01. What is included in your EcoHouse Plan set of working drawings?
When building a new home, you will need house working drawings. The home working drawings provide hundreds of additional details needed to build your eco-home. You can save time and money by purchasing these eco-home building plans, professionally designed and produced in English language to meet ISO, ASTM and BS recognized building standards. Best of all, you will only pay a fraction of the original design cost because the design cost is shared by so many people all over the globe.
Working Drawings included with most EcoHouse Plan designs:
DXF files (available with most designs):
PDF files (available with most designs)
Options and Extras for EcoHouse Plans (vary from one design to another):
02. How can I order an EcoHouse Plan?
Ordering is performed online, only.
Once you have placed your order and your payment has been processed and approved, an email with your Internet download address is sent automatically to your registered email address. Each download address can be used once, and once only. Should you encounter any difficulties or inconvenience with the download, please contact us immediately using the details provided HERE.
Alternately, if you opt for printed version of the house plans, we shall send you via registered airmail the complete Working Drawings to your postal address, together with the CAD drawings on a business-card CD. All plans are printed on ISO A3 paper format to facilitate their photocopying and further reproduction in as many copies as your local regulations demand.
House designs are usually created on computers by using CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. The most common type of CAD files are the DXF files. A DXF file is a CAD file that is sometimes needed, and can be opened by, various brands of CAD software.
FA Ecotecture EcoHouse Plans using various CAD software brands that run under the Linux operative system. However, the DXF file format is an internationally recognized standard, that can be opened using various CAD software brands that run under other operating systems as well, such as MS Windows. The DXF files downloadable for our designs give you all the features you would get from the blueprints for the same eco-house, and still have all the important details you need to build an eco-home. There are also software utilities available that let you convert a CAD file from one format to another. If you need a different file format we can sometimes provide other file formats.
There are also different versions of CAD software. As new software comes out, the newer CAD files they create may not be compatible with older versions of the CAD software. Typically, a newer CAD program will work with CAD files created by older versions of the CAD software. For example, Version 2005 of AutoCAD should be able to make use of CAD files created by version 13 or version 14 of AutoCAD. However if the versions are too far apart, CAD files from a really old version might not be compatible with a newer version of CAD. If you are using older CAD software, we may be able to save the CAD file using an older CAD format to make it compatible with the CAD program you want to use. If you are making changes to the DXF file, then check the manual (or the help documentation) that came with your software to see what format of CAD files are supported by your CAD program.
If you have a question about what version the CAD file will be, then please ask about this before ordering the CAD File.
04. How can I convert the 2D Working Drawings into 3D CAD drawings?
Working Drawings are used for construction, and as such, need not be in 3D. However, should you require to derive say, a 3D AutoCAD model from EcoHouse-Plans Working Drawings draughted in 2D, you may have to “Morganize” them! ;)
“Morganization” is a term invented by our CAD collaborator and one of the true unsung heroes of CADD (i.e. Computer Aided Draughting and Design), Mr. Mark T. Morgan. A man of profound understanding and ingenuity at anything to do with CADD, Mr. Morgan’s achievements have gone mostly unobserved by the corporate America for almost 12 years now. Luckily, a few select knowledgable individuals have recognised his ''Spock-like talents and attention to details that have helped to complete numerous projects safely and on time”, and FA Ecotecture feel very lucky to have made such a worthy ally. To find out more about Mr. Morgan and his oeuvre, please read his brief biography we published on www.scribd.com entitled “The Fine Art of Morganomics!”.
“Okay, ‘nuff said! Now, how can I convert the 2D Working Drawings into 3D CAD drawings?” I can hear you say. Firstly, copy and paste the drawing from the paper space view into model space and then downsize the border and title block to be 35"x23" i.e. to be a 1:1 ratio for a D-Size 36"x24" sheet. After copying and pasting just the drawing objects into model space, increase their scale by the value of 1.97, to match our metric dimensions placed on the drawing. You can also 'Morganize' further, by modifying layers and colours to fit your drawing standards. Always presume that all dimensions are in meters. Your drawing is ready for further 3D modelling!
05. Can I see a finished EcoHouse home that has been built?
Some of the eco-house plans on our website have been built. However, for privacy reasons, we cannot disclose information about customers who have built from an EcoHouse Plan, or where those homes have been built.
06. How much would my EcoHouse cost?
The best way determine your home building costs is to give printed copies or downloaded files of your EcoHouse to 3 contractors and have them bid on the house construction costs.
A good set of home plans can often save you money when a contractor is bidding on a home, because the working drawings remove uncertainties and allow the contractor to be more competitive on price. If a contractor is asked to give a price to build an eco-house without having detailed working drawings to bid on, then they can provide you but a vague idea of what it may cost to build your home. This particularly holds true for sustainable building, since builders all around the world have little, if any experience, with where green building materials are readily obtainable and how much they cost.
