Eco Friendly Houses - House - Carbon Neutral

“In a recent survey it was revealed that 52% of people where prepared to pay more for  Eco homes” - Showing it pays to be Green

A recent government directive indicated that all new homes should be carbon neutral by 2016, but what can we do in our current homes to reduce our carbon footprint and What Eco friendly products are available to help with this task?

Top tips for saving Energy

1. Make sure you loft is properly insulated; this is one of the most important things you can do to conserve energy in your home. If you install 270mm of insulation you can knock of approximately £200 from your heating bills. Best yet insulating your home is relatively inexpensive and the Government offers grants to help you pay for it.
2. If you have an old boiler now is the time to replace it. Upgrade it for a new condensing boiler, to help increase household efficiency. Huge savings can be made on your heating bills.
3. Install energy saving light bulbs, they last up to 12 times longer than their traditional counterpart and are fantastic Eco freindly products in your Eco Home.
   

Save energy today for free & Create Eco Friendly Houses

1. Don’t leave any electrical goods on Standby
2. Wash clothes at lower temperatures e.g. 30 – 40 degrees, and make sure it’s a full load
3. Reduce the heat in your home, turn down the thermostat and set it on a timer
4. Your fridge uses loads of energy so make sure it’s properly sealed. You can use a five pound note, shut it in the door, if it falls you need a new seal
5. Use a pan lid when you boil your vegetables and pasta it cooks quicker this way, make sure you only use the water you need
6. When brushing your teeth don't leave the tap running
7. Buy organic locally produced from your local supermarkets or grocery store
8. Peel and wash fruit and vegetables, make sure you composte your peel.
9. Never use pesticides in you home or garden use natural products which won’t harm wildlife
10. Select fresh, frozen or dried foods as aposed to canned foot. Tin cans are not always eco-friendly to produce
11. Don’t use PVC cling film to rap your food in, cling film is not biodagrable, and therefore not good for the environment or good for your food
12. If possible mothers should breast-feed babies. If not, they should use, non polycarbonate bottles for feeding their babies
13. You should never need to use air fresheners (many are full of damaging chemicals) open your window instead
14. You can now buy eco-friendly cleaning products, look on the lables to check for soap, shampoos and cosmetics that don’t contain synthetic fragrances.
15. Use glues, paints, and varnish that have a low VOC content, or water-based solutions

Appliance is Eco Science

When you are buying a new dishwasher, washing machine, fridge freezer etc

Make sure they come with at least an A rating in terms of efficiency. There are plenty of products which do; you can even get an A+++ energy efficiency range.

All major retailers display the energy efficiency of their products, remember its not just white goods all electrical goods should come with energy efficiency ratings.

For instance did you know that in general, eco friendly products like LCD televisions use less energy than their equivalent plasma counterpart? Check the energy efficency rating before you buy. 

Showers vs Baths

Showers use less water than baths, Correct?

Well maybe not! A power shower can easily use up as much water as an average sized bath.

Typical bath uses up 80 liters of water, while a power shower can often use up 80 + liters of water (depends on model and duration of use).Low flow showers use up less than 30 liters of water (depends on model and duration of use). 

• If you are fitting a shower make sure it has a low flow rate e.g. Hansgrove showers.
• EcoSpy showers - reduce water flow by 50%
• Fit your shower with a timer, which switches the shower off after a set time 

Eco Toilets and Eco Flush

When you flush a toilet you use up to 13 liters of water. This is a lot of water wasted, so what can we do to help.

You can now buy dual flush toilets, whereby one Eco flush uses less water, aprox 3 -4 liters

These Eco flush toilets can be bought for around £266 from Twyford bathrooms - www.twyfordbathrooms.com you can also find slightly more expensive eco flush toilets at Jasper Morrison - www.jaspermorrison.com 

Another way of conserving water from your existing toilet is to by a Hippo, which is basically a plastic box that is placed under your cistern and can save up to 3 liters every flush. See - www.hippo-the-watersaver.co.uk 

Eco Taps

Mixer taps can be bought that reduce water flow; they have a specially designed control lever with a water break.

You can also buy taps with aerators which mixes air bubbles with the water to reduce water flow. 

For existing taps you can use cartridges that reduce the water flow creating a spray of water. - See www.tapmagic.co.uk  

Use Eco Paint

Always try and use paint made from natural resources and that are chemical free. Have a look at the Eco Chick range - www.earthbornpaints.co.uk

If you are building a house from scratch consider using lime plaster and a water based glase.See www.greenshop.co.uk

If you are going to use wallpaper look for wallpaper that has been recycled - www.ewmoore.com has a selection of recycled wallpaper. 

Carpets

Eco friendly carpets are made from natural resources such as

• Hemp
• Wool
• Organic Cotton
• Rubber
• Sisal
• Hessian (for underlay)

For more details see www.thenaturalflooring.com and www.floorsourceuk.com

Wooden floors

Always try and keep existing floor boards, you can always give them a revamp with a sanding and a coat of varnish. If you have to replace damaged floorboards then use FSC approved timber or sustainable eco friendly products like bamboo. 

Eco Building

If you are involved in building a new house then this is a perfect oportunity to use Eco friendly building material to reduce energy waste and create  amazing new carbon friendly sustainable Eco homes. More and more people are rejecting the usual building route of concrete and morta, in order to create eco friendly houses, using greener building materials such as,

• Timber (FSC) or (PEFC)
• Building with Straw
• Cob Building

A very good book to read about building Eco homes, that blend perfectly within their natural surroundings is "Diary of an Eco-Builder" (published by Green Books,  www.greenbooks.co.uk)  

Ecovation, is a new initiative for those who have renovated their homes to a high environmental standard and willing to share their experiences good and bad with others including ideas, tips, those all important contacts for creating eco friendly houses.

"Ecovation is a collective, informative site for inspiring and enabling practical change." - www.ecovation.org.uk 

We can all do something to help the environment no matter how small, whether these be lifestyle changes or the introduction to our households of energy saving devices, Eco Friendly Products used to create Eco Friendly Houses.