You have to give thumbs up to the Building Code of Australia (BCA). They have read the signals of looming energy crisis pretty well. While we move on from one debate to another, presenting our stance on renewable energy and the great solar dream, the BCA has made it mandatory for homes to meet a minimum level of energy efficiency.
If you go for a 8-star (a level for energy efficient home design) home, you will add about 3.6% to your building budget. This being said, you will save on nearly 2/5th on your utility bills, thus offsetting the construction costs in little time. Let me take up 4 ways in which you can make your home more energy-efficient.
1. Insulation above all
I know I am not the first one to talk about insulation but I don’t want to be the one who starts trending on Twitter just because he missed INSULATION while talking about energy efficiency for homes.
Why is insulation so useful? If you have got an energy audit or a blower door test conducted for your home, you will have come across a wide variety of crawl spaces, leakage points, fissures and crevices across your home. Insulation resists loss of energy through these points in the form of hot or cold air.
You can choose spray foam board, reflective foil, loose fill, batt foam, among other options. The idea is not to be blindly moved by the R-value. Look at the leakage resistance (or lack of it) of your walls and vulnerable areas before choosing the insulation material.
2. Occupancy detectors
Occupancy detectors contribute greatly to the cause of energy efficient homes. They can help you optimise light and ventilation in accordance to the occupancy and volume of activity for any given room.
Let us say, all of a sudden the number of people in a room drop from 4 to 1 or let us assume that 3 fully active people just start snoring. What does the occupancy sensor do? It just eases the intensity of light and reduces the level of ventilation. Great!
3. Polished concrete and living walls
Go for sustainable design ideas. I am fond of polished concrete floors because unlike hardwood, tile or carpet floorings, they are sustainable and make do with their inherent materials.
Talking of energy-efficiency, living walls (green walls) are great examples of efficient and green (eco-friendly) options. They enhance the indoor air quality, battle bacteria, eliminate any possible degree of sick building syndrome and make the home ambience livelier (literally).
4. LEDs
LED took some time coming but once they arrived, have they not completely blown us away (all too pleasantly)? As a first, they do not bore us with dull lights which give a scarlet hue to a red t-shirt and a lavender dash to a mauve windcheater. You know who the culprit is. Who else but the incandescent bulbs (no offence meant to the brilliant mind that Edison was).
Moreover, the tungsten bulbs are really naughty in the way they dissipate a lot of energy as heat. An alternative, CFL, release too much toxin into the air. These two left us with very few options till LEDs landed.
Yes, LEDs are a trifle expensive but again the shelf life of LEDs is infinitely superior to its peers. You buy them once and good riddance to all the lighting troubles for ages!
If you engage sincerely in only these 4 pursuits you will have done a great “efficiency” favour to your home.
Can you list a few more methods you employ at your home to boost its energy efficiency?
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