A wide variety of concrete methods and products give you the techniques to create both beauty and function in ways that improve energy efficiency in your home. Sustainable development is about balancing human needs with the earth’s capacity to meet them. Concrete offers a wide range of capabilities to help achieve this balance.
What is Energy Efficiency?
Energy is the first “E” in LEED, and one of the tenets of sustainability. Saving energy reduces the use of natural resources as fuel, the need for additional power plants to generate electricity, and the energy and emissions associated with obtaining and using these fuel sources.
Comparison of Heating and Cooling Energy and Costs for Identical Houses with Mass and Frame Walls in Boulder, Colorado (from PCA CD026).
How Does Concrete Help Save Energy?
Buildings with exterior concrete walls, also called mass walls, utilize less energy to heat and cool than similarly insulated buildings with wood or steel frame walls. Over the course of a day, building systems respond to changing conditions in outside air temperature, occupant and equipment activity, and incident solar energy.
Benefits of Concrete Homes
Why build with concrete? Simply put, it's a better way to build a better home. Here are some of the tangible benefits of building with concrete:
• Beautiful
Concrete can create any shape or size home that you can imagine
• Built to Last
A concrete home is a solid investment for your family both in terms of value and safety (fire resistant)
• Energy Efficient
A concrete home can keep you comfortable year-round and reduce your utility bills. Between 40 and 60 % lower utility costs (especially in our desert climate). Lower homeowner maintenance and insurance costs
• Low Maintenance
A concrete home requires far less work to keep it looking new (no termites, resistance to rot and peeling)
• Environmentally Friendly
Building concrete homes helps save our precious forests
• Quiet and Comfortable
The quiet comfort of concrete makes a concrete home a solid investment in lifestyle
• Solid Investments
A concrete home is a solid investment for your family in terms of value and safety.
Over the long run, a concrete home offers benefits like energy efficiency, disaster and fire resistance, and durability reduce the cost of owning a home. Reduced noise and more even temperatures mean quiet comfort that you can enjoy year round.
For more information about using concrete in your home and concrete construction including environmental benefits, LEED, and concrete house cost, contact G.L. Scrivens today.
Posted by stevie | JULY, 2011 
