Eco-Friendly Homes, Easy To Built

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oi-Staff

By Staff

Thursday, February 26, 2009, 15:38

A latest breakthrough in environment friendly homes, is a 600 year old medieval home in which heat is retained from the sun while naturally cooling in summer. Any extra energy requirements are provided by the solar panels on the roof and a wood chip boiler.

The design originated in Spain and the structure is dome-shaped design based on medieval techniques. This eco-friendly home costs up to 445,000 pounds to build, but with the renewable technologies set to plummet, it could be the most affordable and practical option for the future.

The construction involves environment friendly materials like the locally sourced timber and recycled newspaper for insulation. The building of the house is an easy task. The arched building is essentially one large vault spanning 65 feet (20 metres), covered on the outside with earth and plants to camouflage it and help it blend in with the rural surroundings.

The natural materials ensure that any fluctuations in the temperature can be absorbed and the triple-glazed windows use as much light as possible.

As stated by Michael Ramage, who is based at the University of Cambridge Department of Architecture, future homes will be more and more Eco-friendly in the future. "The design is cost-effective in that the home is relatively simple to build and, once you know what you're doing, it's quick," he said.

"Many of the costs come from the new technology it uses for energy storage and generation. If those become more widely available, making a similar house cheaply in much larger quantities may be possible," he added. AGENCIES