a single day. Brushing teeth, taking showers, washing hands, shaving and washing clothes are all tasks that we perform as a society in our everyday lives, but how much water do we actually use? We do not realize how much water we actually waste when we take a shower or how much water is wasted if we leave the faucet on while we brush our teeth. These little aspects of water usage are vitally important when discussing water conservation. Once again, we have designed our home with water efficiency in mind and you will see it in the presentation.
Why do we design and build homes in this manner? Why do we want to conserve energy and water? These are questions that have not been asked in past decades when deciding to construct a home but now, due to the energy and water crises that are prevalent all over the world, are some of the first aspects to decide when building a home. We need to try and consume less energy and water and it can be done very easily with the proper research. The conservation of water and energy does not have to be on a large scale.
Simple things can be done to accomplish energy and water conservation such as taking short showers, turning off lights when leaving a room, washing full loads of clothes, opening windows ect… All of these, while they may seem somewhat insignificant will have a profound impact on the energy and water that you will save. If you are thinking of building green, there are hundreds of places and web sites devoted to this process. At the conclusion of this project is a list of web sites that we used to construct this home. |
