If there’s one thing that drives me potty, it’s seeing a house described as “eco-friendly” just because it has really good insulation. The latest offender is an article in Build It’s August issue, (page 54 if you’re curious), which says “because of its high insulation values, [this house is] eco-friendly to boot.”
Reading on, we find out that the house is made using an insulated concrete formwork, i.e. they stack up hollow polystyrene blocks like giant lego and pour concrete into them. So that’s polystyrene, which is made from petrochemicals, and concrete, which produces some 5 - 8% of the entire world’s CO2 emissions. Neither material is particularly environmentally responsible or sustainable.
Although the owners have underfloor heating, they don’t use it, relying on an Aga and heated towel rails instead. One of the owners is quoted as saying “We keep it as a steady 75 degrees [24C] and the Velux windows in the [upstairs] kitchen area are left open all year to prevent it getting too warm.”
Agas are not known for their environmental credentials, specially as most of them run on fuels such as oil, and if the house is so hot that the windows need to be kept open to regulate the heat, that’s a big waste of energy.
We are later told “The eco-element of the house extends to the wall finishes - every wall has five coats of beeswax, applied directly onto chemical-free plaster with a sponge.” But I’m not sure how the use of beeswax balances out the use of all that concrete and polystyrene.
I guess there’s two ways to look at this: either the house includes a lot more environmentally sound materials and practices than the article tells us about, or it’s not actually eco-friendly at all. It may be really well insulated, but can’t be our only marker of sustainability. Indeed, as it’s presented, I find it hard to understand why this house is being labelled as eco-friendly.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
pdcawley 07.22.08 at 2:01 pm
I swear, if we ever do a build of our own we’re going for timber frames, thick straw bale walls and finish with lime render. And that’s what we wanted to do before we saw the ‘House in the Woods’ episode of Grand Designs.
Ecofriendliness has very little to do with it, if I’m honest. I just love the finish of those materials - the fact that lime is such a ‘green’ material is a mere bonus.
Suw 07.22.08 at 2:25 pm
That’s pretty much what I’ve been thinking too, but I am having a hard time getting my head round whether the strawbale walls would be too thick and would swamp the timber frame. More research needed!!
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