Article by Joseph O.

With the rising cost of energy consumption, the option of getting energy efficient homes has become a more feasible option for home buyers. The concept of using sustainable technologies in the house plans has become a practical and renowned concept among house builders. One house builder using sustainable design principles in their house plans is Urbanedge Homes.

At Urbanedge Homes, home buyers are offered eco friendly homes and energy efficient house plans. Unlike other homes, most of the Urbanedge Homes offered by Urbanedge have an energy rating of 5 stars. Aside from their Urbanedge Homes, their Urbangreen display homes have achieved a higher energy rating of 7 stars.

For home owners, there are various advantages that come with having energy efficient house plans. Some of these advantages are:

1. Power saving

By using sustainable design principles such as fluorescent lighting and gas-boosted solar hot water system in their house plans, home owners will be able to achieve better energy efficiency for their homes. At Urbanedge, their builders use careful solar orientation in the Urbangreen homes in order to provide better insulation within homes.

2. Lesser greenhouse gas emissions

With energy efficient house plans incorporated in their homes, home owners will be able conserve energy, which will lead to lesser greenhouse gas emissions. With display homes such as the Urbangreen homes, home owners will be able to reduce their household costs and become more environmentally responsible with a cleaner and healthier home.

Although homes that have energy efficient house plans may cost a little higher than ordinary homes, the long -term benefits offered by these energy efficient technologies will cover for the costs. So for home owners who want to save energy for their daily household energy usage, the Urbangreen homes can provide cheaper household running costs as well as a clean and healthy environment for the home owner to live in. For more information about the house plans of their Urbangreen homes, please visit http://www.urbanedgehomes.com.au/VIC/

About the Author

The author is a computer professional who works on the internet helping Urbanedgehomes increases its viewers through optimization. For world class Display homes Melbourne visit us online http://www.urbanedgehomes.com.au/

www.canaclothing.com simple green house for growing

goodnews.ws The house; It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings. Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.This building is one part of a low-impact or permaculture approach to life. This sort of life is about living in harmony with both the natural world and ourselves, doing things simply and using appropriate levels of technology. These sort of low cost ...

The link to download this house is over here: www.thesims3.com Okay, the house is finished, videos are in the process of being made, they will be up within the a few hours hopefully. I've started speeding up the vids by 600-800x instead of 400x cos no one wants to watch 50 mins of some guy building houses. So from now on they will be faster, which means, some details maybe too quick to follow and when I rotate the camera you may get dizzy. So I warn you all now! Unlike my other houses, I had no initial plans or ideas before starting so from the get go I literally had to build off of nothing. So as you can tell I've started to dabble with the more modern house design trends, ie. the feautre running from on top of the house, which I took from my final Sims 2 house. The pool is split level, and "connected" but hidden by the plants cos it looked weird without them. Not many people guessed except junkiddo, but the feature for this house is the guest house, which I took the general design from the guest house in The OC I forgot to make room for the indoor garden so I'll have to play around to make it work. The bridge I threw in, there wasn't much thought out into it. I'll upload the next part sometime today. I'll continue the hosue later tonight. Also, I've started speeding up the vids by 600-800x instead of 400x cos no one wants to watch 50 mins of some guy building houses. So from now on they will be faster, which means, some details maybe too quick to follow and when I ...
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Here's another idea on how to make a nice green house on the cheap. Check out these GREAT channels on youtube: www.gardenfork.tv www.youtube.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Zem Joaquin of Ecofabulous reveals her design plans for a sustainable house at the Ecohaus showroom in San Francisco, California, and some of the Ecofabulous partners get to work on several projects for the Dwell on Design Conference.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

The President visits a UPS customer center to speak about public and private Green Fleets as one small piece of his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, gas prices, and the latest jobs numbers. April 1, 2011.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Golden Eagle Log Homes provides Tyvek house wrap on every half log package. Proper installation of the Tyvek house wrap and window sealer can ensure energy efficiency and water tight windows to protect your log home. In this video Master Builder Bob Strosin explains how the Tyvek system and windows are installed. www.goldeneagleloghomes.com Log Homes and Log Home Floor Plans Cabins by Golden Eagle Log Homes Log Homes, building, construction, for sale, restoration, kit, tours

Article by Mark Mathis

If you're in the market for a new house plan, you've may have already become overwhelmed at the sheer volume of plans that are available today on both the internet and in house plan-related magazines and books.

Finding that perfect floor plan, in the perfect square footage range, matched with the perfect exterior Architectural style, can be very difficult. Added to that may be the confusion over which type of house plan package do you actually need?

Don't let the process overwhelm you. Here are some tips:

- Always make sure that you purchase your house plans from a Certified Professional Building Designer (CPBD) who is a member of the American Institute of Building Design.

Designers who have met the strict educational requirements, have suitable work experience and training in the field, and have passed the CPBD examination are highly-skilled professionals that specialize in the design and development of residential home plans. Don't settle for less in choosing your country home plans.

- If you find a house plan that fits "most" of your needs but not all, its typically quicker, better, and cheaper to have the actual designer of the house plans make these modifications for you, where possible.

- If you live in an area with unique building code requirements (i.e. hurricane/earthquake prone areas of the US) or specific state-licensed Architect/Engineer stamping requirements, then you may need to have the modifications done by a local professional. In this case, you would need to purchase a stock house plan package that comes with a "modifiable" license. The packages that come with this type license include: CAD Files, Reproducible/Vellum, and where available, PDF Files.

In regard to the PDF File plan package, a small number of leading home designers are now offering this option to their customers as a standard option for southern house plans.

What is the PDF File plan package:

The "PDF File" plan package is your best value, and provides you with an electronic version of the plan's construction documents. This plan package provides many advantages over the Reproducible, 8 Set, 5 Set, 1 Set, and Review Set plan packages including:

- Need more copies of the plan? No problem. Simply take the file to any local print shop and have them print out your copies in your desired size. In addition, you will have the copies available for use....that same day, in most cases.

- Need different size copies for different people? Easy. You can print out an 8 1/2 x 11 set for your office, a 11 x 17 set for your local building officials, a 18 x 24 set for your builder, a 24 x 36 master set for yourself. Unlimited flexibility.

- Need to modify the plan locally? PDF Files have got you covered. Simply take the PDF to a local building design professional and they will be able to update your drawings in the same way as if you provided them with a printed "Reproducible" set.

- Need your plans immediately? No need to wait for your plans to ship. Most designers can email you the PDF file, usually the same day.

Keep in mind that many designers might only offer a sub-group of their plans in the electronic PDF File format, but the more innovative, Award-winning design firms like House Plan Gallery, offer every single house plan in their collection with the PDF File plan package for house plan gallery designs.

The PDF File plan package is truly the "green" choice for buying house plans in this day and age. No paper is used in its creation, no waste by-products are generated, and its innate ability to be electronically and quickly "mailed" to you is a huge benefit that you can take advantage of today.

About the Author

Mark Mathis runs the popular House Plan Gallery Traditional house plans design firm specializing in the development of unique small house plans with flexible floor plan layouts and all the most-popular home design features. Shop online today!

Visit www.leapadaptive.com The most advanced on-line house plans available to owners, contractors, developers and architects. Our designs are modern and efficient, delivering "Pragmatic Green" design and building technologies at an affordable plan and build price. Info keywords green homes...