Yes, you certainly can. – The earlier the better to consider your plans for anything and everything to do with energy saving, and ecological considerations.

If you are interested in finding out how you can build ecologically, it’s worth doing some reading on the subject before you design, and before you even start to look for the land if possible.

Decisions you make very early on will have an impact on just how “Eco Friendly” you can be. - 

In my opinion, one of the best eco decisions you can make is simply to make sure that you insulate the building to a high degree. – I’ll go into that later in this section.

Some of the other things to you might wish to think about that will have an effect on the “Eco friendliness” of your project, while you are planning your project are:

Can you find choose materials which are stocked? – If so you will reduce the amount of energy used to transport them to your project.

You could also try to, not only find materials which are stocked locally, but which are also made locally and that are either partly or completely renewable. Bear in mind though, the thought that if you use up a local resource which is not quickly renewable, or indeed not renewable at all, then at some stage the supplier will have to restock that item and to do that they will have to bring in components from other places which will increase transport pollution.  – So, simply buying local produce is not necessarily going to make you particularly eco friendly!

Remember also that Heavy or larger items brought a long distance on large trucks can have a more negative environmental impact than smaller items, where hundreds or thousands can be transported on one delivery wagon.

You may like that architecturally attractive multi-coloured brick from the opposite end of the country, but getting them to you is going to have a negative effect on the environment. If you can find a local brick that you like, then the impact of transporting them will be minimised. – The same goes for blocks. – They are made all over the country. – You may save 50p / sq metre by taking advantage of a special offer, but that offer might mean them coming a long distance. – By paying the extra 50p, you may be able to source them from a local manufacturer. - You may also be able to find blocks locally which have been made from at least “some” recycled materials.

Maybe you can find a site locally which has been demolishing an old building and crushing the building “debris” for re use. - Using this stone as your hardcore would save the needing for it to be quarried. - As a bonus, you might find that you actually pay less for this stone because the demolition people will not now have to pay to have it removed from the site. – If you see a site with stacks of crushed rubble, and there is anyone around, go and have a chat to see if they are selling it or not.

These ideas and other that you may come up with yourselves, for sourcing your materials locally will not only keep “manufacture impacts” and transport pollution down, but will also bring business into your community.

A great idea as an eco friendly option if you can do it successfully, but the problem with reclaimed materials is, if you buy the whole stock of one particular material, say bricks or roof tiles, and you find that you are 200 short, you can’t nip to the merchants to get a few more! – You could easily end up with a house looking like a patchwork quilt where you have been trying to find “nearest match” materials, which you may have to look “far afield” for, and would cancel out the positive eco impact using the reclaimed materials had in the first place!

Often the reclaimed materials can create character in an new building which can otherwise sometimes be a little “sterile”.

A concrete floor uses up stone, sand and cement, and although it will possibly be recycled at some time in the future (maybe as hardcore), it is still a use of finite (un-renewable) resources. – It may be an option to, instead, go for a “Suspended” timber floor for your ground floor (similar to a normal first floor construction) If you do, you will be using renewable materials from the outset (these floors can actually work out cheaper sometimes and faster to construct, especially if you have to do a lot of “building up” of ground (for example on a sloping site), which takes large quantities of hardcore, followed by a lot of “compacting” and possibly reinforcement being needed, before you can lay the concrete.

Timber framedbuildings are more eco friendly than Traditionally built. – The timber is renewable, and less “volume” of timber will be used than to construct the internal skin of an external wall of a timber framed house  than the “volume” of blocks that would be used to build the same walls in a traditionally built property (the reason for that is that the timber only creates a “framework”, which is then filled with insulation). – A Timber Frame, provided by a local company would not only be a good environmental option, but would also bring business to your local community.

If you are taking the environmental impact of your property very seriously, you could also investigate some of the other construction options such as “Straw bales”, “Clay blocks”, Rammed earth, or, as you may have seen and “flinched at” in some of the TV programmes, -  “Earth clay / Plasters”, which can include things like “Cow dung” as one of their constituent parts!

