Eco House Projects

In March 2008 the UK government will outline plans to develop fifteen new eco land sites into eco-towns. The question is do these plans go far enough? These eco-towns are designed to be carbon zero, but his should not be at the expense of local wildlife. Eco-towns should promote eco living in at the same time protecting existing and encouraging new wildlife in the area by providing wetlands, woods, meadows and other natural habitats, a good example of this is the Hockerton Housing Project.

Wetlands Centre london

Wildlife trusts are worried that local wildlife will be overlooked when creating these carbon zero eco-towns. Some wildlife trusts take this point further and believe that, if there is not a strict selection process for each bid submitted then when these eco-towns are developed, the delicate balance between local wildlife, and its existing environment could be destroyed. Any Bid needs to incorporate plans for local wildlife including providing new wildlife habitats. See the WWF web-site for tips on sustainable homes and their interaction with Wildlife - http://www.wwf.org.uk/sustainablehomes

You may think Eco House projects are a new phenomena, wrong! There have been a number of eco-towns, eco-projects in existence in the UK for a number of years now.

The BEDZED Project

There have been Carbon friendly house projects for a number of years now an example of this is the BEDZED project in surrey, developed 5 years ago. The highest profile of these was the BEDZED project in Sutton in 2002 which was funded through a joint venture by the Peabody trust and BioRegional an environmental charity.

BEDZED developed a number of Carbon Neutral flats characterised by their glass façade, creating distinctive sun rooms, some of the flats have imaginative internal bridges leading to private “Sky Gardens”. All the flats have 300mm insulation, meaning heat retention is very high. The distributed offsite centralised solar heating means that not only are the flats efficiently heated they also have larger than average well insulated water tanks.

See http://www.bioregional.co.uk/ For more details

Hockerton

Nottinghamshire low impact development, started in 1998 this energy self sufficient block of terrace houses set the benchmark for Eco-Homes.

See http://www.hockertonhousingproject.org.uk/ For more details

Myddelton Construction

This projects is planning to create an “Eco-Village” near Ilkley in West Yorkshire. The Village will consist of,

5 energy efficient homes
11 energy efficient work units
A number of offices with conference facilities
A Microbrewery

The energy will be created through the use of Solar Panels (Photovoltaic’s), Biomass Boiler and thermal panels.

See http://www.myddelton.co.uk/ for more information

The Wintles, Bishops Castle, Shropshire

This eco project is planning 40 Eco friendly homes, each home comes with,

Rainwater Harvesting
Solar Water Heaters
Triple Glazing

All set in a beautiful village, see http://www.livingvillage.com/

ZERO CARBON HOUSE PROJECT

http://www.zerocarbonhouse.co.uk/

An amazing Zero Carbon Home, built on Britains most northenly Island of Unst part of the Shetland Islands. This extreemly Eco Friendly Home, was built after the 1992 hurricane destroyed the existing property and was funded through private sponsorship. Regarded as one of the most energy efficient houses on the planet, encompassing energy saving technology and materials such as,

Rainwater Harvesting
Wind Turbines
Roof Insulation (expanding foam)
Low Voltage Lighting
Local Timber

Atlanta Apartments, Brighton

31 rented & shared ownership flats, made out of Eco friendly products like,

Chestnut Cladding
Recycled Carpet
Sedum Roof

From £50,000 shared ownership see http://www.downland.org.uk/

Axis St Marys island, Chatham

Triple glazed glass walls/Windows
Condensing Boilers

From £249,000, 3 bed house, see http://www.chatham.com

Eco Homes Lodon - Clareville Street, South Kensington

Geothermal Boreholes
Rainwater Harvesting
Waste Compressors
Solar Panels

4 bed houses from £4,500,000 - www.morpheusdevelopments.co.uk

The Nottingham Eco Home - Eco restoration of a Victorian semi detached house

See www.msarch.co.uk/ecohome for more information.

The Yellow house - renovation of a Terrace house

See http://www.theyellowhouse.org.uk/ for more information

The Leicster Eco-house - Show house full of environmentally friendly devices

See www.environ.org.uk/ecohouse for more information.

Brompton Eco house

shows how low carbon impact houses can be affordable

Findhorn Eco-Village - See http://www.ecovillagefindhorn.org for more information.

ECO Homes

Are building 5 Carbon Neutral dwellings in Stawell in Somerset which should be ready by Christmas.

See www.ecohomes.co.uk for more information

Baufritz

Is a company that specialises in creating energy efficient, sustainable homes.

The ethos behind the company is to create,

"The principles of healthy, ecologically friendly building construction"

See www.baufritz.co.uk for more details

ZED Homes

Developing 12*2 bedroom Eco friendly flats in Harrow.

See www.zedhomes.com for more information

Self Builds

For those brave enough to take on a self-build carbon neutral project. Then NearZero (http://www.nearzero.co.uk/) provides a wealth of information which caters for the experienced builder or complete beginners, by offering different packages.

Architecture/Buildings - If you are doing a self build or extension and at the same time want to remain environmentally friendly you can review the following websites www.aecb.net and www.greenbuildbible.co.uk for a list of like minded builders and architects.

Livarot Walk

Award winning eco-homes in Devon, built from sustainable building materials incorporating,

Solar hot water heating

www.swsustainablebuild.info

Eco Consultancies

Through his auditing company 3 Acorns Eco-audits, Donnachadh provides an environmental auditing service to individuals, families and businesses, assisting them in assessment and improvement of their environmental performance. - www.3acorns.co.uk