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 | | CHILTERN COUNCIL UNVEILS SUSTAINABLE HOUSE BLUEPRINT | | | Chiltern District Council | | 21/11/2006 | | |
Chiltern District Council has today unveiled its SMART house, a demonstration of sustainability and a potential blueprint for construction in the region.
Part of the Council's `Think, Build and Live SMART' (SMART being an acronym for `Sustainable Material And Renewable Techniques') the house echoes the Council's planning policy of commitment to ensuring that development in the district is sustainable. The SMART house, located at the Council's Amersham offices site, features traditional Chiltern building materials and highlights a range of sustainable building practices such as the use of timber from managed forests, sheep's wool or flax as insulation and lime based mortar, renders and plaster instead of cement to let a building `breathe' naturally. Energy saving techniques demonstrated include `sun pipes' for natural lighting, solar water heating and 'biomass' heating which efficiently burns wood chippings.
As well as locally sourced flint and bricks, the house is also one of the first buildings to feature a new, innovative range of sustainable masonry which includes compressed chalk and earth blocks and cast in-situ lime hemp walling. The chalk and earth blocks can be produced on site utilising waste material providing a highly cost-effective and sustainable alternative to traditional masonry and the lime hemp walling can help to reverse the damaging effects of greenhouse gases by locking up harmful C02 in the wall of a building. Councillor Mimi Harker, Executive Member-Community Portfolio Holder said; 'A sustainable approach to building new homes should begin with reusing and recycling existing materials. Then, when new materials or systems need to be bought, they should be local, traditional and energy efficient. Half the planet's resources go into the construction industry. Also, the average domestic energy bill now tops £1,000 a year and so energy efficiency in the home is of paramount importance to us all. Householders spending more than 10 per cent of their income on energy bills are just not achieving affordable warmth and probably not living in an energy efficient home. A look at our new SMART house will give people lots of excellent energy and money-saving ideas.'
A number of local companies and organisations have provided substantial help and expertise in the construction of the SMART house: These include: -
Lime Technology - pioneers in the field of lime based building products and sustainable masonry. The company has provided Limetec, its range of lime based mortars, renders and plasters along with Sumatec, its range of compressed earth and chalk sustainable masonry as well as Hemcrete, its range of in situ lime-hemp walling.
H.G. Matthews, a family run brickworks, producing traditional hand made bricks and machine made bricks
Dunton Brothers who produce facing bricks and special shaped bricks using clay from a local quarry
Bovingdon, renowned for its genuine handmade and machine made facing bricks
Monodraught, who produce innovative products that harness the natural resources of wind and sun.
The project is also supported by The Thames Valley Energy Agency, (TV Energy) whose principal interests relate to renewable energy (wind, bioenergy, solar, hydro) but also embrace green waste and green transport initiatives and Chilterns Conservation Board, an established independent body which has 29 members, 15 appointed by local authorities, 8 by the Secretary of State and 6 who have been elected by parish councils.
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Photovoltaics , Solar Water Heating , Ground Source Heat , Wind Turbines , Biomass , Hydro-Electric , Rainwater Harvesting , Materials , Recycling Solutions , Housebuilding , Churches & Places of Worship , Other
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