What you can do

Principles

Live the way you believe in!

Deep ecology is a movement led by people like the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. The central idea is that ecology is not something to be just studied and controlled by us but that we are part of ecology and we need to develop our awareness of our participation in it.

Deep ecology encourages us to think deeply about our lives. There is no single right way to live and each of us needs to develop our own set of principles to live by. Deep ecology is not just a philosophy but a movement involving action. Building this house was part of that action for us. If your principles are similar to those above I hope that the 'What you can do' sections at the bottom of each page on this site can help you take the action you want to.

Solar

Install Solar Water Heating Should provide over 50% of your hot water needs over a year (highest recorded figure was 86%!) There are a number of ways to get solar water heating: Professional installation, Self-installation, or Self-build and installation. You don't need planning permission unless your house is a listed building.

Professional installation
The best thing to do is to phone up some of the companies and speak to them. They can take details of your house and give you a rough estimate of the cost. Beware - some companies are selling panels for over £6000! Don't buy them - they are not better than ones from other companies. You shouldn't need to pay over £3000 for a complete system with installation. The expensive companies tend to offer free surveys whereas the better ones charge for survey call outs but offer phone or postal surveys.

CAT (Centre for Alternative technology) 01654 702400 - Good advice and cheap factsheets and supplies.
Solar trade association 01908 442290 - Gives advice, has standards for its members including not allowing hard sales tactics. All companies below are members.
All companies will do reductions for groups of people buying together.

Solartwin - 01244 403 404
Flat plate collectors, fitted in a day from £2499 incl. UK delivery and 5% VAT.
Self-install kits £1599 incl. 17.5% VAT, excluding delivery.
Designed and manufactured in Britain. They have a solar-electric cell integrated into the system to provide power for the pump, and special plastic piping that doesn't need antifreeze.

AES - 01309 676911
Selectively coated flat plate collectors.
4m2 - £917 incl. 17.5%VAT and delivery, no installation.
3m2 - £752 incl. 17.5%VAT and delivery, no installation.
Straight-forward 1-story house £2047 (incl.5% VAT) includes panel, pipework, cylinder and installation.
£50 - £100 extra for 2 story house or other difficulties. Survey by telephone or letter.

Thermomax - 01443 862299
Evacuated tubes. Made in the UK. Full installation for £3500-£4200

Filsol - 01269 860979
Evacuated tubes. Installed for £2300- £2700 (incl. VAT)

Self-installation
If you are an experienced DIYer you can install a solar water heating system yourself - instructions are provided in the kits companies sell. There are also groups such as SolarClubs and SelfSol that help people with DIY installation.
North Cornwall Solar Club - 01208 893 474
Bristol Solar Club- 0117 929 9950
Solar Clubs charge £25 for a trainer plumber to look at your property. £50 for training day - you get a hand book with information on installation. £25 for an engineer to check your installation is OK afterwards. They use AES, Thermomax and Filsol panels.

SelfSol NAF (National Energy Foundation) 01908 665555

Self-build and installation
A self-built self-installed system can cost as little as £200 and even cheaper if you use a re-used radiator! But beware, with all the plumbing it can cost a lot more than this depending on your house - some people have found it not much cheaper than a professionally made DIY kit.
CAT sells clip fins which increase the collection area of pipes - General Enquiries: 01654 702400

Get PV solar cells for electricity PV (Photovoltaic) solar cells produce electricity directly from sunlight. Solar cells are getting cheaper and more efficient all the time. If you sell electricity to the national grid when you are producing more than you need and buy it back when you're not it is possible to produce all of your electricity over a year from the sunlight falling on your roof!

Contacts:

PV-Web, the online information service of PV-UK - the British Photovoltaic Association. They have a pdf. handbook with address of local PV installers.

Cholwell Alternative Energy 01803 762 628 click to email

Solar Century 0870 735 8100

There are government grants for a few pilot schemes.

Conservatory

It's worth considering a conservatory on the south side of any existing building.
Thermal storage floors are definitely worthwhile - or alternatively, any large containers of water can act as a heat store as water has a high heat capacity.
Don't fall into trap of building a conservatory because you need an extra room. Keeping a conservatory hot enough for use all year round can end up using a lot more energy than you save.

Contact:
Carpenter Oak Ltd. for Green Oak conservatorys
Ecological Construction Ltd. for 'Eco Plus' high performance conservatories, doors and windows

Insulation and Glazing

Priority should be maximum insulation and draft-proofing before upgrading glazing.

Energy Efficiency
The majority of energy used in the home is in water and space heating.
Many energy efficiency measures start saving you money in less than a year!

Energy saving check list:
Have you got?
1. Cavity wall insulation.
2. Loft insulation - you need 8 inches, CAT recommends 15 inches
3. Draft-proofing.
4. Low energy light bulbs saving approx. £50 in its lifetime.
5. Radiator foil - reflecting heat back into your room.
6. Thermal curtains - keep in mind for the winter.

