There’s No Place Like Home
Sale pending
The BBC reports that an English architectural firm has designed the first zero emissions home. And, damn! … that is one good-looking two-bedroom residence.
It looks like something my grandmother used to store bread in.
The house features “a biomass boiler (which burns wood pellets for heat) and water efficiency devices such as rainwater harvesting.”
Burning wood “counts as zero-emission because the carbon dioxide it gives off during the burning process is offset by the amount absorbed when the fuel crop was grown.”
So, basically, we’ve got a house that has a wood stove for heat and collects rainwater.
Talk about technological advances! There hasn’t been anything like that since … oh, say, the 1700s.
According to the article,
The home generates all its own energy - and when you’re away on holiday can send electricity back to the National Grid. The company says its annual energy bill would be £31, as compared to £500 for the standard new home of this size.
Not to nitpick here, but if the house generates all its own energy and sends electricity back to the National Grid when you’re on vacation, who’s the £31 going to?
I am a technology geek. I love new stuff and the house does have some cool features. The vacuum-pressure trash can that sucks trash to a central location is awesome…unless, of course, you drop a ring, cat or small child into the trash by mistake.
Let’s get to the bottom line. While you’re saving money on electricity, the building does cost “40% more than the standard home” which mean it should pay for itself sometime in the 23rd century.
You did want to save the world for your children’s children’s children’s children, didn’t you?
global warming, climate change, eco-house, living green, sustainable living, BBC, England, affordable housing,
June 14th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Funny how all this talk of progressive environmentalism usually means going back to the way we did things before industrialization (ie: wood burning stoves and collecting rainwater).
Also sounds like this house is some kind of investment because while you preserving the environment for future generations, your family will definitely have to hold onto this family heirloom.
June 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
It’s good to see these kind of advances even if they are prohibitively expensive now… Remember how expensive that first sony walkman was? It’s just the start of good things to come…
On an unrelated sidenote, I noticed you are nominated for the Best pop culture blog over at the Blogger’s Choice Awards (http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/13681) but that you do not have a badge here to promote yourself.
You should definitely grab the embed code and throw up a badge to promote yourself. You’ve got my vote today, but you’ll need to promote yourself a bit to mobilize the rest of your readers! Best of luck!
June 17th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Agree with you, Taylor that the price will eventually come down. We’re already seeing a lot of “energy efficient” technologies become more affordable. That is, IMHO, a good thing.
August 5th, 2008 at 8:20 am
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August 5th, 2008 at 8:32 am
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