wow – you really need deep pockets to be eco friendly. Our house is very difficult to insulate, as it is non standard consturuction, (flat roof, so no loft; not got 2 layers of brick so can’t cavity wall insulate, or will get damp in the gap; single glazed windows) so it is going to cost a LOT. Not really an option to leave it as is though, as it is very badly insulated. Going to have to make some compromises somhow on life to afford all this though… 2 years ago
Have just had some plans for a renovation drawn up, just starting to get into all the local planning rules.. scary amount of stuff to get to grips with, even with help !
Then there’s all the options on what to do, and wether there are any grants available to help with funding. not likely with the credit crunch :-(
I’m still absolutely baffled and that is after about 1 year of looking into this.. all I know is it’s going to be really expensive £ wise to benefit the planet. 2 years ago
Hey everyone! i havn’t been on here in a while, but i have changed me house goals as of last week. My new eco friendly house plans are now to build a Tiny house. Yes, not a small house A TINY HOUSE! One of Jay Shafer’s Tumbleweed Houses. The “Fencl” And it has wheels too! its no bigger than 100sq meters. No bigger than a regular sized bedroom or parking spot. 19×8 i believe. I plan on tackling this after i attend Jay Shafer’s Building workshop in Indianapolis next weekend. This house includes a living room/ dinning room / Office space (This space will be creatively accommodating 3 rooms in one. This house also includes a small kitchen with propane powered 2 burner stove, a sink, a full bathroom with a composting toilet and a full size shower. The bedroom is situated above in the loft section / attic and fits a full size queen bed enough for 2 people to sleep in. I plan on making sure this house is built eco friendly and using no VOC paints and equipped with the latest sloar power technology for powering my home. Also equipped with a 400 Watt wind turbine. I hope to be able to simplify my life and live simply and tread lightly upon the earth. I will keep you posted on my dream home! 3 years ago
We have built two houses. The first one was mostly energy efficient. I did not want an air condition system, but my husband insisted. I also refused a dishwasher.
The second house is really energy efficient, in floor heating, passive solar, wood burning stove and no air conditioning. The enery bills are really low and the house is very comfortable. Now we are looking at a third and final building project. I want this one to be truly green. 4 years ago
I’ve learned a lot so far from green / eco books i have purchased like cradle to cradle Remaking the Way We Make Things, Design for Sustainability: A Sourcebook of Integrated, Eco-logical Solutions, Ready, Set, Green: Eight Weeks to Modern Eco-Living, The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a time, Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying, 365 Ways to Live Green: Your Everyday Guide to Saving the Environment. I have also purchased films like The 11th hour, and An inconvenient truth, and planet in peril that has boosted my motivation for doing all these things. I’m starting an eco site as well www.ecogreenglobe.com which connects people with eco web links to help them live a greener life. The things i do now since i don’t have the money to build a home. I buy 100% eco friendly cleaning products from sun & earth, Bought a eco friendly push reel lawn mower instead of a gas mower (works quite well too!) changed all my bulbs to cfl’s, changed my shower head to an eco friendly water saving one. I buy all recycled paper towels, toilet paper and purchase small gadgets like small solar panels to charge my cell phone, and ipod. I recycle 99% of all my garbage, i usually throw away 1% of actual garbage a week which is a biodegradable bag of about the size of my hand. Hopefully i wont even need to throw that out when i get my com poster. The things i hope to do yet is start a com poster, and collect rain water for maybe flushing toilets and or watering plants. There are hundreds of things we can do to live green and im trying every single one of them with all my heart. I just cant wait till i have the funds to build an eco home! 4 years ago
