Cost
We have all heard of all the many fabulous and ingenious ideas that have been developed over the years for conserving energy consumption or ways of generating energy through renewable resources for both new and existing homes. Far too often it is soon discovered, however, these options are usually expensive and out of our budgetary parameters.
From its inception, a main goal of mine was to build an environmentally friendly home that I could afford and be so basic in its concepts that it could be used as a housing model for anywhere on our planet.
Previous writings have illustrated step-by-step methods of conserving and generating energy for my home’s operations just by taking advantage of what our planet already offers for free. Now I am going to discuss the way it is constructed, in a manner that is only slightly more expensive than conventional construction. The reason is it IS local conventional construction, only with a twist.
The construction methodology wood framing with a concrete “basement”, conventional to the Cleveland area. The only “twist” is the framing of my home is “beefed-up” a little to provide additional insulation. Instead of using 2” X 4”’s for the walls, I used 2” X 6”’s and so on.