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Scottish firm creates affordable zero carbon home

Posted: 05/03/2007

Scottish building company, the Stewart Milne Group have developed a prototype affordable zero carbon green home. The house will go on show at an event hosted by Building Research and Consultancy (BRE) in Watford in June. The group believe their design can meet the government's latest targets for new-build houses without costing more than an ordinary new home.

Water-heating solar panels, compost bins, wind turbines and water efficiency are among the features of the three-storey timber-built family house created by PRP Architects for the Aberdeen-based Stewart Milne Group. The building also features extensive terraces built into the design at upper levels and has far more insulation than is normally used by commercial housebuilders.

Bath and shower water is reused for toilet flushing and water butts collect rainwater from the roof for watering the garden. The house will also feature low energy appliances, bicycle storage, and recycling facilities.

The Governments Code for Sustainable Homes gives a star rating to new homes, with a maximum of six stars indicating "zero-carbon" design. The Stewart Milne home is expected to achieve a five-star rating. To build a similar house adding on the listed green features can cost up to £30,000 more than a non green home, making it unviable for commercial development.

Glenn Allison, managing director of the group, said "Our decision to create this potentially five-star house as a commercial reality gives us the opportunity to show key influencers in the housing sector that it is feasible to build low carbon houses in an affordable fashion."

The Stewart Milne Group house is expected to be the first off-the-peg home in Britain to achieve a five-star score - meaning it uses only a tiny amount of energy from the National Grid. Most of its power comes from roof-mounted wind turbines and solar panels.

The Government want all new homes to be 'zero-carbon' by 2016. The term means the building must use less energy than it generates over a set period of time.

Friends of the Earth, Scotland's energy campaigner Liz Murray, said: "This is a welcome move by one of the country's leading house builders. The key to low- and zero-carbon housing is maximising energy efficiency of these homes in the first instance and embedding within the design a means by which energy can be generated using micropower technologies as part of the structure. The sooner all developers do this the better."

Alan Budden, the architect, admitted the home looked unusual, but said: "We will have to see if this is the kind of house in which people will want to live a decade from now. It will be light, airy and will have almost no energy bills - the only electricity consumed will be for appliances such as the fridge."

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