Living Green St Louis

Learn about living Green

Building a Green Home -

In building a "Green" home you need to look at what your budget is and then see what you can afford that is a "green", sustainable home.  Let's look at some factors:

  1. 2% Average additional amount it costs to construct a green building compared to a conventional one.

  2. $3-$5 Additional cost per square foot to construct a green building.

  3. 5-15% Cost premium for green buildings five years ago.
  4. $50-$75 Per square foot savings of a green building over twenty years.
  5. 20-30% Amount builders can reduce building energy consumption while sticking to a budget. (Wisconsin Green Building Alliance)
As you can see it will cost a little more to build green but you can more then recoup the cost in 5-20 years.

Using Solar energy is a great way to build green and there are lots of ways to use the Sun's energy. Passive Solar uses natural light to brighten and warm your home.  Design your house according to your climate and your heating needs.”
A passive-solar home requires:

  • South-facing glass windows, sized for your climate (usually 7 to 12 percent of the floor area of your home)
  • Adequate shading in the summer
  • Indoor thermal mass—such as concrete, tiles or layers of sheet rock—that can store heat
  • Proper insulation

You can retrofit an existing home by installing insulated shades to keep in heat on winter nights and keep sun out in summer, or add more heat-capturing thermal mass such as extra layers of plaster on the walls. Trellis with the right kind of plants for the climate will shade the house in the summer months and die back to allow the sun in during the winter.

Our builder is  Steve Horn, president of MasterCraft Design and Build

Russell Scheider Discovered Lyptus wood and designed our Kitchen cabinets with Lyptus

Basile Landscaping provided the stone for the Walkout and is doing the Rain Gardens

Skylights, Sun Tunnels and Solar Attic fans from St Louis Skylights, contact Jerry Whalen.

Great place for Lightning and Fireplaces Light Brite Distributing in Trenton, IL