
Sustainability in construction: How to save money and resources
Choosing the right building materials
Well-insulated facades, windows, and roofs are now standard in construction. However, it is also important to use sustainable building materials and insulation. These may not always be the cheapest option when building, but they pay off after a few years. They are healthier and have a positive effect on the well-being of the residents. Sustainable building materials include sand-lime brick, clay, and wood. Natural insulation includes wood shavings, sheep's wool, and cork. In existing properties, it is also a good idea to renovate old facades to reduce energy consumption. Good insulation reduces heating costs immensely.
Active and passive houses
An active house motivates you to exercise, and a passive house is ideal for a DVD night on the couch? Not quite. Both active and passive houses help to reduce energy costs. A passive house achieves this by consuming as little energy as possible. The heat generated by your own body, technical devices, and sunlight in the house is used as efficiently as possible, for example, through ventilation with heat recovery. This means that less active heating is required. Active houses have higher energy consumption in comparison. However, this is not a problem because they cover their own energy needs with solar energy, heat pumps, or photovoltaic systems and, in the ideal case, even produce more energy.
Solar and geothermal energy
Active and passive houses make extensive use of the energy provided by the earth and the sun. Solar systems are no longer an innovation. More and more people are installing them on their own roofs. This is also easy to do with existing properties. Geothermal energy is also being used more and more by private individuals. This involves tapping into the energy of the earth's core. Through targeted drilling, heat pumps can use geothermal energy from depths of up to 400 meters to supply the house with hot water and energy.
Control your energy consumption with a smart home
Whether you generate your own energy or not, monitoring your energy consumption offers significant savings potential. Modern technologies make this very easy: heating systems, lights, and other electrical appliances can be programmed to only consume energy when they are actually needed. Smart home technologies are easy to install and are also suitable for saving energy in existing properties. If you are thinking about renovating your property to make it more sustainable, it is important to first find out how much energy you consume and where there is potential for savings.
Want to know how much energy your property consumes? Contact us now. We will be happy to advise you.
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