Green home design, green home & green house plans by Fox

Green, energy efficient home plans and design.

-What makes a green home.

Green buildings are designed, constructed and placed on your
site to balance the well being of one's family with the
community, and the natural environment. Homes consume more
than three-quarters of all the electricity produced by American
power plants. The U.S. Energy Information Administration states
that buildings are responsible for almost half of all annual
greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. Green building practices
and techniques minimize the impact of a building on the
environment.

Green building techniques and design are considered for all Fox
Design Studio projects. Our designs help decrease heating and
cooling costs, increase indoor air quality, conserve natural
resources and make the most of natural light. The use of
alternate energy sources, photovoltaic panels, geothermal heat
pumps, and passive solar design can dramatically decrease the
fuel consumption of a home.

FDS incorporates many standard green building techniques. Air
leaking out of a building can carry damage-causing moisture into
building cavities and heat out. A blower door test uses a
powerful fan that mounts into an exterior door frame. The fan
pulls air out of the house, lowering the air pressure inside. The
higher outside air pressure then flows in through all unsealed
cracks and openings. Once these leakage areas are identified
materials such as caulking, weather strips, and spray foam are
used to seal the areas and improves the home's energy
performance.

Another standard green technique is the use of heat recovery
ventilators (HRVs). HRVs achieve two primary goals: they
re-cycle heat out of exhausted air and they improve the quality
of the air inside a home. A heat recovery ventilator will capture
the heat from exhaust air and use it to pre-treat forced air in a
building thus improving the energy efficiency of a home. A HRV
will also exhaust stale air out of a building removing radon and
other vapors from a building that will improve the health
atmosphere of the home.