Green Home Energy Calculations

• February 1, 2016

Created as an educational learning tool, here Scott Simpson Design + Build explores the calculations required to recycle and renew energy for optimal green building practices.

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We can figure out how many kilowatts of energy and BTUs we’re going to need to heat and cool a house and we can calculate how much of the products that we use can be recycled. We take those pieces apart and weigh them. For example, if stone we are using is quarried, cut and shipped on semi-trucks from Indiana – we have a pretty good idea of how much carbon and diesel energy it used in travel from Indiana to here. The idea is to use as much renewable energy as possible –  like wind turbines that don’t have any negative by-products – or eliminate fossil fuels by making energy with photovoltaic cells of solar power. It takes about a hundred tons of organic material to make one gallon of gas so there’s a lot of energy stored in one gallon of gas and it can take your car 25 miles but it takes millions of years and a hundred tons of carbon to do that. We are making sure we calculate these impacts.

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We like to educate homeowners on the healthiest building choices. We’ll help you understand geothermal energy, rain gardens, solar panels, green roofs, local sourcing and reclaimed materials.