The answer is not simple. If there is a lot of glass on the south wall, is it a solar home? What if it has skylights and an entire wall of windows facing south? What if it has a massive stone chimney and two woodstoves?

To me, a solar green home means reducing energy consumption to the lowest affordable level and making the smallest impact possible on the environment in every way.

Glass sunrooms are an huge heat loss in this northern cold climate. Skylights lose more heat than they provide. An entire wall of glass on the south is too much glass, and not enough wall. Wood burning is an inefficient and wasteful use of wood that is in short supply.

Designing a Solar Home is a state of mind in which we “try” to be as green as we can. Green is a philosophy and a science. Example: Which is more green? 1. Asphalt roofing made of oil, or; 2. Metal roofing that lasts five times longer and is made of metal that burned coal to smelt it. When you don’t know, you go with your preference.

Green is also generally more expensive to buy, but often cheaper to own.  Manufacturers want to latch on to that new buzzword “green” and will make claims that sound smart. Trace your product choices back to their source. If you buy an endangered wood, you contribute to extinction. If you buy 20 square feet of PV Solar Panels, that doesn’t mean you have a green house. When every decision you made in the assembly of your home went through some examination based upon a sincere assessment of environmental impact and economic feasability, you then employ those decisions in construction, then you have the best Green Solar Home you could build.

written by pencilman \\ tags: what is a solar home