Could you green up your house and demolish your fuel bills at the same time?

Following the example set by the residents of Sinclair Meadows would be a tall order for most of us. In case you hadn’t heard, the eco-credentials of this housing development in South Shields are second to none. 

Britain’s first carbon negative social housing street is in the news for producing more power than it needs (via solar panels and a communal biomass boiler which burns recycled wood pellets), and the Tyneside estate is a sign of things to come.

Every home comes complete with shed, compost heap, allotment and toilets flushed with water from a rain harvesting system.

Eco-friendly: Going green can save you money and the Government will lend a hand too.

When it was launched last year, more than 500 applicants came forward hoping to live in its 21 rented three-bedroom houses and two-bedroom apartments.

Developer Four Housing Group checked the green credentials of every applicant.

  More... Revolutionary ‘Hobbit home’ costing £35,000 to build will be a fully functioning eco-home with a tunnel entrance Locals' anger over new eco-house nicknamed 'Sputnik' that spoils view of Grade I listed medieval church Home DIY spending takes a hammering: Spending on improvements falls for fifth year in a row Energy bills: Is it worth switching and which are the best deals? Compare energy tariffs

Well so what, you might be thinking. I recycle stuff. I turn the lights off. And I’ve put a few of those funny bulbs in.

But without moving to Tyneside, what can you do to green up your house, and demolish your fuel bills at the same time?

Quite a lot. From putting rugs in your living room, to using devices which show how ravenous your kettle is for power.

What’s more, the Government is committed to helping you. It’s estimated there are 14million houses in need of eco-refurbishment across the country.

Hence the arrival of The Green Deal. This provides funding to pay for some or all of the cost of making energy-saving home improvements. Loan repayments are made through your energy bill.

Saving carbon and cash: The Green Deal is designed to help 14million households improve energy efficiency

They are worked out by looking at your energy use calculating how much money is wasted based on the house’s energy inefficiency. As long as existing behaviour doesn’t change, the repayments won’t be more than the savings you make as a result of your home improvements.

The loan is attached to your property, which means if you move, the new occupants take on the repayments — as they will benefit from your investment.

Sustainable architectural and interior designer Oliver Heath, oliverheath.com, supports The Green Deal with gusto. He knows only too well how money can be pocketed by greening up your life.

 

The changes he has made to his own Brighton home have scythed his CO2 emissions from 10.9 tons a year, to just 2.5 tons a year, and slashed his fuel bills by 75  per cent. He estimates that’s worth £2,000.

Oliver, who has a wife and two small daughters, suggests that the way forward is via incremental changes. For example, he showers with a special egg-timer stuck onto the bathroom wall.

‘Lots of water companies give them out for free,’ he says. ‘The average shower is about seven minutes long, and uses 10 litres of water per minute. With an egg-timer, you can cut that down to about four minutes. People forget they pay three times for hot water. You pay to run it, heat it, and also to get rid of it.’

How about baths? He’s got an answer for that, too. Don’t buy a massive one in the first place, and secondly, put a valve on the waste pipe which can divert dirty bath water to a hose in your garden.

As a designer, Oliver is cheered by the flair of modern green devices, such as the groovy Wattson, a black-and-white box which monitors the power you are using in your house.

The solar panels on his house power his Vauxhall Ampera.

‘On a sunny day, I plug the car in, and we travel for free. My house is actually an electricity station.’

It’s difficult to store electricity, so white goods such as the washing machine are busy on sunny days.

I bet your house is freezing, I tell him. Not so, he says. Having boosted the insulation, bought blankets for the family to wrap up in and put in a few draught excluders (£29 from John Lewis), he says his house is cosy all year round.

‘On the coldest nights of the year, our house will lose about 1C of heat. We don’t have massive peaks and troughs as some people do when the heating goes off.’

Plus, he has the joy of knowing he’s saving all that money.