Your Guide to Green & Healthy Home Building

Welcome to MyGreenExpert.com

There are many decisions to make when constructing a new home or renovating your existing one. It's also a great opportunity to put your values to real use.  Whether you're concerned about limiting your carbon footprint, using sustainable materials, or simply knowing more about green design/build options that save money, this site is for you.

Here you'll find resources to help you build a new house or remodel an existing home in an earth-friendly and healthy way.

Green Options Cost Less

People often think green/ recycled options cost more. However, in many cases, one can make selections that are less damaging to the environment, and healthier for your family at the same or lower cost.  The definition of cost also varies based on your time horizon. Are you only looking at the upfront purchase cost--as many builders do--or the total cost over the life of the appliance?  The "life cycle cost" is a critical consideration when selecting heating and cooling systems and appliances, where operating cost is a significant factor.

Certain environmental goods are practically free, such as positioning your home to maximize passive solar gain in winter.  A naturally lit home is more pleasant to live in, decreases energy costs, and increases your home's value.

Many Eco-Friendly Alternatives Exist

Building green is now mainstream, no longer held the province of tree-hugging extremists.  We're not talking about living in a cave, hut, tree, or subterranean earthwork.  It's about making good economical and environmental decisions for today and the future.

We demonstrate how you can make environmentally sensitive selections without sacrificing quality living. In fact, we'll show you how such selections can be made for homes of all price levels with great long-term benefits.  Who doesn't want to reduce energy costs and improve indoor air quality and family health?

There are eco-friendly options for every part of your home. We'll show tradeoffs between available products and between traditional and new solutions.   We also point out some eco-friendly products that are either "faux green" or not ready to replace traditional approaches.

Shared Personal Experiences

Having personally experienced the challenges of designing and constructing a green home, working with people in the industry who were not familiar with green homebuilding, we understand the confusion that exists among people who want to make good choices.

The resources here cover the entire process including how to choose an architect, builder or contractor, site selection and situating a home (where is the sun?), design considerations, construction materials, insulation, heating and cooling systems, windows, cabinets, flooring, lighting, appliances, fixtures, landscaping, and much more.

The information is changing rapidly as the building industry recognizes the need to be more ecologically aware.  More homeowners care about the impact of housing (the second largest source of global carbon emissions) and are making better homebuilding decisions for our common future.

For more information, contact me at Beth@MyGreenExpert.com