Building an Earth-, Eco-, Qi-, Environmentally-, Family- Friendly Home

By Pauline Ferguson

If you're building (or renovating) a home and want to make it non-toxic, family friendly, environmentally friendly, sustainable, have energy efficiency and passive heating and cooling built in, and be in tune with the earth....

This book is for you.

Even if you just want to know about those things, this book is for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pauline Ferguson
• Release date: Oct 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301339303

Pauline Ferguson

I’m passionate about the environment, and I believe we need to stop poisoning it (and ourselves). I believe that once we’ve stopped poisoning ourselves, humankind can focus on making the next step, maybe understanding and tolerating each other, moving on and becoming all we can be. I believe it’s possible, I really do. The first step is to de-tox our environment.There are non-toxic ways to do most things. We just need to find them.

Book preview

Building an Earth-, Eco-, Qi-, Environmentally-, Family- Friendly Home

Pauline Ferguson

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Pauline Ferguson

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means including electronic, photocopying, recording, or performed without the written permission of the author.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

More and Updated Information

I'm constantly updating the information on my website, and on the Facebook page, feel free to ask any questions...

http://www.redfoxbb.com.au

http://www.facebook.com/redfoxbb

Disclaimer

This book is in no way meant to be a substitute for professional advice. It is a guide which indicates some aspects of health buildings, however is not a how-to-build manual. For building advice and legal requirements, please consult a professional.

Acknowledgments

A huge thanks to all those people who supported me, my wonderful clients who want to know this sort of thing, and to my building biology colleagues who are helping to make this world a better place to live in.

Also, to Jeannine Stephens, my Feng Shui Guru, who knows way more than I ever will about Feng Shui... thanks for letting me pick your brains.

David Mould, from Y-Shield, thanks to you too for your help in working through all those tricksy electromagnetic radiation and mobile phone stuff. So much appreciated!!

Who am I?

Hi! I'm Pauline, I'll be your author for this publication...

I am a Building Biologist who lives in Queensland, Australia. My company is Red Fox Building Biology, and I travel all around Queensland, and into the Northern Territory and South Australia as required.

A Building Biologist is someone who, basically, assesses your home or workplace (buildings, essentially) with a view to identifying the toxins and toxic radiations in that building, and advising a way to remove or mitigate those toxins.

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Contents

Before We Start...

A Heart-Centred Home

What is sustainability?

Professional assistance

What are the questions you need to think about?

Climate

Microclimates

Where should I build?

Style of building

Ventilation

Light

Energy Efficiency

Insulation

Passive Heating and Cooling

Acoustics / Sound

Alignment of Building on the Site

Bedroom Location

Sun Path

Why shade outside the house?

Topography of your site

Water flow over the site / Drainage

Water

Harvesting

Filters

Pipework

Building

Building Materials

Woods and Furniture

Finishes

Floor Coverings

Construction techniques

Recycled material

Energy

Introduced Energy

Washing Lines

Power Generation

Hot Water Systems

Toxic Energy

Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) or Electromagnetic Fields (EMF)

Electrical Fields (EFs)

Radio Frequency (Mobile Phones, Bluetooth and Wifi)

Dirty Electricity

Esoteric types of energy flow

Heart Energy

Feng Shui

Support and Qi Flow (Form)

Front Door

Qi Paths

Decluttering

Earth Energy

Dowsing

Asking the site for permission

Sacred Spaces

Space Clearing

Geopathic Stress

Garden Design

Living with Seasons

Chemicals you bring in

Finally...

Glossary of Terms

Further Reading

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Before We Start...

A lot of research is being conducted into the healthy principles in this book. In some cases (electromagnetic radiation, radio frequency) the results are quite inconclusive. Some advice, such as using less chemicals around your home, may fly in the face of currently advertised marketing ideas, which tend to advocate having a hospital grade bacteria-free environment.

In these instances, I tend towards the precautionary approach, in that until something is proved, unequivocally to be completely and totally safe, be cautious, and limit your exposure. Better to be a bit cautious now and safe later than to blithely assume everything is safe and then discover later on that you were wrong.

Also, when viewing advertising, marketing and even some research, think of where the money is, and what the point of this is. In the case of advertising and marketing, it is designed to create a fear or need in you, so that you will buy the product. Sometimes (not all, I'll grant you) that fear or need is exaggerated so that you will buy. In the case of research, find out where the funding is coming from. If the funding is supplied primarily by the company who wants their product proved safe, get a second opinion.

In all cases, you are the best person to make decisions about your life. Do your research, ask questions, check your facts and verify what you can. Then make an informed decision.

***

A Heart-Centred Home

This book is geared towards designing and building a home specifically suited to you and your family, rather than a generic house. While there will be potential resale value in the home, that's not the main purpose of this book. To design a home that suits you, you need to know who you are, and what you want. There will be a lot of personal things you'll need to think about and decide on. So one of the first questions you need to ask yourself is: Am I designing a home to suit me and my family, or am I designing a house that will maximise my resale if we get sick of it?

This is important, because if you're designing for resale, you'll need to take into account other peoples' thoughts, feelings and ideas of what a home should be, and you may not (probably won't) even know them!

We'll get to those questions a bit more later. Another reason you may have chosen this book is because I've promised to discuss sustainability.

What is sustainability?

Sustainability is more than just being green

There's more to sustainability than just the environmental sustainability most people think of. Ecological or environmental is a huge aspect, as is energy efficiency. There are a lot of different facets within those to keep in mind. Lifetime sustainability is also something to think about - how long do you want this house to last? Can this house be viable for not only a young family, but a growing one, as well as inevitable growing older issues, or injuries sustained along the way? What safety aspects are you designing into your home? Safety isn't just from injury, it's also about security from externals.

Security is also something to think about, and can be designed into the house right from the start. Security is more than just adding on an alarm system and hoping that works. There are elements you can design into your home and garden to make it safer.

The other aspect of sustainability most people don't want to think about is economic sustainability. This is not only