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If the prospect of buying a draughty old Victorian house and spending years on DIY fills you with dread, housebuilder Barratt Homes' new Green House might be for you. It's only a show home so you can't buy it yet, but its energy-saving twists might find their way into a Barratt new-build near you soon.
Theoretically, the three-bedroom house uses zero carbon to run. There's an air source heat pump for carbon-free heating, solar-heated hot water, solar panels for electricity and automatic window shutters to keep the house cool in summer. Together they help the house meet the gov's top level of sustainability, Code Level 6, which is what all UK homes will have to meet by 2016.
It's good to see a volume housebuilder jumping on a bandwagon trail-blazed by pioneers like Unst's Zero Carbon House. I'll try and take a look at the Barratt pad this Friday as I'm off to the same site to see the Lighthouse, an eco kit house for self-builders. Both live in Watford at the Building Research Establishment. One thing's for sure judging from the photos (see above!) -- the Green House ain't going to help Barratt from being damned for famously bad taste.
The Green House's very IKEA-looking interior
The Lighthouse by Potton eco kit house, which is on the same site as the Barratt Green House
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