How a SIPs House is BuiltGreen Building
Few would disagree that the term “Green” is the buzz word of this time. With every “Green” advertisement bombarding us, our definition of “green” becomes increasingly elusive and its significance diluted.
Thankfully “Green,” as it pertains to building, is a little less puzzling. Building “Green” can be divided into three major categories: the main materials used for the structure (walls and roof), the materials used to finish with (siding, flooring, cabinets), and the energy used for conditioning throughout the life of the structure.
Building materials range widely in both the energy efficiency they offer and the environmental impacts that result from obtaining and transporting them to the job site. How resources are extracted, where they are extracted from, and how they are used to create the products we build with can overshadow there environmental benefits we seek to achieve.
In an effort to stay “Green”, it is easy to go astray. A truly “Green” home designer must know how to read through the “Green washing” and consider all of the ramifications of each purchase. For example, one may choose to use sustainably harvested wood without considering the environmental costs of transporting it across the globe.
On the other hand, one may overlook a product based on its composition and thus overlook the benefits that it has to offer. I have had some clients hesitate to build using SIPs because the Styrofoam is a petroleum based product. They fail to realize that, on average, the small amount of oil that goes into the manufacture of SIP panels is offset by the increased energy savings achieved within the first four months.
Many are unaware that construction constitutes a very small percentage of the total energy used over the life span of a home. Some of the best measures we can take to reduce our environmental impacts are those that reduce the energy required to heat and cool our homes, not build them.
Don’t get me wrong. The decisions we make such as what carpet, siding, cabinetry, and roofing to build with are significant. Reusing materials and conserving materials makes a difference by reducing both materials consumption and waste disposal. However, when it comes to keeping track of energy consumption, the pollution that producing energy creates, and the effect of that pollution on all the living organisms that rely on clean air and water, nothing beats measures that make a house more energy efficient.
When we began designing our home we looked into a variety of materials to build the roof and walls with –often referred to as “the “shell”. These included rammed earth, straw bale, insulated concrete forms, and monolithic domes. Structural Insulated Panels offered the most attractive “cost-benefit ratio.” Not only did SIPs allow us to get the most for our money, they are also the easiest to build with, the least different in appearance and construction method, and they are very easy to get approved through the building departments.
Structural Insulated Panels offer a wide range of advantages over stick framed structures (see “About SIPs”). I have no doubt that as people learn more about SIPs, they will become conventional, especially as the cost of energy continues to rise and people learn to accept that our behaviors are responsible for “global warming.” Personally, I believe that we all have a moral obligation to do what we can to “tread lightly.” This is why I am a “green” home designer. This is why I use SIPs.