Greening our homes have become a general aim for the majority of families in the modern world. People understand the importance of saving as much energy as possible not only on the personal saving level, but also as a global goal. Using renewable sources of energy and reducing the emission of carbon dioxid is changing our every-day routines, but also can be taken to the next level of creating or choosing homes built or refurbished eco-friendly.

Houses built eco-friendly are great investments for those looking for long-term location. All its features and alterations compared to a regular home are investments for further reduce in costs of energy consumption and expenses.

The main features of an eco-friendly property may vary both in solutions and in extent. Sustainable development becoming a major target in government policies, a system of codes were introduce to rate homes on six levels for their eco-friendly features and their rate of carbon emission. Houses built in accordance with the principles of sustainable development will have to meet not only a minimum requirement, but should also use less water and energy, be cheaper to run and more in balance with the environment. There are six levels in the code system, and scores are given for low rate of energy and water use, carbon emission, pollution, waste management, materials used, ecological and healthy for the residents.

Houses fully eco-friendly (with 6 stars) are built of renewable organic and/or recycled materials, use only renewable forms of energy (wind or solar power), have zero carbon emission. A property with code level 3 – which is the minimum standard for new houses in the UK now – is 25% more efficient than a level zero house.

The main features for creating an energy-efficient house are using renewable energy – this can be solar or wind power, depending on the weather conditions. They are fully insulated – the best houses are not only insulated on its walls but on its floors. Further insulation is giving extra glazing for windows – two minimum, but even three layers of glazing can be used. Shutters, which both cool the house in the summer and keep the heat inside for the winter are another way of insulation. Heating can be either floor heating or the air can additionally be circulated within the room with a heat exchanger and good ventilation. Energy efficiency also depends on the lighting system, where LED lights are used low energy consumption and little maintenance are both guaranteed. The appliances we use can also be purchased energy-consciously. For less use of water the best eco-friendly homes operate a system collecting rainwater and use it for flushing toilets for instance. Also, since surface water run-off is a scoring factor with these homes, rooftop plantings connected with these water collecting systems are often used.

Although fully eco-friendly properties are out of reach for most us, the high demand for eco-friendly homes encourages constructors to include as many green solutions in the house as they can for an affordable price. The tendency is to get the highest possible rating for the house, and already affordable properties are on the market with rating 5. Spending more to get a higher code level house is always a good investment, and even if you are not moving into a new house, many of the above mentioned features – including switching for LED lights – are solutions at hand during refurbishing too.