Sensible House Philosophy

The name Sensible House means to build as sustainable as possible while still living a comfortable lifestyle.  True sustainability (ie: zero fossil fuel, 100% renewable resource usage for both construction and operation), requires some combination of (1) significant technology improvement (2) living significantly more primitively than most Americans would be willing to, and (3) a significant reduction of the world population.  Because this involves political and personal choices, we adopt the philosophy of "do the best you can".

Typical homes in the US are built assuming energy is cheap, water is abundant, people don't care that much about indoor air quality, that you can mostly ignore climate in design, and that as long as you provide the right number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the other design issues aren't that relevant.  While this is somewhat of an exaggeration, it serves as the opposite of what the Sensible house is about.  We believe that you can reduce your environmental impact significantly, and actually get a better house.

Our philosophy on consumption (including house size) is "just the right amount", meaning that any further reduction in consumption will cause undo suffering.   We let you make that choice.  Serious eco-zealots will probably find our choices to be extravagant, and those accustomed to high end living will probably find them quite modest.  Our goal is to just provide you with the info to "do the best you can".

We believe most people who apply green building principles given here, will agree that the resulting home is better.