The FreeGreen Blog

FreeGreen AutoCAD House Plans Video

David — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:12:00 -0500

Hello All,

We want to share our first foray into the video realm with you. The Video above is the first of a series of videos that we will be creating to better explain the benefits and uses of Premium Membership and our Website in general. This specific video focuses on the value that our Premium Members receive through their ability to receive AutoCAD Format House Plans. Other videos to follow will focus on: The Product Discount Program, How to Use FreeGreen Product Specifications, The FreeGreen Customization Process, The FreeGreen Details Library, and much more.

Also, in other exciting video news we are in the process of creating a video series called Ask Ben. Ben Uyeda is the Chief Architectural Officer at FreeGreen we will be working with him to create a video blog series where he will explain our designs, talk about the design vision of FreeGreen, and answer your green design questions. Stay tuned for the launch of this new feature.

Here Come The Tiny Houses

David — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:12:00 -0500

That's right, the Tiny Houses are coming. For those of you have not heard of the Tiny House movement, it is a very interesting trend in which homeowners are looking to take on DIY type projects to downsize their living space, create a guest house or office, or put up shelter on that vacation spot they always wanted. In these economic times the Tiny House has become a popular trend with baby boomers who can no longer afford their dream second home, but still have the dream lot on which to build. FreeGreen is excited to bring you these homes, and as you would expect we will be designing them to be zero energy.

Along with the Traditional and Rustic Tiny Houses above, FreeGreen will be releasing a modern Tiny House as well. These plans should be released on Thursday 7/23. The Modern Ranch will be put on hold until these are out.

New Ranch House Plans from FreeGreen

David — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:34:00 -0500

Hello All,

We are excited for the launch of our latest house plan, The Modern Ranch. This plan is intended to be out by 7/10/09, and will be the second in our line of Premium House Plans. More to come on this plan and many other exciting announcements.

Modern Lake House - The New Premium Plan - Sneak Peak

David — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:07:00 -0500

Hello All,

There is much more of this to come with the offical Premium Membership Lauch coming on Tuesday of next week, but in the meantime we wanted to show off our first new premium house plan

The FreeGreen Premium & Professional Memberships are Here

David — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:16:00 -0500

Hello All,

Today we are proud to announce our FreeGreen Premium & Professional Memberships. We are sure that these new site features, and the new site functionality surrounding these programs will raise many questions, which we wanted to address here. As always please feel free to leave a comment below, or contact us at support@freegreen.com to discuss, give your feedback, and help us develop a better site.

Q1: So….Is FreeGreen Still Free?

A1: Yes and no. FreeGreen still allows users to sign up for Basic (free) membership, which gives you access to all of our great, high quality free (vendor advertisement supported) house plans, our green products database, our knowledge base Q&A center, and our blogs.

What is new are FreeGreen's Premium and Professional memberships. These new membership levels provide access to Premium (non-advertising supported) House Plans, FreeGreen's Product Discount Center, AutoCAD files, the FreeGreen Details Library, large discounts on FreeGreen Customization Services, and more. These new programs broaden FreeGreen's ability to help its users realize their dream green home project for a very modest fee.

Q: Who is the Premium or Professional membership for?

A: Our different membership levels are meant to target a wide audience:

The Basic (free) Membership is for anyone just browsing FreeGreen or looking to learn about green design. These members can still download any of our free sponsored house plans.
Premium Membership is for any individual who is planning a green home building or renovation project.
Professional Membership is for a Builder or Architect who is serious about building and designing green homes.

We are very excited about these new membership levels and helping green home enthusiasts in new ways.

Q: What is included in the Premium and Professional membership levels?

A: See our Premium Membership Benefits, Builders Professional Membership Benefits, and Architect Professional Membership Benefits pages for a good comparison. We are working on a tour that will walk through benefits in a more dynamic way. Stay tuned.

Q: Why a premium membership?

A: A decent subset of the FreeGreen community and outside media has expressed both appreciation for our plans as well as a concern that an advertisement-supported house plan may be biased. Though we are confident in the performance and green characteristics of our product specifications, we understand how this perception can create a certain hesitation in a user. In response to this sentiment, we developed a set of house plans that do not contain product advertising. This way, this choice is your, free plans supported by advertisers, or a paid membership to access all of our non-sponsored plans.

