What is an Eco-friendly Home Design?
Eco-friendly home design, also called sustainable home design, is a method of designing and building homes that reduces environmental impact. As more homeowners are focused on addressing challenges to the earth and promoting a more responsible construction approach, eco-friendly home design is more important than ever.
Elements of Sustainable Design
Energy Efficiency: Reducing energy consumption is at the core of sustainable design. Homeowners are always looking for ways to save money on energy bills, and many want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Eco-friendly home design accomplishes both with strategies that include passive solar design and proper insulation.
Conserving Water: As the climate changes, so does the amount of water available in some parts of the country. Sustainable design considers this by installing low-flow fixtures, rainwater harvesting measures, and drought-resistant landscaping.
Sustainable Materials: These are building materials that are renewable, locally sourced, recycled, or require low amounts of energy to produce and transport. Examples of sustainable materials include bamboo, reclaimed wood, and earth-based materials.
Indoor Environmental Quality: The homeowners or building occupants are central to every eco-friendly home design. These designs prioritize the health and well-being of everyone living inside. Focusing on this aspect of the build includes improving indoor air quality through proper ventilation and incorporating natural light and biophilic design elements.
Skylights Are a Great Upgrade for Eco-friendly Home Design
One element that can be overlooked when working with eco-friendly home design is skylights. This isn’t because people don’t enjoy them. Many just don’t realize that skylights are energy efficient and contribute positively to indoor environments.
Benefits of Skylights to Eco-friendly Homes
A single skylight has the potential to save homeowners hundreds of dollars a year on HVAC and lighting costs. They help with heat gain in the winter, and venting skylights help keep homes cool during the summer. The VELUX Skylight System includes a factory-installed shade to further reduce heat and glare in the summer while helping to retain heat in the winter. Glazing options are available to reduce heat gain even further. A 2’x4’ skylight lets in more than 2.5 times the amount of light of a vertical window and can generate up to as many lumens as 11 100-watt lightbulbs. This reduces the amount of artificial lighting needed for many homeowners.
VELUX is also committed to sustainable manufacturing practices. Each skylight comes with an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). This document reinforces our sustainability commitment by detailing where we source our materials and the packaging we use to ship our skylights. Every VELUX skylight is made from glass, composite materials, and 50% recycled aluminum. They are built for durability, and many last up to 30 years.
Benefits of Sun Tunnel Skylights to Eco-friendly Homes
Not every room in the house can have a skylight. Smaller rooms, like laundry rooms and bathrooms, can benefit from a VELUX Sun Tunnel. These are acrylic/polycarbonate domes or flat glass panels. They are installed on the roof and connected to a highly reflective rigid or flexible silver tube. This tube supplies diffused daylight to the room below and can provide up to as many lumens as three 100-watt lightbulbs. A solar-powered night light can be added to our rigid tunnel models. This can eliminate the need for a lightbulb, saving homeowners on their lighting bill.
VELUX Skylights and Sun Tunnel Skylights Are Great for Eco-Friendly Home Design
Natural light from skylights and Sun Tunnel skylights has been proven to have several health benefits for homeowners. Many have found they sleep better at night, contributing to more energy and reducing stress. VELUX Design and Product Advisors are available for homeowners to better understand how venting skylights, curb-mount skylights, or tubular skylights boost eco-friendly home design. For hands-on installation assistance, we have opened Pro Partner Academies in select areas. On-the-job training is also available in select areas with our mobile training van.
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