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BIO 220 RS Sustainable Home Creation
Environmental Science (BIO-220)
Grand Canyon University
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Sustainable Home Creation Name: Gianna Rule This worksheet is to show how you will create a more sustainable home. The key is to defend your choices with facts and citing your sources, you do not need to choose a single family home. Cite sources! Current Future Improvements Described your indoor living space (i., square feet) 1,858 Sq Ft
I currently live with my parents, but for my future I would downsize depending on who I live with and eventually upsize when I have a family. Describe the location of your home and why it would be the best for you. Make sure to address: climate, geography, rural/urban/or suburban.
Geography There are six geographic locations in Washington, with many of them as mountain ranges. The location of my home can see the Cascade and Olympic Mountains.
Suburban My house is located in an suburban area when compared to other cities around the area. There is a smaller population than in the neighboring urban areas. Many commute to the city for work as we are located outside of it.
Washington Climate Data: -Avg. High: 46, 48, 52, 56, 62, 66 (Jan-June) -Avg. low: 37, 37, 40, 42, 47, 51 (Jan-June) -Avg. precip.: 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2 (Jan-June)
*List of climate data retrieved from (U. Climate Data, n.).
I do enjoy living in the area we are in. The suburban lifestyle is nice to have as I feel we are not located in a super densely populated area, but we are not in a small town either. For my future, I would like to find a suburban area very similar to where I live now, but potentially in another area where the climate is warmer. While it is a very green state with beautiful nature surrounding each area, it rains a lot and is very cold. Summers can be very hit or miss making it either dreadful or beautiful. Overall, I would only move to a place with warmer climate such as California or Arizona, but I enjoy other aspects of geographic location and suburban areas.
3 materials in your home and how they can be more sustainable.
Insulation
Single pane windows
Wood shake roofing
The insulation in the house is something that over time has to be replaced. The insulation in the house is currently a sprayed foam called polyisocyanurate. This material is known to have low conductivity. It was said that, “Over time, the R-value of polyisocyanurate insulation can drop as some of the low- conductivity gas escapes and air replaces it” (Energy, n.). The R-value provides insight to tell how well a material is of an insulator. A material that could be better used for insulation would be fiberglass. Fiberglass is most commonly used
within homes and is not as expensive as other materials.
The windows in the house are single pane. While the windows serve their purpose, they are not as efficient when it comes to cancelling noise and certain temperatures. An alternative to these would be Low-E windows. “The "E" in low-E stands for emissivity, and a clear coating of metallic oxide” (Raney, 2020, para. 22). This allows for heat to be stored in the house when needed at certain times of the year. By reducing the amount of heat flow, this can also reduce the cost of heating within the house as it is more regulated.
This material of cedar wood shake can last anywhere between 30 – 50 years if properly installed. Unfortunately, when we moved into the house about a year ago, the wood was ready to be replaced as it was time and had also rotted. Rotting happened due to rain overtime not properly drying with such cold conditions. While the roof was replaced with the current, the best roofing someone could buy is a lifetime roof. These roofs are built to be sustainable but can be costly. This may help as well with the heat when it does get warm over the summer and cooling insulation. Energy use What are 3 things that use the most energy in your home?
The TV
The kitchen stove/oven
The heater
How can you decrease your energy consumption?
We often leave the TV on even when we are not watching. This also happens in multiple rooms of the house and takes up energy that is not necessary. By simply taking the time to turn off the TVs and only using it when we are actually watching would help to save energy.
The kitchen stove/oven is used daily multiple times and this can take up a lot of energy. While it is necessary to cook our food, energy
house probably use the most water. I am someone who is guilty of taking long showers. It was stated that, “.. water wisely and minimizing waste can be done on an individual basis. Simple lifestyle changes include taking shorter showers...” (Adam et al., 2015, para. 31). By taking shorter showers this reduces the amount of wasted water. Filling up the bathtub as well may cause an increase in water used, especially if done multiple times a week.
- There are a total of three bathrooms in the house. One of the three has a feature where there are two buttons for the option of flushing. The meaning behind this is to only utilize the amount of water needed when flushing the toilet, rather than wasting. An improvement could occur with all toilets in the house having this feature, reducing the water that is being wasted when flushing.
References
Adam, N., Deo, R., Hegstad, L., Moses, G., Salata, T., Spaulding, A. (Ed.). (2015). Environmental science: The
human impact on natural resources.
Energy. (n.). Insulation Materials. energy/energysaver/insulation-materials
Raney, R. F. (2020). 10 Cutting-edge, Energy-efficient building materials. home.howstuffworks/home-
improvement/construction/green/10-cutting-edge-building-materials
U. Climate Data. (n.). Weather averages Everett, Washington.
usclimatedata/climate/everett/washington/united-states/uswa
BIO 220 RS Sustainable Home Creation
Course: Environmental Science (BIO-220)
University: Grand Canyon University
