green architect

My husband and I are (finally!) looking at being able to build our dream home. We have many ideas (and a few requirements) but we want this home to be as ecologically friendly as it can be.

We want an interior courtyard (must be completely enclosed by metal screen, and pretty big) and a large garage. we want two master suites, and if we have two floors, at least one of them needs to be on the ground floor. we need to either build in enough roof to hold all our PV cells, or need to learn about ground mounted systems. we want it to be built as efficiently as possible. we will likely have a natural gas or propane tank to power a backup generator and our stove. we may or may not be connected to 'the grid.' we will likely be on well water, and need a top notch water conditioning system. we anticipate building in florida, so we need VERY efficient cooling - because not cooling is not really an option.

i really don't know what we need - a building firm that has architect(s) on staff would be ideal. we have hundreds of questions, and they aren't all really meant for the architect, but need to be at least discussed early on. anyone been there and have advice to offer?


btw, we have plenty of time - we don't even have land picked out. business is just going better than we expected, and it's time for us to take a step in the right direction

^---- likely to be crossposted all over the place =) Thanks so much!

 

well, we have a location kind of picked out - we are looking in NW St. Johns County. We have a certain 'type' of house in mind regardless of where we build, and we will only buy property if we can then build for that nice southern view of the sun. we need an architect before we buy the land because it may be we are estimating the house cost badly - which would change how much we can be looking for land-wise.


on the topic of the 30%, we will be putting in our solar water heater come the first of the year too! happy new year to us =) we are actually hoping that the federal government will help subsidize the next houses' PV as well, since we run a business out of our home. heres to hoping we don't get knocked with that 3k cap

AC is rough - we were also discouraged from geothermal cooling because of the tiny temperature differential. We may still look into it if we go any farther north. the only other 'real' suggestion anyone has had is to build into a hill, and keep some good sized portion of the house in the ground. whilst we don't have that many hills around here, and the water table rests just below our feet, we will look into the possibility of having a very large artificial pond dug for us, with the dirt being selectively placed for us. not sure how feasible it will be, but it's yet another goose to chase

 

i thought i'd reply to my thread here with a little info i found - i got a reply from the author of one of the many books i was reading on earth sheltered homes. he told me that if i was serious about digging myself an artificial pond, i could use that fill dirt to build up a dune wall for an earth sheltered 'dune home' - and i would have a lot more flexibility in picking the ideal position for solar purposes. something *else* to consider =)