Building A Home? Go Green With These Construction Upgrades

From the process of saving money for a down payment and applying for a mortgage to searching the various listings in your desired area, it is easy to see the challenges of buying a home. Unfortunately, the enormous selection of listings may cause you to settle on a property that does not fit your every desire and need. However, building your home is a great way to get the home of your dreams, especially if want to go green.

While considered a trend for many people, an eco-friendly home is easy to achieve during the initial stages of new construction. If you are beginning construction on your new home, go green with these environmentally friendly updates.

Green Plumbing

Designing the plumbing of your new home requires more than choosing toilets and a kitchen sink. To ensure your dream home is truly green, consider these eco-friendly plumbing upgrades:

  • Tankless Water Heater – Doing laundry, bathing, and even washing dishes all require hot water, so a water heater is a necessary appliance for your home. Traditional water heaters heat water constantly, and they waste a great deal of energy. In addition, they quickly run out of hot water. Thankfully, a tankless water heater is a beneficial upgrade that conserves energy, resulting in a savings of up to $80 per year.  
  • Low Flow Fixtures – Choosing the plumbing fixtures for your home can be an exciting process due to the modern designs available. However, to maximize your eco-friendly lifestyle, be sure to choose low flow faucets and showerheads for your home. Watersense-labeled plumbing fixtures reduce water usage by 30 percent or more. Not only does this conserve the planet's natural resources, but it also decreases your monthly water bills.

Plumbing encompasses a large part of your construction budget, but these simple updates can save you money and ensure a large return on investment.

Green Heating and Air Conditioning

While surprising to hear, your heating and air conditioning accounts for more than half of your home's overall energy usage. Due to this large usage, it is important to choose green systems to heat and cool your home. Understanding how traditional systems work is a great place to begin.

Traditional heating and air conditioning systems require one or more outdoor units. Located outdoors, these units move conditioned air into your home through ductwork. Unfortunately, 25 to 30 percent of energy is lost through this ductwork. Preventing this loss of heated and cooled air is possible, but choosing a ductless mini-split system for your new home is a greener alternative.

Considering a mini-split system does not require ductwork to move heated and cooled air through your home, you do not need to worry about wasted energy from leaks in your ductwork. In addition to energy conservation, here are a few other benefits of a ductless mini-split system:

  • Desired Comfort – Smaller units are mounted to the walls of your home in "zones." Each unit offers its own temperature controls to heat and cool its specific zone. This ensures each area of the home is at a desirable temperature without any waste.
  • Decreased Noise – Compressors and motors located in the outdoor unit of a traditional system are excessively loud. Thankfully, mini-split systems do not require compressors or motors in or outside your home. This decrease noise is not only beneficial to you and your family, but also to your neighbors.
  • Improved Air Quality – Ductwork moves conditioned air through your home, but it also circulates dust, dirt, and other allergens. Eliminating ductwork with a mini-split system also reduces allergens inside your home.

New home construction is an exciting, yet overwhelming process. Thankfully, using these green updates, your dream home will be attractive, valuable, and sustainable. Contact professionals like Riverside Heating & Plumbing to assist you.

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