However, no ads meant we'd have to charge for these plans, so rather then go into the “traditional house plan” business we wanted to put together a useful membership package which would truly help our users with their green home projects. Said another way, If we were going to charge a fee, we wanted to offer users more than just the plans. To do this we first worked with many of our green product vendor and retailer partners to obtain exclusive discounts on their products that we could offer to our members. Then we decided to allow Premium Users to have access to the CAD versions of our house plans so that they can easily work with local contractors and designers on their projects. We also included huge (50%) discounts on our customization services, and of course the ability to have access to our Premium Plans.

All in all, FreeGreen Premium Membership puts a lot of resources at your fingertips.

Q: What is the value of a Premium membership?

A: A FreeGreen Premium membership provides $9,000-$15,000 of value for only $19.95/year. Here is how we figured that number:

Typical AutoCAD formatted house plans cost $3,000 per house plan
Typical house plans cost $500-$2,000 per house plan
FreeGreen estimates that a user could easily save $5,000 to $10,000 on their home project by using our discount program
FreeGreen estimates an average savings of $500 per customization service

But you don't have to take our word for it. Do your own research and let us know what you find.

Q: Why a Professional Membership?

A: We wanted to offer a toolkit of sorts that would help any professional who is serious about building and designing green homes. This package exists to offer professionals:

Full Premium Membership benefits
Constant access to our Building Science Corporation reviewed details library, with bi-annual updates
Full AutoCAD files of every plan we offer for your use as you please, whether to grab a detail or edit for your clients
The ability to interact with FreeGreen users and match them up with the right designer or builder. Professionals are able to develop a relationship with a user by answering their questions during their research phase and establish themselves as a trusted advisor by the time the user is ready to move forward.

As any professional knows, one use of a CAD plan, the time saved accessing a building detail (rather than drawing from scratch), or a successful project lead would pay for the modest member fee immediately and many times over.

For more on the benefits and pricing of the Professional Membership please see our Builders Benefits Page or the Architects Benefits Page.

Q: But Your Name is FreeGreen, How Can You Charge for Anything?

A: Premium membership was the natural next evolution of FreeGreen's offering. In providing unbiased, ad-free plans, thousands of dollars in product discounts, and CAD files of each plan, we further enable users to realize their dream home. Also see “Why a Premium Membership?” above.

FreeGreen's mission has always been, and will continue to be, to significantly improve the quality, energy efficiency, and environmental impact of residential construction by increasing access to good green design. We feel that we have stayed true to that mission throughout our company’s history. In just over one year, we have engaged over 10,000 registered members, given away 30,000 house plans (the equivalent of $3 million), and helped hundreds of people plan for, start, and complete their green home projects. FreeGreen will continue this mission with an expanded offering to its users.

House Plans Re-Org at FreeGreen

David — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:18:00 -0500

Hello All,

As part of our Premium Membership Go-LiveProcess FreeGreen has decided to re-organize our house plans into various HousePlan Collections. This new house plan listing scheme will allow users to find our plans more easily, and allow FreeGreen to better align with the new Premium Membership Features coming out soon. See below for a summary ofthese new House Plan Collections and we hope that you enjoy this upgrade, as well as the major Premium Memberhsip overhaul coming to the site very soon

Dream House Plans

The Dream House Plan collectionhas beencreated to explore the latest concepts in lifestyle based greendesign. Each of these home plans arecompletelyunique from and house plan that you may have seen before, and eachaddresses themost current trends in housing. Mixing high style with demographic trenddata the FreeGreen Team viewsthis Dream House Plan collection as a way toprogress home design and thelivability of the built environment.

Modern House Plans

The intent of the Modern House Plan collection is to mixfunction and aestheticswith simplistic, easy to build forms. Openfloor plans, high ceilings, single floorliving, and urban design concepts arejust some of the ideas expressed by thesehouse plans. Although modern residentialdesign maybe seen by many as a “fringe” building style, FreeGreen willcontinue to usethis collection to show ways that modern style can beintegrated into today’surban and suburban communities.

Craftsman House Plans

The American Craftsman style has been popular since the lastyears of the 19^th century. Typically, recognized byits use of metal, glass, and detailed craftsmantrim, this house plans style hasre-gained popularity over the past fewyears. FreeGreen’s take on this houseplanstyle stays true to its roots but typically uses cleaner lines andcreativeideas to make our homes more affordable to build, easier to live in,and moreenergy efficient.

