Now,what is of inerest to us about this project is thefeatures which make the building energy-efficient.Sunlight floods in through the glasswall,and to maximise it there are lots of mirrors andwindows inside the house.That helps to spread thelight around.So that's the first thing - light is utilisedas fully as possible.
In addition,the special tiles on the outside convertenergy from the sun and generate some of thehouse's electricity.In fact,and it's possible that in future the house may even generate anelectricity surplus,and that the owners will be able to sell some to the nationa grid.
As well as that,wherever possible,recycled materials have been used.For example,the floors aremade of reclaimed wood.And the owners haven't bought a single item of new fumiture - theyjust kept what they already had.And then there's the system for dealing with the wasteproduced in the house.This is dealt with organically - it's purified by being filtered through reedbeds which have been planted for that purpose in the garden.So the occupants of the housewon't pollute the land or use any damaging chemicals.
It's true that the actual construction of the house was harmful to the environment,mainlybecause they had to use massive amounts of concrete - one of the biggest sources of carbondioxide in manufacturing.And,as you know,this is very damaging to the environment.Intotal,the house construction has released 70 tons of carbon dioxide into the air.Now that's afrightening thought.However,once the initial 'debt' has been cleared - cost anything -environmentally I mean - because unlike ordinary houses,it is run in a way that is completelyenvironmentally friendly.
So,eco-housing like this is likely to become much more...