Through natural building, there are many ways to prevent global warming. Conventional suburban houses are large, poorly designed, and inefficient, and the manufacturing and construction processes are big contributors to global warming.
Natural building is a sustainable design approach that promotes low impact homes built with natural and recycled materials. I will highlight two different techniques in natural building that promote global warming prevention through increased energy efficiency.
Passive solar homes
You can lower your energy bills with a home that is designed for maximum energy efficiency. One of the most important design elements in efficient natural buildings is passive solar construction. Passive solar homes feature smart design considerations that can dramatically decrease the need for active energy heating and cooling systems — or, in other words, you will spend less money on heating and cooling.
Effectively, passive solar homes stay cooler in the summer, and warmer in the winter with lesser need for air conditioning and heating. Passive solar homes feature large south-facing windows that let in a wealth of sunlight in wintertime and help warm up a space. With the proper calculations and other considerations, direct sunlight is prevented from entering in summertime, keeping a room cool and comfortable.
Thermal mass
You can live more comfortably in a house that features thermal mass. Combined with the concepts of passive solar construction, thermal mass will help capture and store heat for extended periods of time. Consumer Energy Center says: “thermal mass in the form of concrete, masonry or water has a much better storage capacity for heating and cooling than does the surrounding air.” Nothing feels nicer than a warm surface to walk or sit on.
Let’s imagine our passive solar home with an earthen floor. An earthen floor will capture heat as a result of sunlight striking the surface, and that heat will be stored over an extended period of time. Or one other possibility is to build a cob wall where southern sunlight will strike its surface. The heat stored in this wall will slowly seep out into the surrounding space.
Ultimately, mass floors and walls can store heat for long periods of time, resulting in less energy spent on heating the air in a space.
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You can learn how to prevent global warming through natural building techniques. Passive solar design, combined with thermal mass results in energy-efficient homes that result in less carbon entering our precious atmosphere.
See also: Ways to prevent global warming on your vacation
(Image credit: flickr via theentiremikey)
This is a very disappointing article. It’s a bait and switch article. You think you’re going to read something about global warming but the headline is bogus. The headline leads you to believe that the article will tell us something about global warming and green building but it’s just a promotional ad. Where are the statistics corroborating that green building is a solution to global warming?????
This is a very disappointing article. It’s a bait and switch article. You think you’re going to read something about global warming but the headline is bogus. The headline leads you to believe that the article will tell us something about global warming and green building but it’s just a promotional ad. Where are the statistics corroborating that green building is a solution to global warming?????
The trucks carrying all that thermal concrete mass probably created quite a bit of CO2 themselves.
The trucks carrying all that thermal concrete mass probably created quite a bit of CO2 themselves.