Cabin House Plans

From small simple cabins, to rustic retreats, this houseplan collection covers allFreeGreen’s cabin styled homes. Thesehouse plans are great for anyonelooking to build on an open or remote lot ofland. Each house plan inthis collection paysstrong attention to the typical climate zones where cabinsare built,optimizing their energy performance and building sciencecharacteristics forthese regions. Eachfloor plans isdeveloped to accommodate easy, simple living, and owners whoenjoy the outdoorsand outdoor activities.

Builder House Plans

The Builder House Plan collection was createdat the requestof the FreeGreen Builder Community (although all users areencouraged to usethese). Each of these plans has been developed to addressbuilder needs, andallow multiple façade implementations of the same basicdesign. The floor plansare simple and efficient, and the exteriors areappealing and identifiable. Allusers will notice that images associated withthese plans are more technical.This has been done on purpose to “cut to thechase” for our builders andexplain what they need.

Cape Cod House Plans

With their weathered cedar shingles, simpleforms, andclassic styles these house plans are unmistakably Cape Code. These home plans are designed toaccommodatea summer family living environment each of these plans think throughthebenefits and realties of vacationing on the Cape. From their window seat benches, totheiroutdoor showers we hope that you will have a lifetime of fun andrelaxationusing this house plan collection.

Mediterranean House Plans

This House Plan collection was inspired by SouthernCalifornia’s outdoorsy lifestyle.These home plans have a casualMediterranean feel and are perfect for temperateor warm climates wherecross-ventilation and passive cooling can reduce the costof air conditioning.Relaxed elegance and a Spanish influence provide curbappeal and comfort. Mostof these plans have integrated patios and garden spaceswhich extend the livingarea, creating a smooth transition between indoors andoutdoors.

Cad Details Library from Free Green Reviewed by Buidling Science

David — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:14:00 -0500

FreeGreen has just launched a building science reviewed CAD details Library. This new products is a must have for any serious green builder or green architect. Also, the most important details in the library were reviewed by Building Science Corporation adding a huge amount of value to this already valuable product. Please click on the image to see more details on this great new product.

Design Competition for Green Homes from Free Green and Greensburg GreenTown

David — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:28:00 -0500

Architects and Designers around the world can now Design a Community's Future & Win $10,000 in the process. FreeGreen is proud to announce our first architecture competition being held with our partners Greensburg Greentown. For those of you who don't know Greensburg, KS is a town that was destroyed by an EF5 Tornado in May of 2007. Since this horrible disaster the entire community has come together to rebuild sustainably, striving to become the model green town for future. This wonderful story has allowed Greensburg to become an inspiration for all of America, and even President Obama with his current mention of Greensburg in his first State of the Union Address.

The Competition is based around one of Greensburg's projects called the Chain of Eco-Homes. This is a project through which Greensburg will be building a set of 12 Eco-Homes which will be used for education and eco-tourism. Through our Chain of Eco-Homes Competition Architects and Designers around the world are asked to develop a design using one of three disaster resistant wall system. Specifically, these wall systems are Amvic’s ICFs, Virginia LimeWorks’ EMUs, and HIB Systems. Competitors will be asked to choose one wall system per entry and judges will choose one winner per wall system. Another key component to the competition is cost. The goal of the competition is to choose designs that can be built for $110 per sq. ft. (the average building cost in that area), with a construction cap of $154,000 per house. This is not a competition to develop an unattainable future house, rather it is a competition based in the realistic and common sense roots of the Greensburg Community. If you design something that no one can every build, then what was the point of the competition in the first place?

You don't have to be an Architect or Designer to get involved either. Through this competition website we are asking for individual donations. These donations will go directly towards the construction of these winning designs. We highly encourage everyone to give what they can to this great cause as you will not only be helping Greensburg, but also the world of green design. To that end, all winning designs (and their subsequent house plans) will be placed on FreeGreen.com and will be able to be downloaded for free.

We are very proud to be bringing you this architecture competition, and are excited to work with Greenburg Greentown and their wonderful project.

