Green Building in North Texas

Attributes of a Home That Is Built Green for North Texas 

To greatly oversimplify, a home that is built green in North Texas deals more with cooling than heating and is basically concerned with three attributes of energy-efficiency:

Proper Radiant Heat From Sun: 

The most common form of radiant heat transfer is the transfer of heat from the sun to the earth. This is what keeps us warm. However, you don't too much of a good thing in the spring, summer, or fall in North Texas. Think of it this way: When a cloud blocks the sun's rays, a person will feel instantly cooler because they are no longer receiving the sun's direct infrared radiant heat rays. The passing cloud did not cool the surrounding air. The loss of warmth is due to the cloud blocking the transmission of heat rays from the sun. So proper radiant heat from the sun includes everything from having proper orientation for the home to having the correct overhangs on the home. 

Tight homes: 

Keeping a home tight involves keeping as few air changes per hour as possible in a home.

Controlling Humidity:

Controlling humidity in a southern home means starting with sizing the air-conditioning--it particularly means not oversizing the HVAC system.

Again, this is over simplification but it does describe the first and most important steps in a green-built house for the North Texas area.

Since the first premise of green building is that the building will be energy efficient, the above attributes are not only important when you are building a new home green, they are also important when you are remodeling a home to be green.

Green built in North Texas.