You could try to use as much timber instead of other non renewable materials throughout the construction. – Timber windows instead of pvcu, timber window boards (window ledges to a lot of people), timber facias, soffits, external doors, garage doors, etc. – Anything that is not using up a finite source is usually a good environmental option. BUT, bear in mind that, especially these products have a limited life span. – if something has to be replaced it, we go back to the “transport / manufacture” implications of making (maybe) two or three sets of windows over the lifespan of a building, compared to possibly just one set if plastic windows were used.

 From an eco point of view, solid timber is better than “mdf” or “chipboard” because of the manufacturing process and chemicals which are needed to create these sorts of products. - So, Solid wood worktops are better than Chipboard, but chipboard maybe better than granite, which is non renewable.

However, you may find that if you use something like a “glue lam” beam, or one of the new “I joists” systems (where you replace standard floor joists with “I” shaped joists made up mainly of reclaimed timber and glue)you may actually end up being more environmentally friendly than if you use timber joists. – These products can often span longer distances than standard joists, and be spaced wider. You will therefore need fewer of them!

With this sort of thing it all comes down to a bit of common sense: If you keep the “big picture” in mind that, over all you want to build ecologically, then the difference between one eco product and another should not be something that loses you sleep. Don’t spend too much time weighing up the pro’s and con’s when you could be spending the time making far bigger decisions which would have a far more positive impact elsewhere in the project.

There are many types of insulation on the market, some are very environmentally friendly, such as “Hemp and cotton”, “Cellulose” (recycled newspaper), Wool, Polystyrene, Fibreglass and various others. All of them will “do the job” with varying degrees of efficiency, and all will have differing impacts on the environment. These days a lot of insulation is used in residential building, so a little time spent looking into the varying “costs” versus “impacts” of the products may be time well spent.

Achieving high insulation levels is going to be one of the best simple and cost effective ways for you to save energy once the house is complete.

The type of insulation you use can vary and some are more efficient than others, and more environmentally friendly than others.

However, if you consider that the property could stand for 100 years, and that the insulation you install could be saving energy for that period of time, then ANY increase in the specification, of any type of insulation will be a good move.

You will normally need to install insulation under your slab. Although the Building regs requirements give a good level of insulation, already, you may decide to increase this, especially if you intend using an “underfloor heating system”. – You want to be paying AS LITTLE as possible to heat up the ground UNDER your house! – It is also important to install “edge insulation” around a concrete slab ground floor to stop the heat being transmitted to the external wall as easily. – Be careful with this. – It is normally a strip of insulation which is about 1” wide. If you had the idea to increase the width of this strip, you may find that later on you can’t fix your carpet gripper rods down as there is no solid floor at the edge to fix them to!

In Traditional build, widen the cavity (using longer cavity ties), and increase the thickness of the insulation, use blocks with better insulation values, “flush point” your bricks (so you have a greater thickness of mortar to retain the heat better), use “insulated Cavity Closers” to form a “thermal barrier” to stop the heat passing through the brick / blockwork at the reveals (the sides of the windows). Also use insulated lintels, and make sure your cavity insulation comes right up to the underside of the window frame. THEN make sure you “point up” under the cill with mortar, to stop heat being lost around the edges of the window frame.

A large proportion of the heat your house will lose goes through the roof. – Heat rises. So, it’s a logical step if you want to save resources and also save money on your heating bills, to try to keep this to a minimum. Loft insulation requirements have risen over the past few years so that you now need to install substantial thicknesses. You COULD increase this further. There are 2 problems which immediately spring to mind with increasing the thickness of loft insulation: 1) If the insulation gets too thick, it pretty much stops you using the loft space for storage. 2) You should not cover the electrical cable with insulation. – They could overheat. So, your cables should be laid over the insulation. If you are increasing the thickness, you are making this more difficult to do. Extra cable will have to be fitted when installing the “first fix” to allow it to be “lifted” over the quilting in the loft area. To help avoid this, you may think about using a “higher performance” insulation together with your normal “quilt” type insulation so that you can increase the insulation value without having to increase the depth. – Cost will obviously have a bearing on this, so ask you supplier for some information on choices and prices.

If you are using a pitched roof with a “room” within the roof space (which is becoming a more popular option these days), then upgrading the insulation becomes a little more complicated and probably more expensive. 

