Wed 01 2018 4 Ways Open Floor Plans Make Custom-Built Homes More Energy-Efficient
More and more home designs in Dover, DE and other locations are tearing down walls in favor of open floor plans. Homeowners working with drafting services decide to draft plans that remove barriers in between rooms, especially for those areas that get the most foot traffic like kitchens and living rooms. But open floor plans are not just a fashionable fad in new homes. They can also improve the energy efficiency of custom-built homes.
When considering what elements you want in a custom home, have you considered how much you want energy-efficiency to play a role? Beyond helping the environment, energy-efficient elements like an open floor plan can help lower your monthly energy bills. What homeowner wouldn’t want that?
So how exactly do open floor plans help save you money and go green? Here are 4 ways that they can make your home more energy-efficient (and less expensive each month).
1. Fewer Separated Rooms, More Savings
Have you ever lived in a home where one room feels warmer or cooler than the rest? When you turn up the heat for one room, another room get uncomfortably hot. So you turn up the AC, now making other rooms too cold.
Maintaining a consistent and comfortable climate control in each individual room becomes an endless cycle that strains your HVAC system and inevitably increases heating and cooling costs. With an open floor plan, however, air flows more easily through your house to help maintain that steady temperature while giving your HVAC system a break.
2. Natural Light Over Lamps
Open floor plans also let more natural light into new homes, meaning you won’t need to rely on electricity to keep rooms well lit. A single, large window combined with an open floor plan can spread light through an entire living space without walls impeding its reach.
No need to overstock your home with Iamps galore that bump up electricity costs. Light up your home with a single set of windows placed where an ideal amount of light can enter in. Custom home builders and drafting services can help you decide where those windows should be based on your lot’s location and layout.
3. Conserving Heat
All that light coming in can help heat up your home without needing to pay more for heating costs. This can be great in the winter when the natural heat from the sun warms your home instead of your furnace working itself to death.
Just like open floor plans give way for light to fill your home, such openness also lets more heat in during cold, sunny days and keeps that heat at a comfortable level and a lower cost.
4. Lots of Luxury in a Smaller Square Footage
Luxury home builders are high in demand. Homeowners looking to design a new custom home don’t want to settle for a mediocre design when they can draft plans for the home of their dreams. Luxury often equates to more square footage, but that extra space not only costs you more during construction but also in monthly utilities.
An open floor plan, though, gives homes a spacious interior even with less square footage. Taking out walls makes homes feel wide, roomy and luxurious. You can decide to cut down on square footage and still feel like you have plenty of space with an open floor plan that blends one room into the next.
That smaller square footage also means less space you need to heat and cool, less areas that need wiring or electrical outlets and more savings on those aforementioned utilities.
Going Green in New Home Design
Energy-efficient homes that go green when it comes to home design, appliances and more often have a great resale value. If there’s a way for people to pay less each month on energy bills they’ll take it!
Enjoy the benefits of an energy-efficient home and improve its resale value by drafting an open floor plan for your custom-built home. If you’re looking to build a new home in Dover, DE or surrounding Delmarva areas, contact H&H Builders, Inc. Call for drafting services in Dover to draw up that perfect open floor plan for your family. Get in touch with us today to learn more about the energy-efficient and luxury custom-built homes our home builders can create for you!