29/10/2021
An Eco-house (or Eco-home) is an environmentally low-impact home designed and built using materials and technology that reduces its carbon footprint and lowers its energy needs. Eco-homes are measured in multiple ways meeting sustainability needs such as water conversation, reducing wastes through reusing and recycling materials, controlling pollution to limit global warming, energy generation and conservation, and decreasing CO2 emissions.
An Eco-house could include some or all of the following:
Higher than normal levels of thermal insulation
Better than normal air-tightness
Good levels of daylight
Passive solar orientation — glazing oriented south for light and heat
Thermal mass to absorb that solar heat
Minimum north-facing glazing — to reduce heat loss
Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system
Heating from renewable resources (such as solar, heat pump or biomass)
Photovoltaic panels, small wind turbine or electricity from a ‘green’ supplier
Natural materials — avoidance of PVCu and other plastics
Rainwater harvesting
Grey-water collection
Composting toilet
Glass that has two or three layers with a vacuum in between to prevent heat loss; (double or triple-glazed windows)
Solar panels or wind turbines
Geothermal heating and growing plants on the roof to regulate temperature, quieten the house, and to produce oxygen
A vegetable patch outside the house for some food
