Apartment Therapy Unplugged | Blogging Natural Home: Budget Green Home Showcased

Can a green home be affordable? With conscientious choices, Beth Ritchie proved it can be done in the September/October issue of Natural Home Magazine. Along with research and a builder willing to work within the green requirements and budget constraints, Beth made choices that impacted the total cost of the home that still made it reasonable to choose green options over traditional ones.

The article lists 9 lessons for building green as a well as a punch-list of possible items to be considered when building (or remodeling, or updating) green. Lighting is an easy part of that list, and two examples are shown in the pictures above; on the left, Zaneen Lighting's playful Medusa sconce has held up for over 3 years without needing to replace any of the LED lights (nothing is specifically mentioned about the light on the right, however, with a shade like that, it would be easy to mask an efficient CFL).

Another way to use technology to help be a budget-friendly green home: make changes on the computer model before the home is being built. Beth worked with an architect that included computer modeling of the inside rooms for no additional charge, thanks to a program like AutoCAD.

- Images from Natural Home Magazine.