Fixing insulation on the slope, in between the trusses or rafters is difficult enough (- It tends to want to fall out!). BUT, you also have to remember that even if you manage to increase the insulations depth between the trusses, the heat can pass out actually through the trusses. The timber has far lower heat retention qualities than the insulation.

You also need to bear in mind that as you add insulation to this area, you will possibly be reducing your headroom and width.

Looking into some of the “Thin” multi- layered insulations could be the way to help solve this problem, or if you have sufficient head room, insulating the full roof, both between AND under the trusses could be the way to go. Each project is different, but if you are aware of the situation as you design, you can speak to your designer about possible routes of action.

These have a similar problem to pitched roofs: Head room, and timber being a lower quality insulator. Again, if you want to consider upgrading your insulation in a flat roof you may need to consider some of the thin insulation products. Also bear in mind the cost. Flat roofs have a shorter lifespan than pitched roofs, so the money you spend here will have a fewer number of year to “pay for itself” before it needs replacing. The resources you save in heat reduction may not “practically” compensate for the extra cost.

You can fairly easily upgrade your insulation levels WITHIN the living space. If the heat is kept in one area more efficiently then it will find it harder to get out through an open door at the opposite end of the house:

1) Walls: You could “frame out” a wall or ceiling with timber battens, and fit insulation between the battens. You then plasterboard over the frame to give a new wall surface (useful on renovation projects). – This will reduce headroom and rooms sizes, but can be an option.

2) Floor: You could insulate under the flooring (carpet / laminate etc) with foil. Either on its own, or pre-fitted to underlay

3) Secondary Glazing: This used to be widely used, but is becoming less popular these days. - You simply fit a second glazing layer on the inside of (normally) single glazed windows, to create a “double glazed unit”. However the inside pane, if fixed, does not allow you to get to you opening windows to allow ventilation. The appearance of secondary glazing, if not fitted professionally can also detract from the appearance of the room.

I have to admit that this one always makes me think! You’ll have to excuse me here for going on a bit of a rant! – you may agree with me or you may not!

These days we upgrade the insulation values of our new homes to the “N”th degree and then we are told that we have to put holes all over the place for ventilation!

Ventilation, by its very nature carries air out room the building to be replaced by fresh air. If the air which is carried outside is warm, the chances are that you have heated it inside, using resources and money to do so. If the air that it is replaced with is colder than the air going out, you will then probably have to heat the new air, incurring more cost and using more resources. Over the years we have been instructed to add more “holes” in more rooms! – Bathrooms, Kitchens, Utility rooms, ventilation for fires, for boilers etc. – So, now a 4 bed house with two bathrooms, a wc, a utility room, a real flame fire of some sort, and a boiler, could have 7 x 100mm diameter holes in its external walls – With most of them NEAR the top of the wall (where the heat rises to!). We could fix a sign by the holes saying “HEAT PLEASE EXIT HERE”! – Not only that, we then add MOTORS (which use resources) and FANS to make sure that the heat DOES escape! – Even if it doesn’t want to!

 

Now, add to all of those holes, the “trickle vents” at the top of all your windows. - Each one with a flimsy plastic or copper cover which will have NO heat retention values to speak of.

“Ok”, you say “But they are only small holes”. True, - but how many windows do you have in the house? – If you have 10 windows, each with a trickle vent measuring 300mm x 10mm, 30 sq cm of area for the heat to escape through. That is the same as cutting a 6” x 8” hole in one of your walls and leaving it open to the elements all the time.

I fully understand the need to replace the air when it gets moisture in it from baths, showers etc, and the need for replenishing air which become stale after humans have been inhabiting a room for a while. BUT: What’s wrong with:

1) Opening a window if you need to? 2) Setting the window catch on the “trickle vent” 3) leaving the bathroom door open so that the air circulated from it, around the house, then out when a door or window is opened?

