A house that is energy-efficient is always healthier and cost effective. Energy efficiency alterationsin your house can eliminate or at least lessen the poor quality of air that’s brought in by various weather conditions. A way to make your home energy efficient is to pay attention to the construction materials and to the house design.
In Australia, bricks have long been recognized as a commonly chosen constructionmaterial. In fact, almost 90% of the built homes in Australia are constructed using bricks. Because of the campaign to decrease energy use in its entire forms, there are construction laws today that require the newly built homes to be more energy efficient. Well there are some things you need to know in order to come up with an informed decision.
Think about the amount of energy that’s usually used in your house. Maybe, you will be surprised to discover out that a large portion of the home energy is used up in cooling and heating. Cooking and lighting, even when combined, comprise only a few percent. Hence, anything which can help lessen the cooling and heating costs of your home will be a good investment, right? But the question is, do you think it is possible to cut down cooling and heating energy consumption while maintaining a practical thermal comfort inside your home? It is in this circumstance that passive design comes into play.
Passive design controls the energy coming from the sun to improve the home's cooling and heating in a natural way. There are actually four major principles in passive design. These are orientation, insulation and thermal mass.
· Orientation. The large glass portion in the north part allows the low winter sun in. And to repel the high summer sun, simple shading like eaves is applied.
· Ventilation. When the crest of summer time has gone, air is permitted to get in and go out of the house in order to make it cool in a natural manner. To optimize cross ventilation, the either side of the building or the home have generous openings with almost negligible internal obstructions.
· Insulation. The insulation in the wall and ceiling serves as the obstacle to heat transportation. Insulation efficiency is calculated by way of its R-value but it doesn’t present the whole issue. Various walls may have the same R-value but may not work the same.
· Thermal Mass. Wall materials that are thick and heavy, like bricks, absorb heat and hamper its conveyance through the walls. Through these, temperature changes become moderate and the heat absorption during summer is significantly hampered. In comparision to brick walls, the lightweight materials have very low thermal mass. And because of this thermal mass, brick walls are more capable of moderating house temperature even if they have comparable R-values.
Now come to think of thermal mass and consider brick stone. The first two techniques in the passive design, which are orientation and ventilation, have to be set up into the house. And your home material choice has a major effect on the quantity of thermal mass in a home or a building. One of the simplest and most economical ways to put up thermal mass is by using bricks. Those bricks that are constructed from clay contain very high thermal mass. They are available to make your home well ventilated, comfortable and more energy efficient.
There is research proving the idea that Brick stone houses are energy efficient. The said research has revealed that a large part of the heat is bounced back to the outside environment by way of the brick’s exterior panel. Another conclusion that resulted is that in summertime, the temperature inside a home that’s built from bricks stayed favorable and comfortable in spite of the changing temperature outside.
The US Department of Energy stated that thermal mass stores up heat by way of converting its temperature. It can be obtained by storing heat coming from a warm room or by way of changing direct solar radiation into heat. And since brick stone has more thermal mass than other construction lightweight materials, it is a very useful element that can be used up in making your home more energy efficient.
To sum up, brick is a very simple and inexpensive technique in putting up thermal mass in your next home. Therefore a brick stone house is more energy efficient than those that are made from other materials.
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