I am spending money to build a green home so....?

Question

I personally believe that global warming is a natural cyclical event...but I also believe in a clean enviroment and each of us can help clean it up. I am building an environmently clean home and realize that this will help with any human contributions to the issue. My energy costs will be lower also. My question is with the thousands of dollars to do this what addional benefits will i have and are there any governmental incentives to do this. I would think that there would be more than just the little tax breaks you get when a person is doing such a huge project.

Answer 1

depends where you live, different govenments offer different incentives.

In Scandinavia the minimum building regs are quite "green" anyway.

If you build a smaller greener home from locally sourced material and with lower load on services it should be cheaper than one with a Hummer size garage, large roof, etc

See Ben Law woodland house book for a very good example of what can be acheived on a very small buget.

Answer 2

You get to have a healthy lifestyle and maybe create changes in your local community or family.  As of right now the government believes the cost are greater than the benefits.  But perhaps soon, more regulations in homebuilding will be out there to help us all out.

Answer 3

Yea, you would think. At this point, I can't believe that we don't require a new building to have a certain percent of its energy source come from wind or solar.

Answer 4

It depends on where you live, and since many incentives are new you may hit some bureaucratic snags going through the process.

Climate change is cyclical, but humans have accelerated the process dramatically.  Your example may prompt friends and family to follow your example.  Don't go green for the incentives.  Go green because its innovative and the results are fantastic.