The regulations insist that all this ventilation is needed, but to my mind, they don’t complete the “thought process”. – If humans make the air stuffy or damp when they are in a building, they DO tend to open the window for a few minutes! – If they are not in the room or in the building, the air won’t be made stuffy by them, and they WON’T NEED to “change it for fresh” every hour or so! – BUT the way it works now is that the air is changed when they are there AND when they are not! – All day while they are at work, all night, in all rooms, when they are asleep in possibly just one or two rooms, whilst they are away for the weekend or on holiday. - Now multiply the heat loss while people “aren’t there”, by the millions of houses and flats in the UK alone. How much energy would we save if we found a better way of doing things?

By the way, did you know that house plants are a good way of helping to reduce stuffy air? – Some of them can also reduce carbon monoxide levels to some extent (DO NOT think about using plants to solve a carbon monoxide problem!).

Ok, I agree, we do need SOME sort of ventilation system, especially in the bathroom. So that, if someone has a shower and closes the bathroom door after they leave, there is an automatic system by which the moist air is expelled. However, there must be a way to have a simple extract system, which is “insulated” for the time it is not needed, but when moisture is detected within the room, it opens and dispels the moisture, then shuts again to provide insulation for the 99% of the time that it’s not needed. – Or is it just me? (Answers on a postcard to barry.sutcliffe@buildinganddiy.com!)

OK, That’s me off my high horse!

Having said all of that, “Mechanical ventilation” does its job, and if you can link it up to a “heat recovery system” using a “heat exchanger” it will be far more efficient as a “resource saving tool”. - It takes the warmth out of the existing air and uses it to warm up the incoming air. Ok, it uses energy to run, but, to my mind, is a more sensible way of doing things, However, it costs money to install, so you would need to check out the benefit / cost balance to see if it is a worthwhile investment.

There is also a thing called “passive stack ventilation”, which ducts the air from the various rooms upwards and out through the roof on the basis that warm air rises. The movement of the external air over the roof also acts to “pull” the air out of the building. This at least does away with the noisy and power consuming mechanical ventilation found in most houses, but still emits pre heated air into the atmosphere.

Badly made or fitted windows and doors can account for a substantial amount of your heat loss. This is less relevant these days with computer designed and factory made pvcu windows, but there are still things that you can bear in mind, even with these higher insulating products:

Timber window frames will transmit more heat to the outside than pvcu. However, from an “eco” perspective that is balanced by the fact the timber windows are made from “renewable” materials.

Double or triple glazing? – A third layer of glass improves heat retention and reduces noise transmittance. Different types of glass also have different insulation qualities.

Insulation WITHIN the frame: - If the frames themselves are insulated they will lose less heat to the outside. Ask if the frames have a built in “thermal bridge”.

Edges: make sure that the area around the windows is sealed, both inside and out. This is the weak point of the construction. No matter how good your windows are at insulating, a gap around the window, coupled with poorly fitted cavity insulation or cavity closers can let heat out.

Timber doors will generally be “colder” than pvcu doors. You can buy doors which have a timber appearance but are constructed in layers, with insulation in between the timber layers.

Letter boxes: - A SUPERB route out for your heat! – Think about an external box for your mail to save heat, or at least a “flap”on the inside.

Around the edges:  As with the windows, sealing around the edges is important. Not only around where the frame meets the wall, but also where the door meets the frame. It is easy to add draughtproofing on the opening edge, but harder to fit on the hinged side. Also try to stop drafts at the bottom by making sure they are fitted properly and adding draughtproofing if necessary.

Glazing: Those glazing panels may make the door look pretty and bring light into the hallway but if they are only single glazed (which is all some timber external doors allow for in their manufacture), they can let significant amounts of heat escape. A solid, insulated door with a half “triple” glazed side panel may be a better option if you have the room (and the extra cash!)

Electricity is usually the most expensive for heating, and produces more than double the CO2 emissions of gas. It is also inefficient ( from a “power generation” point of view) for heating water or space.

Gas heating is usually a better option for heating a new home where it is available. As well as usually being cheaper, it is generally more “flexible” and “user friendly”.

Thermostatic radiator valves: These are an inexpensive and sensible addition to any radiator based system. They allow you to control the heat in a property far more accurately. This enables you to “turn down” the heat levels in some areas which are not used, thus saving energy and money. These valves can “pay for themselves” in a very short time.

