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The
Ecohome : Ground floor kitchen
The room, along with most others around the
house, had additional PVC-free electrical wiring installed (the
existing not renewed, just added to), along with new stainless steel
fittings, which are more recyclable and hard-wearing than the standard
all-plastic variety.
The floorboards were sanded back and treated
with OS Colour natural hard wax oil as in Room No.1.
The previous window reveals, made of MDF
or particle board and supported with timber studs, were at 90 degrees
to the window and took the place of the former box housing for the
original sash windows. The studs were simply angled to 45 degrees
and plasterboard overlaid to form the shape. The hollow behind the
studs was injected with an ozone-friendly expanding foam for greater
insulation and airtightness, before the final layer of plaster skim
was applied. The result is a beautiful reveal which bounces light
further into the room.
The French windows were specially designed
to fit into the existing window reveal, whose cill was knocked out
and repositioned at floor level. They were manufactured by specialists
in ecological windows and doors - and include triple glazing and
non pressure treated softwood. Triple glazing was chosen for these
windows as they face north and so receive no sunlight in winter,
which means that they cannot contribute to the warming of the house.
Triple glazing lets less light through but allows far less heat
out. These windows enable the room to be used more effectively as
a kitchen, with free access to the garden, washing line and compost
heap. As there is no draught lobby here, their use will be limited
in winter to prevent excessive escape of warm air.
In a low-energy house heat loss due to ventilation
can make a real difference. Here, with a more airtight and well
insulated construction, condensation can become a problem, especially
in 'wet' areas. Conventional extractor fans would suck out an unacceptably
large quantity of warmth with the air. Here, the chosen solution
has been to use a heat recovery fan. This unit extracts air from
inside the room, but also feeds fresh air in from outside. It has
a small heat exchanger inside which works on the principle of the
car radiator, extracting the heat from the outgoing air and using
it to warm the incoming cold air. At peak efficiency this can recover
up to 80% of the heat from the air. The device is linked to a humidity
sensor which only activates it when needed and not simply when the
light is switched on. It can be manually overridden so that in summer
it can be switched off and the windows opened instead.
Penney and Gil needed some new furniture
as their previous house had a fitted kitchen, so they decided to
buy second-hand. This is greener as it saves on resources and keeps
old items in use, giving them a longer life. In contrast to the
prevailing buy-cheap-discard-quickly trend, Gil & Penney have
found that quality second-hand furniture can be found at reasonable
prices, its value increasing over time rather than reducing to nothing.
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