Roy+Lara+Sarah

Lara, Sarah, and Roy's Zero Impact Home! In Ashborne, England 51.3 degrees N, 02 degrees W

Build "Zero" Impact Homes?
A zero impact home is a building built for the purposes of using little to no fossil fuels. The goal is to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to do our part in slowing down the increase of temperature in our delicate climate.

By building a zero impact home we are reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. We want to limit the amount of burning fossil fuels to help the environment. Too much carbon is bad because of a system called the green house effect. The green house effect is when carbon and two other gases absorbs energy and heat and re-emit it down into earth’s atmosphere. With the increase of carbon because of burning fossil fuels the average temperature of earth is increasing. Increase of temperature is the result of something called Global Warming. To do our part in slowing the temperature increase we are building a zero impact home, using little to no fossil fuels.

Using extra water that you don’t need is never good. Fresh water that we can drink is only 3% of earths water and wasting it is not only bad for us. Plants and animals around your area rely on fresh water just as much as we do. If we waste water we are hurting the plants and animals around us that need that water to survive. Runoff water is also bad for the environment, it is called nonpoint source pollution. Water that runs down drive ways and into the streets and eventually into our drains picks up soil contaminants. It also brings with it petroleum, pesticides and fetilizers that become non-point source pollution. This pollution brings poisonous things into our water source putting ourselves at risk. This is the main reason our impact home will also be fertilizer free, avoiding pesticides and petroleum in our water source. We also have Porous Paving which soaks up our excess rain water, preventing it from putting pesticides in our water system. This can be seen under our clothing line, making sure it is not weat around our clothes.

In building our house we have put a lot of effort into deciding how our house is going to be build and what features to use so we can create a zero impact home. We need to know the angle of the sun so we know where to position the solar panels, and what windows should go where. We are lucky and have rotating panels because the direction of the sun changes every season. But our windows are placed to let in the right amount of the light, heat, and shade. For example at the front of our house we have a big glass door leading in and out of the dinning room. This big windows faces the sun in the winter letting in all the sun's heat during the winter warming the front of the house. And in the summer the sun rises at a different direction and angle which doesn't allow any direct sunlight on the big window, only on smaller windows. This are some things that were considered while building our zero impact home.

Site Considerations
Our rotating solar panels and windows are designed perfectly so the sun hits them at the rights place at the right time. For example we have a big glass door in the front of our house. In the summer time there is no direct sunlight hitting the door meaning the glass only takes in light and no heat. However in the winter the sun rises in the morning hitting the door directly. This creates heat for the front of our house which is where we have guest meaning that does not have to be heated using the energy from our solar panels. The solar panel energy can be used for lighting our rooms at night.
 * Average temp in the winter is a high of 47 degrees F and a low of 37 degrees F. In the summer the average temp is 60 degrees F. The temperature range is small, it is 24 degrees F.
 * Hottest month: July. Average temperature is 65 degrees F
 * Coldest month: January. Average temperature is 41 degrees F
 * The month with the most precipitation in our city is July. In July you get 6 inches of rain per month in Ashborne, England. The average amount of precipitation in our city is 24.1 inches a year. This is because England is surrounded by water and small. This means a lot more water would evaporate which results in a lot of rain.



This picture is a climate graph of Melbourne Australia. We could not find a climate graph for Ashborne. The climates are the same in each location. On the climate graph it shows the precipitation amounts in (mm) and the temperature in Celsius. It shows the average precipitation and temperature by each month
 * In the summer (June 21) the sun rises in the northeast direction, at 47 degrees. The height of the sun at noon in the summer is 59.9 degrees. The sunset in the summer is a the direction northwest, at 313 degrees. In the winter the sunrises at the direction of southeast, at 130 degrees. The height of the sun at noon in the winter is 13.1 degrees. In the winter sunsets at the direction of southwest, at 230 degrees.
 * [[image:sunAngle.gif]]
 * The suns angle in the Winter vs. Summer in Ashborne, England.
 * The suns angle determinded the location of windows on our zero impact home. For example the big glass door at the front of the house that gets direct light in the summer. And the windows lining the back of the house by the pool which do not get direct sunlight in the winter or summer. However this room gets a lot of natural light. We do not want a hot or cold pool room which is why we placed windows where they will receive light but not direct sunlight.

Design Features




For our landing scaping we have a lot of tree which clean our air making it pure and good for the other plants. We have american beech trees and Japanese wood. The main animal in england is the coytoe, hence the no pets. Our grass is called golf grass, it grows short and takes a long time to get longer.

The sun in the summer rises in the north east which is the reason for the solar panels facing north east. This means they will always get as much light as possible. A benefit of our solar panels is that they rotate so when the sun's angle changes the solar panels shift.

All our windows are Energy Efficient windows which allow the atmosphere in each room to stay the same and let the light in while keeping the cold out. Instead of buying cheep windows that cause us to have to turn up the heat or air conditioning, we have Energy Efficient windows that allow us to keep the heat and AC off because of our maritime climate.

We also purchased thick quilts to keep us warm at night in the winter. We would rather spend the money on quilts that will last forever than pay for heat every night using up our solar/windmill energy when we could us it for lighting our running water rather than burning fossil fuels. Because that is the last thing we want to do.

In the bedrooms and one of the Living rooms we have solar fans. In the summer we would rather use the suns energy to power fans on the ceiling than turning on the AC. This prevents burning of fossil fuels.