Underfloor heating: This is becoming far more popular these days, for a number of reasons:

1) It replaces radiators and frees up the whole room for positioning furniture.

2) it gives a even warmth across the room, with less draughts, and the feeling of the warm floor under your feet can be pleasant.

3) It runs at lower temperatures and therefore can be more efficient. – You can adjust the temperature in each “Zone” the same way you can with thermostatic radiator valves. Also, because it runs at lower temperatures, so does the boiler, which can help the boiler efficiency. – So, as an energy saving option it could be a good choice, as long as you use it efficiently.

 

1) Slow heat up and cool down: You can’t turn it on when you come in and feel warm in 20 minutes. It takes at least a couple of hours, if not more before you feel the benefit. – You may need another form of heat in one or more rooms to provide instant warmth when it is needed.

2) Electric underfloor heating can be expensive to run as it uses the most expensive fuel source.

3) If you damage it in any way, with a nail, floor gripper etc it can be expensive to fix

4) You usually need a separate cupboard somewhere to house all the “manifolds” and the “pumping system” which send the warm water around the system.

Air conditioning: A fairly rare option in the UK. Systems can be expensive to install and expensive to run. Houses these days are designed to keep heat, both “in” and “out”. That fact, together with fact that we do not get very many days in the year where air conditioning would “come into its own”, AND it’s installation price, mean that it doesn’t often “stand up” as an ecologically or financially sound option for residential property in this country (if you are not thinking ecologically and are just thinking about “living comfort” it is a different matter, but that subject is covered elsewhere in this guide.

There are other options you can consider to heat your property such as wood logs, wood pellets and coal. – Wood logs, and wood pellets are renewable, and as such environmentally a sound choice. Coal is not renewable, and can be polluting and dirty to use and store. These subjects will be covered in more detail on other sections of this guide:

Wood burning stoves: These obviously burn a renewable fuel, and are generally more efficient than open fires. They have the downside of only heating the room they are in, so numerous fires would be needed to heat an average home, which all then need cleaning and maintaining. For this reason, although they are ecologically sound, and can make an attractive “centrepiece in a living room, and can “justify their existence” when they are paired up with underfloor heating to give a faster “heat up” of a room from cold, they do not prove to be a very popular choice for “full house heating”.

Ground source heating:  These systems are becoming more popular. Basically they are made up of piping which is buried (usually) about 5’ (1.5m) in the ground, where the temperature stays relatively constant throughout the year (at about 12 degrees Centigrade). The pipe is linked into a circulatory system which incorporates a heat exchanger to transfer the energy collected into the heating or hot water system within the building.

Electricity is used to pump water around the system, but the “energy” produced from these systems is quoted as being approximately in the ratio of 4:1, i.e. for each unit of energy put into the system you get 4 out.

This can still work out slightly dearer than gas to run, and will usually more expensive to install, but is a good option if a) your garden is large enough to take the amount of piping you need, and b) You are trying to use “renewables” wherever possible. (Note: smaller gardens may still be able to incorporate this system by drilling a large deeper hole for the piping to be installed into, but this will make the system more expensive to install).

Air Source Heat Pumps:These work in a similar way to “ground source” systems. They are simpler to install (with the main unit being in the form of a large metal box) but have the disadvantage of the greatly fluctuating air temperatures in the UK. This is fine during the hotter parts of the year, but can also mean the pump being either made to work very hard (costing more money to run), or being pretty much useless at some times of the year. – Running one of these systems along with another system which “takes up the slack” at cold times could be an option worth thinking about.

“Biomass” which is basically a crop grown specifically to provide fuel. – (Forestry waste is sometime used for biomass fuel). – This is obviously renewable, but you should do a full cost / benefit comparison before opting to use this or any similar product.

Wind turbines: These are becoming quite a fashionable item to build into a project in some parts of the UK. – they are obviously going to be affected by the weather and they are generally fairly expensive to install. – Weigh up the likely benefits in poser generated over their lifespan against the cost of installation. – See the section on “Renewable Energy” later in the guide for more information.