Energy

Greenenergy.org.uk has lists of Renewable Energy Suppliers

Green electricity

Green energy schemes - changing electricity and gas supplier
The easiest step! Just one phone call and no need to pay any more than you do now! You can prevent around 2 tonnes of CO2 being emitted by changing to a renewable energy supply.

__________________ Future Energy is the UK's accreditation scheme for renewable energy. It vets and audits energy offerings so that consumers can be confident about electricity supplier's claims.
		Gives free independent advice.

There are two types of scheme accredited:
1) Renewable energy supply - The accreditation ensures that the amount of energy used by subscribing customers is matched by purchases from renewable energy sources by suppliers.

2) Renewable energy funds - Part of the payments are placed, by the supplier, in a fund for the sole use of investment in renewable energy. Suppliers commit to introducing significant new renewable energy capacity within five years of the scheme being established. The two companies below do both in a combined scheme.

Greenprices.com Gives details of all the green energy schemes in the UK but no opinions. To find out who suppliers are and what their prices are in your region, use the calculator and enter your postal code and your yearly electricity consumption.

Recommended by Friends of the Earth as their 'greenest choice'. The company only deals with renewables. A local user in Devon says it costs her less than SWEB. Tel: 0845 6011 410

RSPBenergy (Scottish and Southern Energy plc. (SSE)) say they charge the same as your local supplier. The electricity you use will be matched with generation from renewable sources. Profits they make from electricity and gas go into a renewable energy fund. They donate £20 (£10 gas and £10 for electricity) when you join and £10 every year after to RSBP. Call free with your last electricity bill handy on: 0800 0288 552 to join.

Juice - npower now have a green supply of electricity for the same price as standard.It was set up in association with Greenpeace. Tel: 0800 3162610

Wood

Locally grown wood is renewable as it takes in as much carbon dioxide when it grows as when you burn it - and it should encourage the planting of more trees. It produces little pollution if burnt in a hot stove. Could you change from using coal to wood? Consider buying a wood-burning stove (they are much more efficient than an open fire).

Wood burning stoves
Most good stoves now have secondary combustion to improve efficiency and reduce emissions.

Greenenergy.org.uk has a list of woodburning stove suppliers

ClearView, Shropshire - 01588 650401 We have one of these and I would recommend it. British company. Modular steel construction. Hot air is passed over the glass to keep it clear. We bought ours from Robeys Heating.

Stovax Ltd, Exeter - 01392 474000
All have option of a water-heating back boiler, but this can reduce the efficiency of the stove.

Wood supplies
There is usually some local who sells fire wood. A typical price for split, seasoned sustainably-managed wood is £30-40 per pick-up load. See Managing your wood supplies for practical advice.

Car

The amount of energy a car uses is equivalent to a whole household. Look out for electric vehicles, bio-petrol and bio-diesel which are produced at least partly from renewable crops instead of fossil fuel. Until these become more widely available there are other things you can do:

Swich your breakdown and insurance service, such as AA or RAC to ETA the Environmental Transport Organisation. Rather than lobbying for more roads they lobby for less dependancy on cars and a better intergrated transport including public transport, cycling and walking. They even have a breakdown call-out service for cyclists!

	Boycott Esso. Stop Esso spending your petrol money on its fight to stop any positive action on climate change.

Materials

Construction Resources ecological builders' merchant and building centre have many appropriate products. Tel. 020 7450 2211.

Green Building Store, supply "safe sustainable building products."

Water

Reducing water use

Use a compost loo or low-flush toilet (camphill water).
Choose a washing machine with reduced water use.
Fix low-flow shower heads and taps.
Share baths or use the shower.
Fix leaks as soon as you spot them.

Rainwater harvesting

Get a rainwater butt for garden use or toilet flushing. You can get ones that attach to your down drain and automatically stay full. Contact The Tank Exchange 01226 203852.

Consider rainwater collection for your house supply.
We bought the 2000l reused orange juice containers for use as rainwater storage tanks from The tank exchange 01226 203852

Marshal Pumps supplied our pump, filter and UV treatment unit. We have a Jet61 MP pump, a AC10 filter with 10 micron filter cartridge, and a UVAQ3-series UV disinfection unit. We have had no trouble with any of them. tel: 0161 6786111

Reusing water

Think about using bath water for flushing loos. Mark Moody gave us advice on reed bed design, composting loos, low-flush toilets, and other appropriate ways of dealing with water and waste. Contact Camphill Water CVT 01594 516063 We used fact sheets on composting loos and reed beds from CAT (Centre for Alternative technology) 01654 702400
	by Pepik

Land

See the Permaculture Association.
We have found particularly inspiring Plants for a Future by Ken Fern (1997) from Pemanent Publications.

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