Our walls are also a dark gray to absorb the light in the winter but reflects some in the summer. Our shades share the color of the walls for the same purpose. Our shades are made out of recycled plastic and can stop the amount that is let in if we choose. This can cool the house on those rare warm English days when there is too much direct sunlight.

The roof of our house is also made out of recycled materials. We used the recycled plastics and made them look like bricks and painted them yellow. (Not our house the picture)

We have two gutters on the side of the house the lead into 2 pipes that go towards the basement of the house. This water will be used for the swimming pools. This is very Eco-friendly because we are recycling the water. When we are done with the water from the pool it goes into the ground, it is always being used for something.

There is a windmill towards the back of our house as well. This windmill gets energy from the wind outside. This energy is later used for whatever we need in our house. It is like what the solar panels do but it gets the energy in a different natural way.

We can save up to 1 gallon of water per minute and up to $100 annually with the EcoFlow shower head. This shower head was engineered for maximum performance with less water. Featuring five powerful spray settings, its exclusive water-saving fingertip control reduces water flow to a trickle when shampooing, conditioning or shaving. OptiFLOW technology improves water force by up to 30% so it conserves water without sacrificing a refreshing and invigorating shower experience. We chose this shower head because it doesn't use a ton of water, it helps save water which is good for the environment and it helps us save money because we are getting a great shower experience and not using a lot of water.

 We chose this toilet because the average family can reduce water used for toilets by 20 to 60 percent that's about 13,000 gallons of water savings for your home every year. We could also save more than $110 per year in water costs, and $2,200 over the lifetime of the toilets. That's why we picked a water sense toilet because this toilet allows the same efficiency of a regular toilet but it uses less water than the regular toilet. The less water we use the more we help the environment.

Copper bathroom sinks are recycled and it comes from other copper products, then the products melted down and purified into its original pure elemental state. From there, it’s hammered and shaped into a new sink. Copper sinks are designed to maintain their gorgeous look through decades of use, and they’re 100 percent recyclable. We picked this water sense sink because it uses recycled copper to create a sink and this helps the environment because it doesn't produce unnecessary fossil fuels.

The faucet we are using for our bathroom sinks use a maximum of 1.5 gallons per minute can reduce a sink's water flow by 30 percent or more from the standard flow of 2.2 gallons per minute without sacrificing performance. We could save billions of gallons nationwide each year by retrofitting bathroom sink faucets with models that have earned the Water Sense label. We chose this faucet because it save us water, instead of pouring out unnecessary water, it give us the right amount, which allows us not to waste water, and this helps the environment.

We chose fluorescent light bulbs because these energy-smart bulbs use 70-75% less energy than the regular kind and last up to ten times longer! For example, by using a 26-watt, fluorescent light bulb (equivalent to 100 watt for a regular light bulb), we can save up to $59 dollars on energy costs over the life of the bulb, which can be anywhere from five to seven years. We chose these light bulbs because it helps produce more light without wasting energy and lasts longer than regular light bulbs. Therefore we can use our solar/windmill energy more efficiently. Besides the fact that it saves us money, it is brighter and more efficient than regular light bulbs.

We decided to use recycled glass counter tops because they are reusing old glass instead of wasting brand new glass. This helps reduce the production of fossil fuels. Besides the fact that they are pretty, they also help the environment, they come in many colors which gives us a variety to choose from. This is good for our zero impact home because it is allowing us to have a nice counter top without hurting the environment in the processes.

We chose this environmental friendly door because it is perfect for our house in England. It is made out of recycled wood, the windows are fogged so we can keep so privacy but at the same time let in enough light to help make our house bright and friendly. This door is not only environmental friendly, it is also creative. Most doors are boring and just boxed shape with plain windows. Our door is a rectangle but the windows have nice designs that make our house more appealing along with being environmental friendly.

====We chose cork flooring because it is, a natural product, and warms and enriches any interior. The cork floors, although tough, are comfortable, and easy to maintain. The floors are made out of recycled cork, the cork is cheep and doesn't produce burning of fossil fuels because they are recycled, unlike other flooring which can add up and create a lot of unnecessary burning of fossil fuels. This is why we chose cork floors for our zero impact home.====

====Our walls are made out of recycled wood. Wood that has already been chopped down and used is turned into panels. We are going to use these panels for our walls because it helps limit the fossils fuels being produced, along with helping let more light in. We can paint over the wood these panals with Eco friendly paint to create a color that lets in light for us not to use light that might not be needed. These walls will help create our house and make it more Eco-friendly.====

Instead of a dryer we decided on making a clothing line to hang our clothes on to dry. This helps make our house have a little less impact on the environment because instead of using energy we are using natural things to help dry our clothes, like the wind. Clothing lines use no electricity and they do not produce fossil fuels to make like a regular drying machine. This is why we picked a clothes line for our Zero Impact house.

We chose this eco-friendly washing machine because although it uses some electricity and water, it is much better than just getting a regular washing machine. The washing machine we chose was approved my energy star which means that it was approved that it wont hurt the environment like other washing machine may do. Families wash up to 400 loads of laundry each year. That a lot of laundry, if people just chose random washing machines they could hurt the environment by doing so, they need to pick energy star washing machines because these washing machines don't hurt the environment and if families are washing up to 400 loads of laundry they should be using eco-friendly washing machines so they don't hurt the environment.

