Home

The Ohio State University has established a Green Home Technology Center (GHTC) through partnerships with homeowners, builders, and professionals to develop, field test, demonstrate, and disseminate effective green home technologies for a transformational change in residential energy consumption and environmental impact. This website serves as a clearinghouse of:Energy Pyramid

  • green home technologies,
  • new emerging green homes,
  • OSU research findings,
  • educational materials, and
  • outreach programs.

This online GHTC serves as a portal for sustainable technologies and techniques meant to improve home indoor environmental quality, conserve energy and water, and reduce environmental impact for sustainable and healthy living of Ohioians.

We recommend home owners to follow the energy pyramid approach shown in the figure on the right. This approach encourages adoption of the simple and economical strategies first, and then the more complex and costly techniques later.

Assessment

For existing home owners to learn which conservation strategy is best for your particular home, we recommend you visit our energy audit page. There you will find out how you may professionally assess your home, and can begin to layout which techniques may be most effective for your home.

Conservation

The next step is to consider energy conservation strategies. For those of you considering building a new home, we recommend you first visit our passive design page. Passive design is the most cost effective strategy for building a new energy efficient home. For retrofit projects, energy conservation strategies include upgrading your insulation, lighting management, and reduced air infiltration. These steps aim to reduce major energy consumption prior to exploring energy efficient technologies and appliances.

Efficiency

Efficiency focuses on investments in long term savings through the use of sustainable mechanical systems. There are a number of energy efficient products on the market, and are discussed in the energy efficiency page. There are additional energy efficient design strategies offered in the passive design page.

Renewable Energy

Lastly, you should consider renewable energy sources such as wind, geothermal, and solar. These technologies typically require a larger capital cost, but can offer a significant energy reduction for residential homes.