20 ways to go green at home

You don't have to live in the latest concept house to help save the planet. Donnachadh McCarthy has transformed his leaky, draughty Victorian terrace into a zero-carbon triumph – and he's set out this simple plan so that you can do it too.

20. Power to the people

The biggest investment in the creation of my retro-eco home was installing a solar panel for electricity (a solar photovoltaic system). That was way back in 1997. As I have learnt to be more efficient in how I use electricity, it has provided an increasing proportion of my power.

A few years back, I finally succeeded in exporting more electricity to the National Grid than I imported, which was a cause for much celebration. Today, a similar 2KwH solar system will cost about £12,000, and the government grant (which was slashed in Gordon Brown's last Budget) now stands at £1,500 per system.

By the way, the domestic wind turbine experimentally installed on my roof 18 months ago has been a failure, producing just enough power for one energy saving bulb.

For advice visit www.lowcarbonbuildings.org

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Demand for 'green home' rebates

Households should receive council tax rebates to encourage them to install solar panels and wind turbines, an independent think tank claims.

The New Local Government Network says planning laws should be relaxed to increase the take-up of green energy.

It also suggests local authorities could offer interest-free loans towards the cost of installation.

But the Campaign to Protect Rural England says precious landscapes must be safeguarded.

Currently the government offers a grant of up to 30% towards the cost of installing wind turbines or solar panels.

It has also been consulting on whether they should be permitted without planning permission where the impact on neighbours is minimal.


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Hybrid Solar House

Enertia® is a new technology for building houses so that they heat and cool themselves. This is achieved from the design, the orientation, and the materials of the home, rather than a furnace, heat pump, or air-conditioner. Three basic, millions-of-year-old principles of nature, combined with state-of-the-art windows, radiant coatings, and prefab manufacture, make it possible, and practical. The principles are inertia, thermal currents, and the energy capacity of wood.

The goal is a comfortable living space - in an often hostile environment. Remarkably, our planet Earth achieves this, in the absolute-zero temperature of space, by weather patterns and thermal inertia. This "ecological balance" is possible because Earth has an atmosphere that traps and distributes the sun's energy by thermal currents. Enertia® Building Systems has applied this concept to Architecture.
Enertia® is among the first, and perhaps most life-changing, practical inventions to come from the modern science of BIOMIMICRY. It is an incredibly simple, foolproof natural concept - and it can solve one of the greatest problems of all mankind: how to comfortably house a growing population without straining the world's material resources, or dwindling energy supply. Until now, "Natural Architecture" has been about using natural materials, like wood and stone, for aesthetic reasons only. Enertia® is a performance-based "Natural Architecture," going a step further, using these materials as energy carriers, in a dynamic new design with a life of its own.

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Solar panels - the new double-glazing

Saving the planet, or saving on power bills - either way there is powerful motivation for harnessing solar energy to heat your home, even after this dismal summer. But it is all too easy for persuasive sales people to hijack the green energy message and leave customers, often elderly or vulnerable, with a system that can cost them a year's pension or more. It might only prove worthwhile for their grandchildren or great-grandchildren.

Purchasers could end up paying substantially over the odds - up to twice as much as a competitive quote in some cases. And they are often left confused by double-glazing-style sales methods such as "drop closes" - offering a big reduction on an inflated price but only if you sign up there and then.

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