Fit-PC - Hand-Sized Low Power Computer

David — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:46:00 -0500

Hello FreeGreen Readers,

We are starting a new program which allows guest authors to contribute articles on green homes, home products, or green concepts to our blog. Below if our first article of this nature by Daniel Harrison at www.enviorgadget.com

The fit-PC Slim is a small fanless computer measuring just 100mm x 110mm x 30mm. The fit-PC packs a powerful 500MHz processor, 512MB DDR 333MHz memory, and a 60GB laptop hard drive! The computer is perfect for lightweight applications (where the server does the hard work) and for casual computer use (such as web browsing, email and word processing).

The fit-pc has been designed with the environment in mind. The circuit board is lead-free and the case is made from recyclable aluminium. The best bit is the power consumption of this tiny computer, which is between 4 and 6 Watts! Which is less than most energy saving lightbulbs! With such a small power consumption, the fit-pc is ideal for situations where you want a computer switched on 24 hours a day. This might include home monitoring and home automation projects.

The only aspects of the fit-pc that makes it functionally different from other PCs is that it has a slightly slower processer. However, the benefits are that it is much smaller and much more energy efficient. It still has wireless networking , USB 2.0 ports, a 100Mbps ethernet port, as well as support for sound with a headphone socket and microphone socket.

So if you’re a light computer user, or you’ve always wanted to run a tiny home server, then the fit-pc is perfect! It’s pretty cheap too, costing around £200 in the UK, and cheaper again at around $200 in the US.

This guest article was written by Daniel Harrison, who has a passion for green gadgets and low power computers

FreeGreen Partnership with Modern House Magazine

David — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:16:00 -0500

FreeGreen has launched a new partnership with Modern House Magazaine. That said we wanted to give MHM Founder and Editor, Jay Barker a chance to speak to our community:

"Hello to the entire Free Green community! Modern House Magazine is pleased to be featuring modern sustainable house plans from the most unique and progressive house plan site online. As you may have heard MHM will be featuring a different Free Green house plan regularly to bring more attention to house designs that utilize the latest green technologies.

I also want to invite the Free Green community to learn more about the monumental changes taking place in the residential built environment. Smaller high-tech houses that are smart and emphasize livability are in demand, and interest will grow exponentially over the next generation. MHM will report on these trends and profile the people who are making it happen. I hope you enjoy reading our stories and viewing our feature slide shows of modern sustainable design. You can also participate in MHM by adding your comments to stories, providing tips for new stories, and sharing information with friends and family.

Last I want to thank Dave for making it so easy to show off Free Green's house plans. Thanks again from MHM!"

More Nice PR on the SF Chronicle

David — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 02:43:00 -0500

Check out some of the nice new PR in the San Francisco Chronicle. Article is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/11/DDK91654SO.DTL

Kohler Helps You Save Water

David — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 08:23:00 -0500

Hello All,

We wanted to make all of our users aware of a great new Micro-Site put out by Kohler. As you would expect this industry leader has taken it upon themselves to educate the market about water conversation and how significant it is, and will be, in our lives. While on this micro-site, you can take a quick quiz, learn about water conservation, and learn about Kohler's many water saving products. As you can see from the screen above, when I used my parents home as a quiz sample I learned that they could save $45 a year, or 8,256 gallons per year if they upgraded just their toilets. Finally, if you decide to give your contact information to Kohler they will donate $1 in water-saving products to Habitat for Humanity (they already donated $515,353 at the time of this screen shot). It doesn't get much better then that (except for Free Green House Plans of course). So click on the image above and head on over to Kohler.

FreeGreen Launches Open Source

David — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 01:52:00 -0500

Today we are proud to bring you FreeGreen Open Source. This is a brand new program in which FreeGreen allows Architects and Designers around the world to post their own Green House Plans, and name their own price (from free to fee). Think of it as the Apple Apps. Store for Green Design.

Through this new platform we are creating a single place for consumers to find affordable (and often free) green design ideas, and energy saving house plans. At the same time we are providing great Architects and Designers with a new way to enter the house plan space, gaining exposure and a new way to make money. In a time when all of us are looking for ways to save money, and keep our firms alive, we hope that Open Source will provide a solution for the green home design market.

To better explain this new FreeGreen idea we thought a mini Q&A session would work best. See below for session details, as well as some images of current FreeGreen Open Source designs. As always we welcome your comments, ideas, and criticisms. Please feel free to contact us at, opensource@freegreen.com. We look forward to the evolution and growth of this platform.

