Green is seen as the salvation of the home building industry. New green products at the 2010 Builders Show include Honeywell’s wind turbine that generates electricity at very low wind speed and it can be installed directly on the roof of a wood-framed house. Ipanema decking offers many unusual Brazilian hardwoods and Kebony uses a patented process to make wood biologically inert and resistant to decay and insects.

Can you know what it feels like to stand in a house without actually standing in it? This is not a theoretical question. As computer-generated virtual-reality images of homes become less costly to generate, many in the home-building industry expect them to play a central role in the buying experience. The amount of information you want in the virtual tour, however, will depend on where you are in your new home search.

The New American Home 2010 was supposed to be a spectacular show house and a centerpiece of the International Builders Show in Las Vegas. Instead, the fate of the 6,800-square-foot house accurately reflected the state of luxury home building — and the ravaged Vegas market. Show-goers were able to take virtual reality tours of the house.

Manufacturers of countertops with recycled content have upped the ante in looks and technical sophistication. IceStone is made with concrete and recycled glass and features rich purples, reds and greens. Bio-Glass is made with recycled beer and wine bottles; some types of glass appear to be fossilized ferns. Eco is an engineered stone made with a mix of recycled glass, porcelain, and stone scraps and a corn oil-acrylic binder.

Home builder Tedd Benson challenges us to rethink our concept of “house.” He considers it as two distinct entities — one permanent and built for the long haul (theater); the other transient and serving the immediate needs of the present owners (stage).

After years of telling readers that Americans can help reduce global warming by using less energy at home, it was time for me to learn how my own house could become more energy efficient. I focused on heating and cooling because together they are the biggest consumers of home energy and, as most houses are not heated or cooled efficiently, they offer the greatest potential for savings.

For a year, beginning in December 2006, Mahattanites Colin Beavan and his family tried to minimize their enviromental impact. They ate only locally grown food, gave up electricity and motorized transportation, bought only used clothing and toys, and recycled nearly everything, Had the Beavans lived in suburbia, they could have made changes to reduce their environmental impact without affecting their lifestyle at all.

Helping homeowners “think inside their existing box” and envision multiple ways to address their remodeling project, Sarah Susanka adds “Not So Big Remodeling” to her popular series of books. She draws examples from more than 40 houses across the country, examining everything from attic to basement but focuses on the kitchen, the center of family life in most households today.

In many cases, the desire to move to a bigger house is driven by the need to “get my life under control.” The thinking goes like this: In a bigger house I’ll have bigger closets and my house won’t be awash in clutter anymore. But bigger closets can be both a blessing and a curse, said Messies Anonymous founder Sandra Felton, who struggled with chaos in her own house for more than 23 years before devising strategies for neatness that work.

Corrugated fiberboard boxes are cheap, green and miracles of engineering. A box that weighs less than two pounds can hold 65 pounds, contain 60 percent post-consumer recycled content — and cost only 67 cents!