Living in eco-style

THE government expects that about 1.3 million new households will have to be accommodated in the south east by 2016. But will this housing be able to use energy efficiently?

With our homes already belching out tonnes of carbon dioxide, we need an alternative.

A new housing project in Southampton is already looking at creating a different style of sustainable living which will help cope with climate change and reduce emissions which cause it.

At the Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood (Sun) in Portswood, Hyde Housing Association has built a block of three houses and two studio flats that are energy efficient and eco-friendly.

The project was instigated in 1999 by Southampton City Council which launched a competition for energy-efficient, green housing to be designed and built.

Ursula Bennion, regional development manager for Hyde Housing Association, said: "We won the contract and set about building the Sun centre. The funding came from the local authority and in total, including the visitor centre, cost about £605,000.

"This project was the first of its kind in Southampton to this degree. The development was to create a high-quality design incorporating energy efficiency and sustainability as well as demonstrating and evaluating those features in terms of both usability and costs.

"I certainly think we have achieved that with the Sun centre. It is unique to Southampton, there is certainly nothing else like it in the city."

As the Sun centre is housing association property, it has been let to families with children and single people.

Ursula said: "When we were in the process of building the housing, we certainly caused a stir. We had a number of people asking us if they would be able to buy one of the houses and how much they were on the market for."

The houses and flats have numerous unique features and the philosophy behind it seems to be 'if you can't reuse it, recycle it'.

"The properties all have the facilities to recycle rainwater, which is then used for flushing the toilets. Each resident has an organic vegetable plot and we took them all to an organic vegetable farm to show them the benefits of growing organic vegetables and how to get started. They also have a composter each.

"When we built the centre, we wanted the philosophy of environmentally-friendly living and energy efficiency to permeate every factor of the residents' lifestyle.

"So we made sure that the residents agreed to having only limited or no car use. There is no residents' car parking and there are only two spaces for visitor' parking.

"We encouraged the residents to use public transport or a bike, and I know that most of them have stuck by this.

"There are numerous solar panels which are used to heat the water and each house and flat has been decorated using environmentally-friendly paint.

Data from the project is now being collected and analysed to see how much difference houses like these make.

Ursula said: "We are supervising the centre for two years to see how much difference building houses in this way makes.

"We have a house in Chandler's Ford which isn't energy efficient which we use as a comparison and also there are slight differences between some of the properties at the Sun centre.

"For example one of the flats uses gas and the other uses electricity, so we can do a comparison.

"All of the houses are fitted with what we call a 'tiny tag'. This is a device which takes humidity and temperature readings indoors every 30 minutes.

"The information is then downloaded onto a computer every so often by someone at Southampton environment Centre so we can compare the figures.

"As well as this, we also ask residents to take readings of their gas, water and electricity meters once a fortnight and fill them in on a chart.

"All the light fittings and bulbs are all energy-saving too and the flooring is marmoleum, which is like old-fashioned lino, but retains the heat.

"Some of the houses feature a two-floor conservatory which take in the sun and are great to grow plants in.

"The kitchens, skirting boards and doors are all made from oak which is sourced from a sustainable forest. We originally had natural wood work surfaces but these had to be changed for beech-effect surfaces as the natural wood started lifting away.

"It has been a learning curve for us as developers as well. We provided each resident with a cooker, fridge and washing machine which were A-rating in energy efficiency.

"We do believe this could be the way forward for housing. We are going to analyse the Sun centre over a two-year period to find out the cost benefit of building a housing centre such as this.

"If indeed it has proved energy and cost-efficient we certainly hope to replecate it in the future."

CASE STUDY:

SHARLENE Howard and her two children, Joshua, nine and six-year-old Jodie have lived in a three-bedroomed house in the Sun centre since March this year.

Sharlene, 30, said: "We moved from a masionette in Millbrook and this is a million times better.

"Living here has really changed my way of thinking. Before I had thought about energy efficiency and green issues but that is as far as it went, but here it is my lifestyle.

"I fit the composting and doing the vegetables into my day-to-day routine.

"I have never done any gardening before, but me and the kids all do it together. It is a real learning curve for all of us.

"We managed to grow some marrows and cucumbers. The kids planted some carrots but they didn't grow properly.

"I can't judge yet if any of our bills are cheaper but I hope they will be. Not being able to have a car doesn't affect me as I was never able to have one before.

"We all love living here, there is a real community atmosphere and all the families pull together. Joshua and Jodie love living here as there are other kids for them to play with.

"All my friends really like my house, it may look a little unusual on first impressions but I wouldn't want to move anywhere else."