WHEN I BOUGHT MY HOUSE 18 months ago I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at eco-renovation. The grey- rendered Victorian farmhouse in Somerset was ideal for this as it needed rewiring, replumbing, repainting and recarpeting throughout. In fact, the only things that I kept were the boiler, the windows and the nice, solid, wooden doors.
There were two major constraints: time and money. I bought the house in mid-October and wanted to make it habitable by Christmas. I had stretched myself financially to buy the property, so I couldn’t be too ambitious in doing it up.
I knew that the most significant environmental impact of any home is energy. In the UK about a third of carbon dioxide emissions, the main global warming gas, come from homes.
There were lots of things I could do to tackle this. First, I realised that in most rooms I could replace two old radiators with one new, more efficient one and still get enough heat. I also specified that each radiator should have its own thermostat so that unused rooms would not be heated unnecessarily. And I put reflective, energy-saving panels on the walls behind them. Apparently, about 70 per cent of the heat from radiators simply heats the wall, which means that only 30 per cent is being used to heat the room. These foil panels could cut fuel bills by up to 20 per cent.
About a quarter of the heat lost from an average home is through the roof. With a sizeable attic and just a slate covering, my house may be losing even more. I plan to use sheep’s wool insulation, or a product called Warmcel, made from recycled newspapers, both of which have real environmental advantages. As well as being renewable, sheep’s wool insulation uses just one seventh of the energy to manufacture as it takes to make fibreglass rolls. It is 10 per cent more thermally efficient and far better at maintaining performance if it gets wet. The drawback is that it costs two or three times as much.
I thought that installing energy-efficient light bulbs would be the easiest energy-saving measure. I was pleased to find that this no longer means putting up with sterile white light. The new bulbs come in rounded shapes rather than rather ugly-looking sticks. They use 80 per cent less electricity and last between eight and ten times longer than ordinary bulbs, so the payback time is only about seven months.
But it was not so simple to install energy-saving bulbs in the bathroom or the spotlights in my kitchen. Ikea, which was promoting energy efficiency when I visited, sold only screw-fitting bulbs, not bayonets. And no one could help when I telephoned customer support.
When I was growing up I’m sure that we had only two light bulbs in our kitchen. Nowadays, it would be a challenge to find a kitchen with fewer than ten. I’m no exception; I like a bright, well-lit kitchen. I eventually found spotlights that used energy-efficient bulbs — 23 watts as opposed to 100. Having fitted them, however, I realised that the light they gave was far less appealing than the energy-guzzling alternative.
I contacted GE Lighting, the manufacturer. They revealed that there were technical reasons why the light was so “white” but suggested that I try smaller spotlight bulbs that use only 11 watts. It was still an aesthetic compromise but there was an improvement in light quality and all of my ten spotlights together use about the same amount of energy as one energy-inefficient bulb.
My house is in a very windy spot, which would be ideal for a wind turbine. The Renewable Devices Swift Turbines company has worked out that on an average house, in an area with average wind speeds, their small, quiet turbines will produce about 2,000-3,000 kilowatts a year. This accounts for about one third of an average electricity bill. Any electricity that is generated but not used will be fed back into the grid. By the end of 2006, these turbines should be selling for between £2,000 and £2,500 including installation costs. They are currently eligible for grants of 30 per cent from Clear Sky in England and Wales (and a different organisation in Scotland), so you might pay only £1,500, which would mean that it would take five years to recoup your investment. I haven’t taken the financial plunge yet but I’m thinking about it.
My liking for bright colours proved to be a bit of a disadvantage on the paint front. Most “green” paints, which avoid the petrochemical solvents that give off toxic emissions, come only in earthy colours, albeit lovely ones.
But Nutshell Paints has a linseed and citrus peel-based oil glaze, all natural, in some bright shades. The children’s bathroom has a sea-like effect on the walls and ceiling, which I think is wonderful. And I have some royal blue pigment still waiting to be used on one of the bedrooms.
One of Nutshell’s concerns is “odourless” paint. They say that this can be more dangerous because people might be less inclined to ventilate the room and let the toxic vapours escape.
One thing I managed rather well was using second-hand wood and furniture. My whole kitchen came from a friend who had been about to put it on the tip. I arranged for a man with a van to pick it up. The kitchen cupboards looked unsalvageable; like most standard units they were predominantly chipboard. Once they had been installed, however, they looked as if they had been designed for me, particularly when I had them painted a vibrant deep red, in shocking contrast to my orange kitchen walls.
I also bought lots of things such as curtain rails and rubbish bins from eBay. This internet auction house has to be one of the best developments for recycling as people sell things on rather than chucking them out. I was also very excited about the idea of rainwater harvesting, gathering rainwater from roofs and using it for domestic purposes.
It seems ridiculous that about 30 per cent of household water is flushed down the lavatory given that it is good quality drinking water (and no, I don’t approve of bottled water). But I’m afraid the cost of putting in a large underground tank for rainwater harvesting put me off.
This is one of the many environmental measures that make more sense when you are building a house from scratch. I’ve not finished yet. But one thing I have learnt is that more can be done than I had imagined, and not all of it is visible. If you came to my house you may well think that no thought had been given to its environmental impacts. You’d be wrong.
Julia Hailes is an environmental consultant. She is writing The New Green Consumer Guide, to be published next year. For more information see www.juliahailes.com
WHERE YOU'LL FIND THE ENERGY-SAVING ALTERNATIVES
Other useful organisations Ecomerchant, www.ecomerchant.co.uk; Green Building Store, www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk 
