Alternative Housing: Numerous varieties of alternative homes have been constructed, from tree houses and pallet homes to geodesic domes, spheres, and earth ships. As environmentally conscious decision-making becomes commonplace, the use of alternative natural materials has become more frequent as builders seek to minimize the environmental impact of large-scale home building.
Green building designers consider the potential for rainwater harvesting on their property. Many builders often use catchments in addition to accessing another type of water source because storing rainwater is important and keeps water from absorbing into the ground near the foundation. Rain catchment systems are excellent and can be made to filter water for home use and provide water for gardens and other non-potable needs, saving our most valuable resource.
Alternative building: Many new home builders are turning to affordable green and sustainable homes and buildings for themselves and others within the community that save from 40 to 95 percent on energy consumption.
Normal sized passive solar earth sheltered homes that can usually be built mostly from donated or salvaged materials, do not need foundations, and are the cheapest and often the most energy saving homes that can be owner built. With a little help from friends and neighbors the cost can be anywhere $5000 to $50,000 to build depending on size, design, and how the building materials are acquired.
Fancier , commercially built underground homes can run a whole lot more, but the real savings comes with the smaller amount of energy needed to live comfortably. People who build a home this way, get to avoid spending the next 30 years paying off home loans and high fossil-energy costs.
Underground houses normally are built on a hillside facing south and to the east or west. These houses have two to four sides built up against the earth at least in part. Yet some earth sheltered homes have one or more stories standing above ground especially on the south side where windows catch the winter sun, and the earth is often built up on the north side. The earth itself keeps the year round temperature inside from varying more than thirty degrees even on the coldest nights or warmest days when the home is designed properly. These rarely require air conditioning and the heating cost is minimal.
Often the entire home can be built for nearly the price of the foundation of same sized standard commercial home. Besides, many homes can use the earth as their foundation.
