Paul and Kim have been married for a year when they decide it’s time to buy their first home. They don’t know it but they are about to make the biggest mistake of their lives.

Paul manages a national car rental agency, and Kim is a bookkeeper at a local pet store. Together they earn $80,000 a year before taxes.

Neither Paul nor Kim has experience buying a home so they call a realtor first for advice. They learn they can get a mortgage that includes taxes and homeowners insurance for $1,933 a month.

It really helps Paul and Kim to know how much money they can borrow.

Soon they find a home they really like in a nice neighborhood. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, den, garage, and lots more room.

The home is bigger than they need for just the two of them, but the additional space will come in handy. They plan to have two children someday.

They decide to make this their first home.

They don’t need a house this big and the price is higher than what they want to spend. They can borrow the money, so they go ahead.

Both of them are working and they get regular raises. Their money maybe tight for sometime and it will be worth making temporary adjustments, won’t it? Isn’t home ownership the American dream?

Five years later with two kids and a dog Paul and Kim’s somewhat tight budget is now very tight.

Their salaries have stayed the same and after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the war in Iraq almost everything costs more, especially energy. Their finances are a series of budgets and sacrifices with no end in sight.

Paul and Kim are not alone. Many people when buying a home do not think about how much a home costs to operate. Hot water, heat, and air conditioning all add up. They did not check or they might have kept looking for their dream home.

What was once an affordable three bedroom, two bathrooms home can now be very expensive to keep warm and or cool? Energy expenses can total as much as the monthly mortgage payment.

If a home is new, ask the builder if it is energy rated. An energy rating provides information about energy costs. It is a tool for the consumer.

Add a home’s energy costs together with the mortgage costs. Then you will know if you can afford it.

Beware or you too will end up being “House Rich, Cash Poor”.

Paul and Kim liked how the house looked in the beginning but after a while, that good-looking home turned ugly when they became a slave to high-energy costs.

We forget that solar power comes in many guises.  Stand alone solar lighting can provide simple efficient lighting to the outdoor areas of your home. Either installed as off the shelf or a DIY solar panel hook-up, it can provide garden, garage or porch lighting for home security and enhance your homes appearance.  When it comes to solar, we are so used to seeing solar hot water systems and solar panel electrical systems, that we forget that the suns heat and energy can be used in many other ways.

Home designers these days are well versed in passive solar design.  However, these features are not always adopted unless asked to do so by the client, or unless required by local regulations to implement them as energy saving measures.  If you are considering a new home, you are well advised to discuss the many design features that would make your home highly energy efficient and practically free of heating and cooling costs, simply by applying good design.

Solar can provide heating and cooling to the home.  The heat energy of the sun can be trapped and recirculated in a heat collector on the roof or a wall.  These are usually painted black and heat air or water containers that become a storage of heat, they in turn heat air which is circulated through the home. These heat storage containers can even become part of a wall, radiating warmth into the room. Typically though, the heat trap warms air  that is then circulated via ducts throughout the house.  A fan is used to push the warm air through your home, which can be powered by a solar panel.

Cooling is achieved in a similar way.  A dark or black heat module or tower on the roof is heated by the sun.  As the air in the tower is heated, it rises, it in turn draws cooler air, often drawn through underground piping where it is cooled, then into the home. This simple method can provide comfortable air temperatures in the home.  When coupled with an attic fan that extracts hot air from your roof space will significantly lower internal temperature.

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The main cooling control of your house is its design. A well designed house takes into consideration the house’s orientation to make the most of prevailing wind directions and encourage favorable summer breezes.

Window sizes and placement also affect summer cooling. If the windows are located and sized well you can open them during hot summer afternoons and create a cooling breeze flowing through your whole house.

Your house’s orientation and shading features such as window overhangs and louvers effect how much sunlight is captured; a well orientated house will take advantage of the sun at different times of the day and during different seasons. Ensure that windows are big enough to capture free solar energy, but small enough to avoid any unnecessary over-heating in summer. Smaller windows will also reduce excessive heat losses during evenings, especially during the cooler months.

Room location is also important. By positioning the rooms which the family live in on the side of the house that naturally makes the best use of the summer sun, you will improve the amount of free solar heat your house naturally receives. Make sure that your deck also receives sun during the times you want it. Most people love to spend a few hours on the deck at the end of the day. A deck built to capture the evening sun and which is shielded from the wind can be used almost as another ‘room’, perfect for summer parties!

The thermal mass of your home is a key passive design component working like a sponge to suck up surplus heat during the daytime and releasing it later in the evening. Simple measures, such as replacing carpet with ceramic tiles will soak up the summer sun to maintain a steady cool temperature during the day and in the evening. But keep in mind: Thermal mass does not replace good insulation. Both go hand in hand and work best in combination.

If you don’t have a lot of thermal mass available, for example in a home with suspended timber floors, overheating can be a problem. External shades and sun sails can be fitted to complement the orientation of your house and assist with cooling. Tinted windows positioned correctly can also reduce the amount of solar heat entering the home.

Lastly there are also many cooling products available, namely air-conditioning units and fans. Commonly known as active cooling systems these offer a consistent room temperature, while at the same time, deodorise and clean the air, resulting in a healthier living environment for all the family. To maximize energy efficiency and ensure optimum home comfort we at Right House recommend that air conditioning units and fans are used as ‘extras’ supporting your home’s in-built passive design cooling features.

And remember, good insulation does not only keep the heat in during the winter, it also keeps unwanted heat out in the summer, reducing your air conditioning bill.