Electric storage heaters: These can be a reasonably sensible form of heating if gas is not available. The heat which is stored is generated at night when demand on the energy grid is lower and the power stations can run more efficiently, and so is less costly to produce, and cheaper to buy.

As part of a new project, or upgrade of an existing building, individual room heater are generally expensive to run, and can be an inefficient form of heating.

Most of the gas or electric water heating systems these days are very efficient. They are dealt with in detail later in this guide. If you spend a little time investigating what is available, you will be able to find a high efficiency system as a reasonable cost which, compared to what was available a few years ago, will be far more eco friendly.

 If, however, you are considering trying to save resources b y your choices then there are other options to consider:

Solar heating:This can be a good option if you are considering trying to use renewable wherever possible. – Please read the “Solar power” pages later in the guide (also see sections on “Ground source” and “air source” systems with regards to water heating).

There are a few measures you can design into a new home to save water, and some things to consider for a renovation project, which can also help.

Toilets: Use efficient systems (new houses are now required to use water efficient cisterns).

·         Flush only when necessary (bit of a sensitive point that one!).

·         Try not to “chuck” everything down the loo and simply flush it away.

·         A wrongly set “ballcock” can result in the cistern overflowing and water being lost.

Design “dead legs” out of the plumbing system where possible: Dead legs are where sometimes large amounts of water can be wasted when you turn on your hot tap and you let it run straight down the plughole until the temperature is as you want it to be. If you have a bath at the opposite end of the house to where the boiler is situated the length of (and therefore the cost of) the “dead leg” could be quite significant. - Also remember that when you turn the tap off, the water left in the pipe will still be hot, and will then cool down, wasting the energy which was used to heat it up in the first place. If you can design all your water requirements to be in the same area of the house, whichever floor they are on, you could save a significant amount of energy and money over a few years, PLUS you would not have to “stand waiting” for the warm water to reach you!

Check constantly for leaks: Especially on your water supply into the property. If you have a leak “after the meter” (i.e. between the meter and the house), it is the owners responsibility. – I recently had one on a house I had built, and was landed with a bill for £1180! – A terrible waste of water and money! Leaks anywhere in the house can be costly. It is surprising how much a “drip drip drip” of a tap can add up to in lost water in a month – If you want proof, put a bowl underneath and time how long it takes to fill up!

Instant heaters: These heaters just heat the water when you need it. They sense the water flow and start to heat the water. These heaters can be useful in the right place, but as they are only useful at the point at which they are used, you may need to install a number of them in a large house (some of these heaters can provide near instant boiling water and chilled water).

Limiting water flow: A tap at full flow can deliver a lot of water. That’s great when you are running a bath, but can be costing you money in other applications where you only need to “wet” something (e.g. a shower). By fitting different styles of “shower head” which “aerates” the water (mixes the water with air) you can reduce the flow by up to 50% whilst still having a perfectly adequate shower. The same can be done by fitting an aerator to the taps in kitchen sinks or bathroom basins. These simple devises are a cheap, easy to fix, fitting which can save a lot of energy and money over time.

Size and shape of bath: I am 6’2” – I’m not interested in a small bath! – But if I was shorter, I would be! A bath takes a lot of water and a lot of heating, so should be one of the things you give some serious consideration to if you are serious about saving resources. When you choose a bath, don’t just look at the size. Also think about the shape. Is it going to waste a lot of water filling areas it doesn’t need to? Ideally a bath should be roughly “body shaped” (but even then it depends on the size and the shape of the body as to how much water will be wasted!)

Appliances: Think about the appliances you are going to install: If you have a look at labels on the appliances you find in all the main suppliers now, they have energy ratings, starting at “A” and going down through the alphabet. Many will also give you a “cost of usage”, and other environmental information such as its “recyclability”.

 

Most new houses now are required to be fitted with at least some “low energy lighting”. This is a major step forward from the old system and anyone considering saving resources should try to opt for the low energy fittings and bulbs wherever possible.

Also popular in new housing is “Halogen” lighting. – These bulbs work slightly more efficiently than conventional light bulbs, like for like, but they tend to be used in “multiples” in each room, so can be expensive to install and replace, and don’t give any significant ecological benefit.

