(Australia-NewsWire.Com, November 11, 2012 ) Melbourne, Australia - The most environmentally friendly house in Northern Ireland has been developed by an Armagh based sustainable construction company.
Green Future NI has built and created the innovative zero carbon blueprint “Green Future House,” which showcases the affordability and accessibility of building an energy and cost effective zero carbon house. This innovation exceeds the government’s required transition to the mass construction of new zero carbon homes by the year 2016.
The creation follows The Department of Social Development’s announcement in its “Regional Development Strategy 2035,” that as a result of increasing population and trend of smaller households, 11,000 new houses will need to be constructed each year.
Under current legislation, all new homes to be built as zero carbon by 2016 in Northern Ireland are accountable for meeting carbon reduction targets under the EU Directive. The major challenge of how to build these cost effective energy efficient houses before its legislative introduction in four years has been addressed by Green Future NI.
28 senior Building Control officials recently visited the “Green Future House” to look at the energy efficient concepts as well as the building materials used in this ‘prototype’ because as of now, most private housing is built to statutory building control standards, but there are improvements will be introduced by the end of October.
DSD Minister Nelson McCausland announced that an additional £12 million investment to improve energy efficiency of housing has been introduced, which will highlight the importance of creating superior performing homes. This investment will cut home energy bills while helping councils meet their carbon reduction targets.
The “Green Future House” acts as a showcase to address critical questions around affordability, energy efficiency, government, developers, and homeowners. It is vital for the industry to unlock low-cost, volume zero carbon housing and Green Future NI thinks they have the answer.
Green Future NI is in collaboration with both Invest NI as well as The University of Ulster, which found that the future house is 77% more energy efficient than normal houses, and subsequently provides huge savings. The future house is the first in the area to be awarded five years of no council rates under the now failed Low Carbon and Zero Carbon Homes Scheme.
Water is reused twice in the zero carbon house and is capable of near-zero energy bills and a biological waste water treatment plant that does not require either a soakaway or a percolation area. With no need for fossil fuels, energy fuel bills in the house are cut on average 79% every year.
Managing Director of Green Future NI, John McClatchey, said: “These savings speak for themselves and with Green Future NI proving that zero carbon homes can be built at the same cost as ordinary homes it is economically and environmentally unresourceful to build anything other than zero carbon housing”.
Alex Attwood, Minister for Environment, who was the first official presented of the Green Future House said:
“Energy efficient homes have lower running costs and as such also have an important role to play in reducing fuel poverty. I therefore wish to encourage those in the building industry to take on the challenge of improving the energy efficiency of their houses and recognise the wider role they have in improving the lives of the poorest in our society and in shaping a clean and green future for everyone. Improving the energy efficiency of housing provides an opportunity to develop new ideas in design and construction and I welcome the innovation which has been shown in building these Zero and Low Carbon homes of the future”.
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