Okay, it is difficult to achieve total green-ness in all appliances. The realistic goal is simple - minimum consumption of energy, adequate performance, and maximum longevity. The best buy is often different every year. I can’t keep up any more. But the folks who assemble this website, make an effort to give everyone a nice starting point.

EvergyStar Appliance List

If you find it here on EnergyStar.Gov, it is probably a good candidate for at least two out of three tests. It is up to you to research the reviews and statistics for the products individually and make the purchse that agrees with you. You could check it out on Consumer Reports, or Epinions.com.

Consumer Reports

Epinions.com

written by pencilman \\ tags: appliances

The fastest way to determine the cost of construction on a new home is to ask a local general contractor for the latest average cost per square foot of finish floor area. It won’t be accurate, but it is a good starting point. Two years ago, in my region, the answer was $150 per SF for a small, medium quality home, and an average of about $300 to $500 per SF for somewhat larger homes which tended to call for higher quaility as well.  It has risen substantially since then, and it will be different in every region depending upon the availability of certain materials, how much shipping is required, the geological conditions on the land, the cost of living for the builders, and a variety of other factors. Also, one cannot calculate the cost of construction purely based upon the square footage of the floor area. That number is very easily shattered by a simple change such as complicated site preparation, fancy floors, or high end windows, or greater attention to insulation or heating techniques that require state of the art components.

Instead of relying upon square footage to tell me if I have exceeded your budget, I have to make regular overall assessments as I proceed with the planning. Then if you say “granite countertops” and “touch sensitive sink faucet fixtures” then I am going to look around for something else to slice off of the house to make that affordable. It’s a balancing act. If you are wealthy, this topic will seldom arise because luxury will trump cost in most cases. But most people have a limited budget. My obsession has always been to meet that budget the best I can. Then again, many people don’t build the house until 2 years after I design it. When that happens, some bets are off. There is never a better time to build a house than right now. Waiting always costs more. I don’t like to seem pessimistic, but I have never seen prices go down in the 30 years I have been in architecture. They slow down, but they don’t go down.

written by pencilman \\ tags: construction cost

I don’t get involved much in interior decorating, so I don’t care what kind of table lamps you buy. My job does involve including on the plans for the contractors what kind of installed lighting fixtures will require electrical boxes, mountings, and installed fixtures. There are a  staggering number of good website catalogs for shopping for lighting fixture styles. You can shop for them now and specify them for the plan, or we can specify only the type of fixture on the plan, and you shop locally when you are ready to attached them. For the architectural planning, I need to know the locations of the fixtures, and whether they are recessed, flush, semi-flush, wall-mounted, tracks, pendents, sconces, or chandeliers.

Here are some nice lighting catalogs for you. Have fun shopping.

http://www.lightinguniverse.com/

http://lightingbygregory.com/index.html

http://www.lampsplus.com/

http://www.kichler.com/

http://lightingfixtures.com/index.asp

In all cases, I recommend using flourescent or LED bulbs in the lights, but not flourescent fixtures, which tend to be stark and commercial in appearence. Remember, if you want to use LED bulbs, which last forever, and hardly burn any electricity, you will want to add a few extra fixtures here and there to compensate for the lower brightness of LED lighting.

written by pencilman \\ tags: Lighting Fixtures