Thanks, Dave Wax, CEO FreeGreen

Why Was Open Source Created?

FreeGreen's Open Source Program was created as a direct reaction to our users and their desire to have an infinite array of green house plans. At FreeGreen, we will always create our free house plans as fast as possible, but with 1000's of hours going into each design, we have limitations. To overcome this we wanted to encourage other Architects and Designers to post their own green house plan to our site. After interviews with many Architects, FreeGreen Open Source and its "name your own price" became the obvious solution. We believe that Open Source will allow us to create a truly"efficient market" for green design.

Will There Still Be Free House Plans?

Yes. All Official FreeGreen House Plans will continue to be available for free, and we will continue to produce more free house plans each month. The new mantra for the FreeGreen site is: "Download Official FreeGreen House Plans for free; if you don't seen anything you like, Shop FreeGreen Open Source".

I'm an Architect or Designer, What do I Need to Know About Open Source?

1) Unlike other House Plan sites, we want the user to know, and learn about you the designer. To do this, we allow each Open Source Architect to create their own profile which is design every design that you post and vice versa, making it easy for your fans to discover you, your design philosophy, and your plans.

2) You need to be an Architect or Designer member of FreeGreen to post plans to Open Source. It costs $50 per house plan that you post, and all plan posts are reviewed by FreeGreen to ensure they are ready to be sold or downloaded.

3) FreeGreen takes a 20% commission (you get 80%) on all house plan sales. You can check other house plan sites, but they all charge about 60% commission. FreeGreen has lowered our commission because we too are designers and know how hard you work. We believe you should have a majority of the money that is made from your creations. Also we hope that by giving you a greater share, you’ll be willing and able to price your plans low enough to make them accessible to all FreeGreen users.

4) All content on the FreeGreen Open Source site is generated by you. You can update any of this content (except for approved construction documents) at anytime. This includes the price of your designs. Through your dashboard you can also track the popularity and sales of your plans.

5) All customization leads, questions about your designs, etc. are directed to you. FreeGreen is not in the business of taking leads, and only you know your designs best. We even connect you with plan purchasers (post sale) so that you can establish and maintain that customer relationship.

I'm a House Plan Downloader, What do I Need to Know About Open Source?

1) Each Open Source house plan has an Architect or Designer profile attached. We encourage you to look at these profiles, and even contact these Architects or Designers. Remember, this is not a house plan sales site; it is a community to connect sellers and buyers of great design.

2) Open Source has a unique navigation method. We have created a way to smoothly surf through our designs, as opposed to rigid text search methods. You can think of Open Source as an online magazine for great design.

3) Prices are generated by the Architect or Designer of the plans and can change. This means you will see a huge range in price (from fee to free). This is what creates our "efficient market" for design. With your views, and dollars, you decide what is popular, and how plans end up being priced. Also, we are developing technology for the 2nd Quarter of 2009 that will allow you to get house plan sale updates from your favorite Architects and Designers.

4) FreeGreen conducts a cursory review on each house plan post to assure that everything advertised, is included in the actual house plans.

How FreeGreen Influences The World

David — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:51:00 -0500

Well.....maybe just one builder for now. Today, Silvia and Silvia a custom home builder based in Osterville, MA launched a new Green Architecture portion of their website. With this launch came an interesting integration with FreeGreen and our free house plans. Silvia and Silvia are offering all FreeGreen House Plans (with prices) as a starting point for their customers. We at FreeGreen think this is a great example of how the market should use our free house plans. They are here to take and use in what every way works for you, the user. If you can find a way to make money off of them (without directly re-selling them of course) then we think it's great. We just wanted to share this story with all of you to show how FreeGreen and our designs are influencing the marketplace. Just think, what would happen if every builder followed Silvia and Silvia's lead?.......Instant penetration of green homes into the market. Congrats Silvia and Silvia, and we hope that your innovation make you strong in this tough market.

FreeGreen In The New York Times

David — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 09:07:00 -0500

Hello All,

Click on the Image above and see our nice mention in the New York Times today. We apologize for the short post here, but we have Open Source going live on Friday so we are real busy. Looking forward to that launch, and to changing the landscape of house plans and green design for ever! Talk to you all soon.