It has self-cleaning windows, a waterproof TV and a robot that irons shirts – but does this experimental eco-house feel like home? Hester Lacey meets the family who spent 2005 living in it.
The article finishes with this:
Turn your home into an eco-house
1. Switch off – £47m-worth a year of energy is wasted by mobile phone chargers alone; if they’re left switched on, they still suck up power even if the phone isn’t being charged. Don’t leave any appliances on standby (this wastes another £744m-worth of energy a year).
2. Insulate, insulate, insulate. Lofts should be insulated to a depth of 270mm, a measure which could pay for itself in less than a year.
3. Low energy bulbs use a fifth of the energy of conventional bulbs and last 12 times longer.
4. Turning down thermostats one degree saves 10% of heating costs.
5. Don’t fill the kettle to the top; only boil the water that you need.
6. The Energy Saving Trust will give your home a personalised energy audit. Call 0800 915 7722 or see www.saveyour20percent.co.uk
This is the sort of thing that interests me. Although I was even more fascinated by this particular article, when I realised that I used to work with the father of the family. The bit that I wonder about is what you do *after* the measures above. I mean, I know we could do with turning things off. We leave a number of things plugged in or on standby. But as far as I understand it, we’re already fully insulated. Tim tells me that we run the central heating in the most efficient way, and we have thermostatic radiators, so each room in the house is at optimum temperature. We have low energy lightbulbs in the places where lights are on longest, and as and when we replace appliances, I look at their energy ratings. Not quite sure what comes next?
Comments
7 responses to “SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Communities | Hester Lacey meets the family who spent 2005 living in a experimental eco-house”
Go vegan!!! 😉
But seriously…hippo bags in the loos? or a brick. Timed short showers instead of baths? Other than those I think you get into big changes like work closer to home, buy all local organic produce, get rid of one or both cars, photovoltaics on the roof and solar heated water (this last one not so expensive anymore), geothermal heating etc. I’ve yet to use all eco light bulbs and I couldn’t afford the local org. produce bit and I’m *shamefully* wedded to having a car, even though I don’t need one 🙁
Instead of using your kettle 4 times to make 4 cups of coffee, why not boil 4 cups worth at once, and store the hot water in a flask.
Whats a hippo bag?
A device that is put into the cistern and dramatically reduces the water used for each flush, a brick is just as effective.
Think I have a flask somewhere…wrt boiling kettles lots, my resolution ought to be use to *use* the hot water first time it boils rather than forgetting about it and going and doing it all again in half an hours time…
Wonder how much power I waste each day reheating cups of tea left go cold?
I unplug/switch off most sockets that aren’t in use, all our bulbs are low-energy ones, loo is a dual flush thingy, appliances are all A-rated, we recycle everything that fits in the green bin, compost, grow our own food.
Guess I need to do something to offset the Land Rovers – before someone handcuffs themselves to my front wheel.
Hot water from aflask might be ok for instant coffe (pah!!), it does not a nice cup of tea make. Anyway I reckon kettles are pretty efficient at transferring energy to the water, and the amount required is probbaly pretty linear in realtion to the amount of water, so I don’t think you save that much over heating just the right amount when you need it. Re the bags in the lo etc. it’s worth noting that modern cisterns are already have a reduced water volume, over older ones, so the bag/brick thing might just mena they don’t flush properly.
Re isnsulation, do you ahve cavity wall isnualtion as well as loft?
“photovoltaics cells”
Only problem with these is that producing them leaves quite a large energy debt to repay (hence the still relatively high cost) semiconductor plants are not very “eco-friendly” places.
These personal measures are all well and good and of course are very worthwhile but they read a bit like David Cameron’s Conservative Environment policy. Perhaps lobbying government to tighten the industry regulations on carbon emissions coupled with a serious look at increasing “cue thunder” nuclear power production would be one of several next steps?