My eco friendly dream is to have my an eco friendly home. A building that works with the environment instead of against it. I’m currently designing the features I want to include into it. Weather it be a home that I will renovate or build from scratch everything will be 100% eco. I definitely want a green house/ green room which will either be attached to the house or separate so I can grow my own food. Solar panels on the roof are a must. With skylights, letting natural light in to the home. Ground heating, rain collecting for flushing toilets and watering plants. Wind turbines on the roof and maybe even extend it out into the back yard making a mini wind farm. My goal is to produce enough power from all these sources so that I no longer exist on the energy radar. Going off the grid is one of the top goals of this project. All materials will be recyclable or sustainable. This is a longer term goal and all depends on my financial situation. Too bad building eco isn’t cheaper! 4 years ago
I think that we are as close to this goal as we will be for a while. My main aims are as follows:
To keep all waste to a minimum
To cut energy consumption
To buy goods which do not harm the environment 5 years ago
We’ve ordered one for the garden and it should be arriving in the next 2 weeks. As the majority of our food waste is vegetable matter, this will cut down on our rubbish considerably. I am also going to create a space in the kitchen for our weekly re-cycle of glass, paper and tin. 5 years ago
This is now installed. It will be interested to see how our first bill comes in. We can then try to beat it next time! 5 years ago
An extra bonus today. I found out that our kitchen cabinets are FSC accredited. I was hoping that it might be the case. 5 years ago
We now have a new kitchen with most of the appliances rating A energy efficiency. We’ve always inherited other people’s kitchens before so it’s a real treat to have something that only we have used.
Happily, we have found someone who wants to take our old cooker on Freecycle and are hoping that they may consider the fridge as well. I’m not sure what we can do with the old kitchen cabinets as we had to smash up a bit to get them out (they dated from 1968!). Hopefully, the council can find something decent to do with the wood. 5 years ago
This is now installed. Eco-wise, it’s a tricky one because manufacturing UPVC ang glass is not green at all. However, the energy savings and relative longevity make sense, especially when you live in the middle of moorland! We haven’t been able to switch the heating off as it has been cold here, but we are planning to reduce the time that the radiators are on next week.
Hopefully, we should have all the drafts blocked up by the beginning of April which will help too. 5 years ago
Our new boiler is extremely energy efficient so that’s the first piece of green-ish equipment in place. Eventually I would like to consider installing a ground source heat pump, but it depends how long we intend to stay at this property. We tend not to use central heating very often anyway. 5 years ago
We’re going to make the renovation of our new house as green as possible. Some of the features that we will be looking at are:
Triple-glazing
Thick roof insulation
Cavity wall insulation
Composting
Recycling
Energy Efficient Appliances & Boilers
Recycled or FSC furniture
Water Meter
Local food
Low reliance on transport (I will be walking to work) 5 years ago
the flat is on the market now.. so I will give up my current job and move to the country when it is sold 5 years ago
In some ways, our rental flat is much greener than our old house. We have hardly used the heating because of the improved insulation and expanses of glass, and we have less rooms to heat.
The downside is the lack of recycling and composting, but we hope to offset this by shopping down at the market and avoiding heavy packaging. Ideally, I’d like to be walking to work in spring/summer rather than using the scooter.
Still not going to sign this off yet though. I want to make the eventual house I own as self-sufficient as possible. That means high insulation to avoid central heating, solar panels for hot water, a composter bin or two, vegetable patch and fruit trees, recycling and low reliance on cars. 6 years ago
Quite frightening how much this costs… got to work out how on earth to get the money together to do this one 6 years ago
There are currently 28 43Ter’s who want to do this.. and we’re all finding it quite hard (and expensive) to do.. it seems to be a LUXURY goal, rather than a MUST HAVE. How on earth are we going to save the planet if sustainability is a luxury ? 6 years ago
Global warming is now accelerating and we need to cut emissions by 70% by 2030. I don’t know if it’s possible to halt the process, but we must try. We are dinosaurs in the making at the moment.
We’re looking into solar technology, wind turbines – possibly to install within the next 12 months. 6 years ago
I have found this great book about sustainable houses. it’s ‘EcoHouse 2’ by Sue Roaf. Load of great design ideas, inspirational pictures and serious architecty bits too. 6 years ago
