ROBBY RECOMMENDS Howdy folks and hope you’ve all recovered from the festival.
Bestival up next — not long now!
We’re about to have some work done on our house in West Wight and having to go through lots of red tape to make sure any work is done properly. Aside from the regulations you need to follow, anyone looking to renovate their home should know about retro fit — a phrase the da Banks had never come across. Stick with me… all will become clear!
The world of retro fit is a pioneering one — the definition of retro fit is to 'provide with parts, devices, or equipment not available or in use at the time of the original manufacture’. So beginning to understand the wealth of new technology — and then successfully apply it to your home — can be a challenge!
One of the first challenges is defining what is green. Products that are made with salvaged, recycled, or agricultural waste content are being manufactured for all sorts of building needs now, other materials that conserve natural resources like rainwater harvesting, products that avoid toxic emissions, products that save energy and anything that contributes to a safe, healthy built environment — that’s a lot to learn about if you just need to install a new boiler.
But suddenly the news is full of stories of the people who have been working these new ideas into their old buildings very successfully — SEEDA awarded no fewer than 20 Low Carbon Communities Challenge winners in the UK this year, including Ashton Hayes, near Chester, Cheshire, that been working to become England’s first carbon-neutral community and has already cut average household emissions of the 370 homes by 23 per cent since May 2006 and our own Chale Green here on the Island, where the entire village is showing the Eco-Island idea in practice.
Going the whole hog are places like the Robert Redford Building in LA, toilets flush themselves with rainwater — except for the urinals, which use no water at all. The floors are made of bamboo and the carpets from hemp. That’s some crazy hippy stuff but fantastic if you can afford it!
But no matter what small or large differences we make to our homes, every little helps and as the technology gets easier, cheaper and even more sustainable — surely we can reduce our footprint, working one home at a time? With a bit of insulation and some rainwater!! No lack of that in the UK…
Until next time.