When building a home we all have a list of \u201cmust haves\u201d, and one of those that is usually pretty loosely defined is \u201cmust be energy efficient\u201d. \u00a0And while it seems like \u201clots of insulation\u201d would keep the home both warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, there is much more than meets the eye to building an energy efficient home that is healthy to live in and beautiful to look at.<\/p>\n
Mike and Cindi O\u2019Neil @ SolAire Homebuilders\u00a0have been building \u201cgreen\u201d homes in Central Oregon for 20 years now and have a simple, yet comprehensive approach to their general process that is completely logical for any of us here on the high desert. \u00a0Their approach centers first on optimizing the power of the sun.<\/p>\n
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In early solar homes it was assumed that you had to give up aesthetics or comforts in order to get the greatest benefits. Fortunately this idea is completely false! By designing with efficiency in mind and orienting the home to benefit from the sun\u2019s seasonal patterns, both passive and active solar strategies can decrease the energy requirements of your home from 30-85%. \u00a0This is known as a \u201cHigh Performance Home<\/b>\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some passive strategies include:<\/p>\n
Heating in Winter<\/b><\/p>\n Cooling in Summer<\/b><\/p>\n While good active strategies include:<\/p>\n Building an energy efficient home envelope is the next thing to consider. \u00a0While this sounds incredibly technical, essentially it means that by insulating to extremely high standards heat loss in the winter is reduced and heat gain in the summer is reduced as well. Logical, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n But there is much more to consider. Here are a just a few:<\/p>\n Reducing Energy Consumption in the Home is a necessity. \u00a0Pairing this with our other four steps increases efficiencies even further without sacrificing comforts or the Earth itself.<\/p>\n Every SolAire home has standard green products that save energy in your new home.<\/p>\n Did you know indoor air pollution is now considered one of the country\u2019s top five urgent environmental risks to public health? \u00a0We live in a beautiful place with amazing air quality and sadly without knowing it, code-built\u00a0homes could be silently killing us.<\/p>\n Our standard home interior selections are designed to be beautiful yet healthy for your family. Some of the ways we are working to Improve Indoor Air Quality are<\/p>\n 2015 celebrates 20 years of \u201cfirsts\u201d for SolAire in Central Oregon-The first LEED platinum certified building in Bend, the first NetZero home in Bend, and many more. \u00a0Come see us at the COBA Tour of Homes July 17th -19th & the 24th-26th where we will be showcasing our latest Net Zero home where we will announce our Tesla Powerwall offer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When building a home we all have a list of \u201cmust haves\u201d, and one of those that is usually pretty loosely defined is \u201cmust be energy efficient\u201d. \u00a0And while it seems like \u201clots of insulation\u201d would keep the home both warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, there is much more than meets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-efficiency","category-healthy-home"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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