Tony puts his energy into eco-friendly home

A RETIRED electrical engineer has started building an eco-friendly house that he claims will be "better than anything built in the UK before."
Tony Williams is building the property in Braybrook near Desborough.

It will include a number of energy-saving features so that it never has to be connected to mains electricity.

Mr Williams, who used to work in battery maintenance services, said: “I’m doing this partly out of long-term interest and also because I’m an electrical engineer.

“It’s going to be better than anything built in the UK before. We have to design the house not to lose any energy. We’re treating each wall as a separate wall and will do what’s best for that wall.

“The ultimate goal is to be off grid and not connected to the mains. We will have a fibre optic lighting system going down to the basement so that we use natural light as much as possible.

“We will also be collecting our own rain water and we’re getting quadruple glazed windows. It’s going to have air tight standards but we will be able to bring in fresh air using a heat exchanger, which will warm the floor during the day.

“The Government needs to build 15 million houses like this to have a chance of reducing energy use.”

Mr Williams expects to have the house built within a year and has undertaken around 90 per cent of the work himself.

Matthew Moden, branch manager for Skipton building society in Northampton, which has mortgaged the house, said: “The impact that homes have on the environment is a growing issue and attention is turning to ways to reduce that impact as much as possible.

“For someone like Mr Williams to take this to the next level and build his house in such an eco-friendly way is something we applaud and we’re here to help with funding for others that might follow his example.”
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