LED’s are starting to become popular. They are very efficient compared to the standard forms of lighting, and emit very low levels of heat. They come in many colours which allow for some “imagination” to be used in the design of the lighting throughout the house. LED lights have an extremely long life, with a possible life span of around 1,000,000 hours!

External lighting: Floodlighting is widely used on all residential properties. Usually on a PIR (passive Infra Red) system, which can detect intruders and turn the lights on for anything between a few seconds and many minutes. These lights are usually rated at anything between 15watts and 100 watts, with 500 watts being probably the most commonly used. They are not an efficient use of energy, but they are usually only used for very short periods of time (unfortunately the sensor may go sometimes go faulty and the light can remain on for long periods of time, - which could be very costly and environmentally “unsound”). - A 150w light may suffice as an option instead of a 500w just for security lighting. (You can get external flood lights which give an audible alarm inside the house when they are turned on, even for a few seconds. – If security is your main objective this could mean you can set the light to come on for a very brief time knowing that you would be notified of any movement. – the downside of this system is “false alarms” in the wind or with animals passing)

Light pipes: A relatively new idea which is gaining popularity in the UK. A metal pipe with a polished interior lining is installed (usually) from the roof, down to the ceiling of the room where it is needed. This transfers the light into the room and can take the place of a window, or a roof light. These pipes are great during the day for rooms “in the middle” of the house which would not otherwise normally get any natural light, and they can also bring light to areas of larger rooms which are a distance away from a natural light source and would otherwise tend to be dark. – This will save having the lights on during the day in these areas.

They are relatively easy and cheap to install, and require little maintenance.

One of the problems which has been apparent with light tubes is that if you want darkness during the day, you have not been able to get it (say in a bedroom if someone is working on nights). However this problem has been solved by the use of a “plate” plate fitted within the tube which works off a motor to cut down or completely cut out the light transmittance into the room.

The downside of light pipes is that on a dull day the room may not be sufficiently lit to be “comfortable to the eye”, and electric lighting may be needed. Also, obviously at night they are of no use whatsoever.

There is also the need to “design a route” for the light pipe to come down through the building to where it is needed. This is fairly easy on the first floor of a house, but if you want to light, say a wc in the middle of your floor area on the ground floor, then you need to try to disguise its route through the upstairs area to its required position above the wc., The pipe will then also require boxing in as it comes down through the first floor area.

Technology in lighting: With all the computer systems available now it is not surprising to see “lighting automation” becoming more popular. The “stuff of dreams” in the 1960’s it is now a reality, and does not need to cost very much to install. If used correctly it could reduce your electricity costs significantly. (see the sections on “Home automation” later in the guide).

Wind: See the pages on wind generation later in this guide.

Photovoltaic cells: See the pages on “Solar power” later in this guide.

Suppliers: You may wish to consider who supplies your main electricity from the point of view of “thinking green”. There are now suppliers who generate some of their supply from renewable sources and have an environmentally orientated policy towards energy supply. As this guide is unbiased we will not mention any particular companies, but you should hopefully be able to find contact them through the advertising within the site, if not just do a search on “green energy” on the internet.

Using materials which will not need replacing for many years will usually have a lower impact on the environment.

Sometimes it can be better to buy a good quality product with a long life expectancy which won’t need replacing for many years, rather than saving a few percent and getting product which will last half the time. Also some thought to how materials and product will be disposed of at the end of their lifespan. – If they are going to be problematic to dispose of, then buying one which will last 30 years will be a far better option than one which will last 5.

Eco friendliness and energy saving are becoming more and more important as the years pass. Global warming has got us all worried.

When you design a new house or renovate an existing one, my advice would be “insulate to as high a degree as possible to cut down your energy usage, and then bring in any renewable which will be cost effective. – DON’T just install something because you’ve been told it is “a renewable” or that it is “eco friendly”. There are many eco friendly products out there that, in some locations, would never recoup their installation cost, or make up for the energy used during their manufacturing process, during their full operational lifespan. They will also require periodic maintenance and repair.

When considering Eco friendly options, just use some common sense and do your research before committing yourself to anything. Weigh up the costs and the benefits, the pro’s and the con’s.