WE'VE BEEN INSPIRED BY: Carbon Neutral New Year
Is 2012 the year you’re thinking of building your own eco house? Or even just moving house to reduce your carbon footprint? Check out these inspiring eco house projects, from a zero carbon wind-powered house in Shetland to a £3,000 off-grid ‘hobbit house’ in Wales – via projects in Sweden and Australia along the way.
A Way with Wind
A couple living in Shetland have become the first in the world to build and live in a 100% carbon neutral home. Constructed from an off-the-shelf kit, the eco house is completely powered by wind. Dot and Michael Rea have all the mod-cons of a normal house, including a dishwasher, and plan to have an electric car to make their lifestyle as carbon neutral as possible.
One Tonne Life
A Swedish family have taken part in a six-month experiment, One Tonne Life, to attempt to reduce their average carbon footprint from 8.5 tonnes a year per person down to just one tonne a year. The Lindell family lived in a specially designed eco house and tried lots of ways to cut their carbon footprints, including eating only vegan meals (reducing their food carbon emissions by 84%), not watching television, using public transport (this, combined with their electric car, meant a drop of more than 90% in transport emissions), and leaving one room of the house unused.
By the end of the experiment the Lindells had made it down to an impressive 1.5 tonnes a year per person, but the emissions added to their totals because of the creation of the house, furniture, solar panels, appliances, clothes and electric car meant that they had a 900kg ‘rucksack’ of Co2 emissions that they just couldn’t shift.
Sustainable in the City
Architect and builder Vivian Faithfull took DIY to a whole new level when he built his family a carbon-neutral home in a suburb of Melbourne. The eco house takes full advantage of natural resources featuring solar panels, rainwater collection, a water recycling system and energy efficient appliances, proving that it is possible to ‘live green’ within reach of the big smoke.
Hobbit House
Simon Dale has proved that you don’t have to be an architect or a millionaire to design and build a beautiful, cosy, low-energy home (pictured above). With £3,000, a few simple tools and a little help from his father-in-law and friends, Simon used locally-sourced and natural materials taken from the nearby woodlands to construct an extraordinary hobbit eco home in a Welsh field that has virtually no visual or environmental impact on the surrounding landscape.
What are you planning to reduce your carbon footprint in 2012? Tell us your ideas and plans in the comments box below…
