ZERO
CARBON
HOUSE
PROJECT

Welcome

We have built a zero carbon house on Britain’s most northerly island of Unst, which will bring obvious benefits to the environment. Our carbon neutral home lowers the carbon footprint by producing its own energy and storing it to heat the home. We also use this energy to fuel an electric vehicle for transportation. Food will be grown in hi-tech greenhouses using a hydroponic growing system.

We hope our zero carbon house will be a useful study vehicle for research, giving students the unique opportunity to view a real eco-house, meet the people who live there, and regularly access the energy usage data that will be updated daily online. We also hope that we make a small contribution to conserving the environment in which we live for future generations to enjoy.

In brief...

Read Michael's diary...

We have now been living in the house for nearly a year. A lot has happened over the past twelve months.

Many Media companies have been to see us and several articles have appeared in publications world wide.

In April 2008, The Guardian Newspaper visited the project and an article appeared in The Guardian. Guardian films made a short film which can be viewed on the internet.
If the Guardian Newspaper site is accessed and if you type in the zero carbon house. You will then need to type in Living Off Grid.

In August 2008, NBC News Networks visited us and made an item for NBC News Networks
in The United States.

In October 2008, Korean Television came to see us and filmed a documentary as a joint
production for The BBC. Korean Television and Japanese television.

Many media groups world wide have published articles on the project and we are now linked to a Russian heavy Metal Radio web site.

Also in October 2008 Scottish Television made a short film which can be viewed if you type in STV and once on their web site type in The 5.30 show. If you then type in the zero carbon house, shetland, a short film can also be seen.

Two publications in China have published articles on the project, and I was invited to China last year to talk to Chinese architects. Unfortunately due to the amount of work that has to be done every day I was not able to attend the conference.

Many students contact us as they are working on Masters degrees. We give information freely to assist them.

We have learnt that many schools world wide are basing their climate change projects on our project. This is very encouraging.

Early in 2008 the front garden was constructed. The dry stone walling was also constructed to give protection from the winds from the south west and the north east. This has been very successful in protecting the vegetables. Further structures were made from timber which gives additional protection to seedlings.

In past centuries Shetland crofters used to construct stone walls to give the same kind of protection to seedlings.

All of the seeds which were supplied by Thompson and Morgan UK produced heavy crops.
Four different types of peas were grown, several types of carrots, cabbages, leeks, onions, lettuce etc.

The Air to Water heat pump.

Due to the considerable benefits of installing Celotex Foam insulation into the whole of the roof structure and all external walls, we found that we did not need such a large heat pump.

Installing a much smaller heat pump has also reduced the energy demand for this device from 6-10 kw to 1.6 kw which gives us 5kw of heat.

This does not need to run all of the time due to another innovation we have built into the project.

Fred Gibson of Shetland Composites built a 4.200 litre water battery for us with an integrated coil. I will explain this later. The tank is insulated with 200 mm of Celotex expanded foam. This is the first installation using Celotex insulation for a water battery. If you were to leave it unused it will only lose 0.5 of a degree over 100 hours.

The tank is made from GRP and is freestanding on a base at the end of the house. The water battery is connected to the air to water heat pump creating a supply and return circuit.
In between this circuit is placed a temperature controlled flow valve. When the signal is sent from the wireless Osma Wavin heating system control box to the flow valve, this opens up the supply for the hot water to enter the house underfloor heating circuit. This has a ground floor area of 180 sq m and has seven zones each one of which can be isolated.

In the water battery is a giant coil. A spur from the cold water main is fed into this and picks up thermal gain from the hot water in the water battery. This is sent to what in ordinary circumstances would be the hot water tank. An external inline water heater switches in when the hot water taps are turned on and heats the water on demand. This works in the same way that a shower works.

As a considerable amount of water will always be in the coil picking up more thermal gain, it gives a very efficient use of available resources.

We still have a lot of external work to complete but as we are now in the Shetland winter we are being held back on this work.

Fred Gibson is now taking forward the prototype of the water battery with a major British Academic institution, Oxford University. We are very pleased that this is moving forwards.

Philip our builder has constructed the first part of the cold frame units which are at the front of the house. The rear wall of these units will support the legs for the front boardwalk and deck with the final front steps being sited at an angle to the front door. This will then give access to all of the doors front and rear on one level.

If you were to run this house from the grid the monthly total energy cost would be £37.00 Sterling.

Energy For Sustainable Development our partner in the project entered the project for an award with Sustain Magazine. The project has been shortlisted against stiff competition we were told and the awards are being presented at a dinner in London in early March. We will be attending.

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The concept

Project details

Chart our progress

Energy usage data