The cost of building a home varies worldwide and is highly dependable on local climatic, economical and social traits. Green building can depend on where you decide to build your house, your home floor plans, the cost of materials in your area, how you finish the home, and who you hire to build the house. Unfortunately, due to all the disparities involved, we are not in position to tell you how much it will cost to build your home according to a specific EcoHouse plan.
07. Should I choose a passive EcoHouse design, an active design, or hybrid?
One should bear in mind that part of the task of creating comfort can be achieved without energy-consuming mechanical heating or cooling equipment, by responding to given climatic conditions in the design of the building shape, its orientation and materials, and that active systems are required only to take over during those periods when passive means are inadequate.
Furthermore, if passive means are first made part of the building construction, then solar collectors and any other mechanical heating or cooling equipment can be held to a size that is economically practical and does not “take over” the design of the house.
Of course, hybrid systems are always worth considering, as well.
08. Do you provide Engineering Stamps and Engineering Calculations?
We are not offering engineering stamps or engineering services.
Since they are brought up to the international building standards, for most cities and countries around the world our house designs can be used as is. In certain places of the world, building departments may require special engineering work because the area is prone to earthquakes, hurricanes or has other special requirements. Please, make sure to review your building site in great detail before selecting an EcoHouse design, and the same should apply to your local building codes and bye-laws.
FA Ecotecture will not be held responsible for any damage or consequence arising from the subsequent modification, use, or misuse of the designs featured on www.EcoHouse-Plans.com, nor the non-compliance with the local laws and codes of practice, once their download had been completed from www.EcoHouse-Plans.com.
09. Can I modify an EcoHouse plan?
When you buy an EcoHouse Plan, you receive a licence. The licence lets you legally print the working drawings, modify them, and use them to obtain the local building permits according to local laws and as you see fit. Unfortunately, some people don’t realize this. When a person builds or modifies a plan without buying the design, they miss out on the benefits the design would provide. They also violate copyright laws. Most importantly, they hurt the designers and their families. Violating copyright laws is a serious international offense and can result in severe penalties.
Therefore, should you require to introduce any changes into your design, you can burn the CAD files with the drawings onto a CD-ROM, take them to a local professional, express your demands, and consequently change the design to meet your personal needs, site requirements, local building bye-laws, etc.
Some people believe they can buy an inexpensive CAD software package and then introduce changes to the CAD file themselves. But if you are not familiar with CAD software or with sustainable design, construction techniques and building codes, then modifying an EcoHouse plan is a job that is best left to a local professional.
Please bear in mind that FA Ecotecture will not be held responsible for any damage or consequence arising from the subsequent modification, use, or misuse of the designs featured on www.EcoHouse-Plans.com, nor the non-compliance with the local laws and codes of practice, once their download had been completed from www.EcoHouse-Plans.com or printed plans received via registered airmail.
10. What personal information does EcoHouse-Plans.com gather?
We store information that you input for registration and for orders. This is used to process and fulfill your orders.
If you subscribe to our EcoHouse Plans Newsletter, we store your email address so that we can send you ones. You can cancel your newsletter subscription at any time by following the instructions at the bottom of any newsletter.
If you send us email, we use your email address to respond
to your questions or
requests. We may use your email questions or feedback for any purpose
without compensation. Any use of your testimonials or questions will be
done anonymously so your full name or email address is not used.
If you indicated you want to be informed about future updates by leaving that request checked on the email form we may occasionally inform you of updates to our site or new designs. If you opt-out by removing your check mark in the “inform me of updates” box, your email is not stored or used for any future purpose other than responding to your email.
Non-personal information, such as your browser type, pages accessed, operating system, monitor resolution, and return frequency are tracked in aggregate to help us improve or maintain our site. Some personal information may be tracked for fraud prevention or fraud prosecution purposes.
11. Does EcoHouse-Plans.com share the information it receives?
We may use customer information for promotional purposes or to email offers that may interest customers. However, customers can ask not to receive these offers or promotions. We may release personal information to comply with the law or legal authorities for purposes such as fraud protection.
12. How secure is information about me?
We protect the security of your information by using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to encrypt sensitive information such as credit card transactions.
If you choose to visit EcoHouse-Plans.com, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to our Privacy Notice and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of the international law. If you have any concern about privacy at EcoHouse-Plans.com, please send us a detailed message and we shall attempt to resolve it.
13. Will the Privacy Policy change in time?
Our business changes often. The Privacy Notice and the Terms of Use will change as well, and use of information that we gather now is subject to our Privacy Notice in effect at the time of use.