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Council Semi Becomes Eco Home

Posted: 08/09/2006

A £140,000 experiment to convert a standard fifties built, semi-detached council house into a modern, energy efficient eco home is almost complete. The pilot project will enable St Albans District Council to assess which eco-features would be most effective for the rest of its housing stock.

Local building firm Borras is expected to have the work completed in a few weeks' time. The council's project manager Paola Munns said: "Most of the £140,000 will have been spent on extending the home and putting in new bathrooms and a kitchen. We will be carrying out breakdown costs once the work is complete to assess how much energy-saving measures cost so that we can compare this against potential fuel savings".

"It's too early yet to judge which elements will be most cost-effective but at present it looks like the solar panels might come out on top. It's possible that hot water for the tenants could be free between June and September."

The vacant four-bed council semi in the village of Smallford is being fitted out with a string of energy-saving features, including a solar roof panel, a 1,000-watt wind turbine and a 4,700-litre underground rainwater-recycling tank. It will also feature a new ground-floor, timber framed extension clad in Western Cedar from Canadian forests, requiring less energy to produce than conventional brickwork and all protected by a "living" roof making use of the succulent plant sedum, designed to insulate the structure naturally and reduce rainwater run-off by absorption.

As well as argon-filled double glazing, highly-efficient central heating, water-saving taps, and half-flush toilets, St Albans-based Borras is even installing a solar-powered bathroom extractor fan. The combined energy-saving features could make the home potentially self-sufficient in power consumption. Among other improvements are glazed roofing panes funnelling natural daylight into the house, passive-stack ventilation, plus roof insulation made with recycled newspaper, wool and hemp.

Demolition materials, including rubble, timber joists and old plastic windows, have been re-used or recycled - helping Borras earn a Considerate Constructor certificate for the way it has handled site operations.

Ms Munns added: "The whole point is that by installing all these technologically-advanced pieces of equipment into an existing property we can compare the bills with comparable homes. Many studies have been carried out on purpose-built properties in the private sector but we need to know how we can improve our social housing stock. Especially in these days of high fuel costs, it is important to find ways of keeping the costs low for our tenants."

A series of open days for specialist trades and local families will be held before the new tenants move in this autumn.

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