Sustainable Home Design is Good News for Planet Earth

Modern civilization's heavy reliance on fossil fuels for energy is pushing the earth towards the danger zone. Every day billions of vehicles, factories and homes spew toxic gases in the air which float up in the atmosphere to create what is known as the greenhouse effect. This has been raising the temperature of the biosphere at an alarming rate. If it continues unabated, the earth may eventually become uninhabitable. However, the supply of fossil fuels is not unlimited and we may run out of them in less than two centuries. This is both good news and bad news. Good news for planet earth, and bad news for the human civilization - if it is unable to find a viable alternative soon.

Fortunately, there are many alternative sources of energy. Hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, geothermal energy, tidal waves and solar power are some of them. While hydropower is in abundant supply, it is becoming more and more expensive every year because of rising production costs. Nuclear power is not only expensive, it's also extremely dangerous. Wind, geothermal and tidal waves require specific locations and circumstances.

Sunlight, however, is almost universally available on earth and inexhaustible. It can be used to generate electricity, heat water and do other things. This availability has given rise to the concept of energy efficient, sustainable home design, as promoted in Australian writer, Michael Mobbs's book Sustainable House, and websites like Sustainable Suburbia.

A sustainable design is one that makes it possible for a house to generate its own clean energy and conserve resources at the same time. A sustainable home will most often make use of solar panels to generate free electricity from sunlight. A solar panel is made of an array of palm-sized silicon cells arranged in rows and columns on a board. The cells generate electricity when exposed to direct sunlight. The electricity thus generated is either stored in a set of batteries attached to the panels from where it is supplied to light bulbs and household appliances, or fed back into the grid. For the DIY types, there are now instructions online for DIY solar panels that can be installed easily. But check out the pros and cons of this method of going solar. Solar panels require practically zero maintenance, have a long life and the electricity generated is totally free. Many green companies these days produce low-energy appliances that are perfect for use with solar electricity.

What else do sustainable home designs entail?

The concept of sustainable home design doesn't end with energy efficiency, and the concept of energy efficient home design doesn't end with solar panels. There are other ways to utilize the sun's energy such as a water heater or even a solar cooker. For those who have a swimming pool, there is the solar pool cover which prevents the loss of water through evaporation and keeps the water warm at the same time. You can also invest in a solar hot water heater or solar garden lights.

At the same time sustainable home design will include techniques to harvest rainwater and safely re-use rain water, it will consider the materials used in the building of the house, both from an energy perspective and in terms of sustainable development practices (for example, not using old growth rainforest timbor), and it will do all this while endeavouring to maintain a high standard of living for the home's inhabitants. In short, there are miriad ways for the individual householder or home builder to become more sustainable in their way of life, which is good news both for the planet earth, and for human civilization.