leds-affordable / Green Building & Sustainable Home Renovation Information & Advice

LED filament bulbs
Lighting

All about LED filament bulbs

What is the difference between LED and Incandescent lightbulbs? At the beginning of the 20th century, light bulbs were handmade, with incandescent filaments painstakingly being placed in tiny glass globes. Manufacturing is a little more automated now, but the performance of incandescent bulbs hasn't changed - 80-90% of...

Warm light and dimmable LED bulbs
Lighting

All about LED bulbs - video

DIY video about choosing the best LED bulbs and DIY lighting fixture installation tips. LED bulbs are here to stay, it's time to make the leap. The colours are warmer now, the bulbs are dimable and the price is coming down. Incandescent bulbs give off lots of unwanted heat, which in summer months makes your air condit...

Habitat workers raise a wall at the the Red River Ex June 2011
LEED Homes

The Canada Green Building Council announces affordable green housing program

Working with charitable housing groups like Habitat for Humanity, the CaGBC will administer free registrations and certifications under the internationally-recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program, which addresses homes as well as a broad range of other buildi...

Shipping Container Homes in a Warm Climate might be a good option
Tiny house

Beautiful shipping container homes - Tiny Houses in warm climates

We already have an article about whether shipping container homes are good or bad? But that was more in relation to cold climates - so we decided to redress the balance and seek out an example of beautiful shipping container homes in a warm climate to showcase. Especially now that laws on Tiny Houses in California are ...

Le Refuge - An Architect-Designed Modern Green prefab tiny house kit home
Tiny house

Le Refuge - An Architect-Designed modern Green prefab tiny house kit home

The tiny house movement is on the far end of the scale of a very encouraging and growing trend towards modern smaller home sizes. Small homes take less materials to build than large homes, and they consume less energy to operate. Ergo, smaller homes are ‘greener’ homes. At least most of the time…  Tiny houses are on o...

Why Building Affordable Eco Homes is Important
Efficient home design

Why building an affordable family home today means choosing to build a Green Home

As the effects of climate change become more pronounced every year, it is becoming virtually impossible for the most ardent climate change deniers to dismiss it, despite their valiant efforts. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): "Rising global average temperature is associated with widespread change...

Affordable green prefab homes - contemporary rancher style - Abri 1850 BV
Architecture and plan design

Prefab Homes for Sale - Beautiful & Sustainable - Available Now

Exceptional Prefab Eco Homes - introducing the Abri range These ultra high performance prefabricated homes have a size to suit every family and budget. With a contemporary style and extremely high quality of construction, these bright and well designed homes are an affordable and high quality choice when thinking of bu...

Affordable Modern Prefab Eco Homes Available - The S1600
Off-grid and Net-Zero Housing

The S1600 - affordable modern prefab eco homes for families

Affordable prefab eco homes are a growing green home building trend across the US and Canada, as you may have already seen on our pages or in the press. Economies of scale, the savings in materials and the speed and quality of construction are certainly motivating factors persuading homebuyers to take a fresh look at p...

Rendering of the Ecohome demonstration house
Efficient home design

Ecohome Demo House: High performance, affordable cost

The guiding principles during the design of Ecohome’s Edelweiss House demonstration home - passive heating and cooling, healthy living space, affordable to build and operate, resilient and flexible design.  The underlying goal of the Edelweiss House was to design and build a modestly-sized but functional home that wou...

The Affordable Architect-Designed Modern Green prefab 2 Bed kit home
Off-grid and Net-Zero Housing

Le Refuge - An Architect-Designed modern Green prefab 2 bed kit home

The tiny house movement is on the far end of the scale of a very encouraging and growing trend towards modern smaller home sizes. Small homes take less materials to build than large homes, and they consume less energy to operate. Ergo, smaller homes are ‘greener’ homes. At least most of the time…  Tiny houses are on on...

Pallet beds are trending but pallets can be toxic so be careful
Recycled and Reclaimed Materials

Is it safe to build beds or furniture with shipping pallets?

Pallet Beds - cool but potentially dangerous! We've all seen these rustic shabby-chic pallet wood beds & headboards on social media - these days it seems we can't get enough of being creatively frugal and independent - but while certain pallets are a great source of rustic wood with character for repurposing, other...