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| Can you live in an ecological home? |
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| Written by Laurence | ||||
| Monday, 02 March 2009 15:06 | ||||
 Would you like to have a greener home? Most homes have the potential to become more ecologically sound than they are already and most ideas will save you some money. It's a win win.
The vast majority of us have bought our homes ready-built and we've had little opportunity to impact the ecological footprint of the building. There are of course some houses that are built from the ground up to have as little as impact on the environment as possible. Such buildings and schemes are to be applauded. For example, Ecos Trust in the UK is building a set of ecological houses in Somerset. Sustainable technologies are being employed for heating and lighting, such as eco-wood pellet stoves, photovoltaic cells and solar panels. All homes are orientated towards the south to maximise the natural light in living spaces. Residents can expect an increase in their health and qualiy of life, and to top it off a reduction in their electricity bill. Elaine Brooks provide us some insight. Yet ecological housing is more than just applying new technologies. It's also changing the way we live our lives. Ecos' homes have landscaped spaces with vegetable patches were residents can grow their own food. There are shared facilities including an electric car which all residents can use. Building a new house that's as ecological as possible is not a feasible option for many of us. In addition, the ecological logic of doing so is not always so clear. There are also the environment considerations to take into account of: the need to commute, use of greenbelt land and the transmission of resources. All of these can give a "green house" a rather important non-ecological footprint. Moreover, it is arguable that one of the most ecological ways to live is in a large town or city in a condominium or a flat where resources can be shared and larger scale projects are feasible. For example, high quality public transport and local shops become desirable when there is a high concentration of users.  For most of us the more practical alternative is to adapt our current homes to make them as ecologically efficient as possible. This can often be done with a low capital outlay and there may even be grants or tax relief available for certain improvements either from your utilities company or from a government agency. There are also actions that we can take to behave in a way that is ecologically responsible. We are able to minimise the ecological damage of our houses by adapting the way we use them to reduce their footprint. After a while, it just becomes natural! However we choose to live, we can all choose to live ecologically and look for opportunities to reduce our environmental footprint. For more insight into this topic, see these articles:
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 11 February 2010 00:58 |
