Love the sun and warmth that skylights provide, but wonder what part they play in an energy efficient home?

Skylights can provide you with some energy saving benefits, but there are many things to consider in avoiding some common skylight slip-ups.

Skylights allow sunlight into our living spaces from above without compromising privacy. In delivering abundant daylighting, skylights can reduce energy consumption used for lighting, particularly in interior rooms that do not have direct access to exterior windows.

So, which features should you look for to enjoy the benefits and minimize any negative side effects that skylights can have? Consider the following when evaluating skylights to ensure that they are a bright feature in your home.

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LEED has made quite an impact in the green building world and more buildings are beginning to receive recognition for their designs. But how does LEED determine which buildings get to don the highly recognized plaque? They use a consensus-based point system that determines a building’s level of sustainability and ranks it accordingly.

LEED’s ranking system may not be an exact measure of sustainability, but it provides the structure necessary to evaluate the construction and operation of a building and its environmental impacts. The ranking system is built from six categories that are used to evaluate a design. Each category has a maximum amount of points that can be earned. Below is a description of these categories:
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Last week I took a tour of NEXUS, Boston’s Green Building Resource Center. An very knowledgeable employee of NEXUS, Shoshana Friedman, showed me around their new space on 38 Chauncy Street in Boston.

NEXUS is more or less the epicenter of green building resources for Boston, MA. It has a product showroom, a material and resource library, space for events, and provide a place for people studying for LEED certification. You can also take a tour of the building from their friendly staff!

I was curious if other similar green building centers exist. They’re a little hard to find—a quick search I did turned up one in Atlanta and one in Santa Monica (which is actually co-sponsored by Global Green USA). Let us know if your searches turn up other green building centers in different parts of the country.

In addition to serving as an educational resource to the building community, NEXUS is a working example of green products in use. They are currently in the process of being LEED certified under the Commercial Interior (CI) bracket. Here are a few “green” features that I found interesting:

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Part of building a home with renewable energy systems, such as solar panels, is deciding whether or not it should be connected to the electrical grid. There are numerous considerations — namely practical, economic, and environmental –involved in making your decision.

However, this choice can be difficult without a good understanding of what the terms grid-tied and off-grid actually mean. A grid-tied home is connected to power lines which transmit electricity to the home, mainly from power plants, yet can also produce power on-site using renewable energy systems. An off-grid home is not connected to power lines and, therefore, it relies solely on renewable energy systems to produce electricity and storage systems such as batteries to mediate the supply.

As we examine the practical implementation, cost, and environmental impact of each, we’ll see how being connected to the electrical grid is typically more beneficial than being completely detached from the predictable source of electricity and storage it provides.

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Green homes can look modern and sleek, but what if you want a more traditional looking home? Like a craftsmen or a cape. Holistic Homes is building four green and energy efficient craftsman style homes in Woodstown, New Jersey that are big on style and luxury and small on cost and energy.

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Planning to build a green home can be confusing.What makes a green home green?What factors are most important and why? 

Factors such as, building envelope, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, renewable energy, local conditions and green materials have significant effects on the health and efficiency of our homes. Deciding what matters the most to you and your family is up to you.

Protecting your home from the elements is one of the most important considerations. The building envelope is the separation between the interior and exterior of a home (essentially, it is the outer shell). This separation is usually made up of walls, a roof, and a foundation and is an important factor in the home’s efficiency.

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