Building a green home – a home with a small carbon footprint that uses less energy – requires a little more planning than a standard residence. It can save you money throughout your time living there, though.

Let’s start at the home’s top: the roof. You’ll need to hire a roofer experienced in the various types of green roofs, such as solar roofs and green waterproof barrier roofs designed for garden cultivation on top of your house. Instead of gutter systems and downspouts, the green roof drainage used by these rooftop garden homes stores water in an irrigation layer and a water drainage and filter layer.

Other types of green roof panels include solar panels and solar roofs. The materials used to construct these roofs provide the electricity the home uses. Panels on the roof collect the sun’s rays and transmit them to batteries that store the solar energy. The solar panel system works with an electrical inverter to transform the sunshine that hits your home’s roof into energy that you can use to power your lights, cooling, heating, and more.

Building a green home can reduce your energy costs in many ways. Keep reading to learn how insulated concrete, breathable walls, and other green options can help create a comfortable and energy-efficient home.

Planning on building a new home in the near future and unsure where exactly to start? If you’re looking at home construction and trying to decide what would be most energy efficient for you and your family then here are a couple of tips to help you construct that home that you’ve been dreaming of for years but also that home that is going to last for you and your family for the years to come.

Breathable Walls

Installing breathable walls could improve your home. Unlike your typical standard home these walls do not have the same seal that locks the vapors and air out of your home. Instead, with breathable walls your home is encouraged to breathe and accept the climates outside rather than sealing everything off. Breathable walls could keep that mold from generating and making it difficult for you to breathe.

Insulated Concrete

Installing insulated concrete can be energy-efficient, healthy, safe and even green! These are hallow blocks that form the walls of your home and help your home to be more energy efficient. These blocks make it easier to lock in your heating and cooling all while giving you the space for all of your plumbing and electrical needs while insulating your home and giving you a house that is going to carefully lock in what should be inside and keep out what shouldn’t enter your home.

These green building materials can help you to build a new construction and home that is going to last you and allow you to grow. These IFC bricks can even in some terms be classified as being six to nine times stronger than your typical buildings. These insulated concrete forms could be just the type of building blocks that your home needs to withstand any temperature problems that may have plagued your home otherwise.

By making your home more energy efficient and constructing it in such a way that you don’t have to concern yourself with many of the problems that the standard builds may have possessed in the past you can worry about the most important things once you finally find yourself inside of that home that has taken so long to come to fruition. Pick out those items that are going to benefit your home rather than those that will hinder it in the future.