lotsofplants

As many of you (e.g. anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes with me in the last couple years) know, I really want a house. With a yard. Unfortunately, I live in a place where the housing market laughs at people who want house, yard, and short commute for under $750,000.

A misunderstanding in a completely unrelated conversation provoked the idea that I was considering building my own house (that is, with me doing the hammering and digging and such things.) As crazy/desperate people sometimes do, my imagination latched onto this and suggested that I do own a tent...it will be summer soon, so living in a tent would be okay...I could use the bike commuter showers at work...I could cook with my camp stove...I'm capable of doing most of the framing/wiring and possibly plumbing myself in the evenings after work...THAT COULD WORK!!!

Okay, really it couldn't. But I was thinking that if I did design and build my own house, I would like to include a number of resource-conserving measures, particularly considering the expected increases in cost for electricity, water, and heating/cooling needs due to global warming.

So I have a starter list, purely as an intellectual exercise. I am interested in comments, additions, and suggestions, since I know some of you are also into this sort of thing. These can include both retro-fit possibilities and options which would have to be built into the house.

basic things like efficient appliances, on-demand water heater, programmable thermostat are assumed

heated floors - I'm not sure how efficient they are, per se, but I like the idea of not having cold toes.

green roof - reduces heating costs, reduces urban heat island effect, reduces impervious surface, possible source of some home-grown food or just pretty flowers (depending on planting type and accessibility)

gray-water recycling system - reduces additional water needs for irrigation for yard/roof. It might be possible to have an initial filter to reuse fairly clean gray-water for additional in-home uses, but I'm not sure how feasible this really is.

windows:
---insulated/double-pane windows - reduce heating/cooling costs
---lots of windows, particularly in high-use rooms - reduce day-time lighting needs
---orienting windows and window awnings to permit passive heating during winter - not sure if this is possible with the double-pane above

trees! - shade in summer = reduced cooling costs. Fruits/nuts = extra food. If I install squirrel traps, anyway. No, I am not planning to eat the squirrels. Though I suppose I could...

house-fan - my Dad discovered these in the south and installed one in the desert house I grew up in. A powerful fan in the ceiling which pulls air in through living space windows and exhausts into the attic crawl-space, forcing that (hot) air out through the vents. Can reduce a 10 degree difference between internal and external temperature to zero in five minutes. Amazingly nice when the house has heated up over a summer day. May not work well in a large heat-island.

geographic orientation - aligning the structure to either encourage or avoid passive solar heating, depending on climate. I suspect that around here, encourage is a better bet. Particularly since I seem to be constantly slightly cold except for about 4 months in the summer.

solar panels or passive solar water heating system - this may not be compatible with a green roof, and I've heard conflicting reports on how cost-effective solar panels really are, but either might reduce electrical costs

Exercise bike wired to a generator - mostly because I'm a dork. Winter exercise not in the rain! Feeding power back into the grid! Fun design projects!