Model behaviour: Robert Ashton’s earth-sheltered home

‘It costs no more to build a house that needs no heating than it does to build conventionally.’

‘Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others, it is the only means.’ Albert Einstein

I’d met a Friend for a socially-distanced coffee in her garden and the conversation moved to climate change. She told me the steps she was taking to improve the energy efficiency of her rather-elegant home. Being eighteenth century, it is not terribly well insulated, but she was hoping that installing photovoltaic panels to a roof would take her some way towards a greener lifestyle. ‘Because we can afford to,’ she said, ‘we have a duty to set an example.’

Those wise words helped me see my latest project in perspective. My wife and I are planning to build an earth-sheltered home for our retirement. Because we already own the site, and because we will sell our current home and downsize, we will be able to afford to build to an exceptional standard, installing the very-latest technology. Our new home will show just what is possible and will be much more than just a home; it will be a new way of life, growing much of our own food and powering an electric car.

As an author, I plan to write a book about our transition to what many might see as a futuristic way of life. But I’ve learned that it is actually possible today. Surprisingly, it costs no more to build a house that needs no heating and can generate all the power it needs, than it does to build conventionally.

The full significance of our project really hit me when we commissioned the calculation of the energy efficiency and carbon mitigation of our new home. We used a government-approved system, which provides a third-party independent assessment for all UK residential dwellings. This provides a number, called a Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating. An SAP rating of 100 means a home consumes no energy and emits no carbon emissions. The lower the number, the higher the energy bills and the more carbon emitted.

Most developer-built new homes achieve an SAP rating of around eighty-five, and are virtually all reliant on fossil fuels to heat and power them. The design for our new home achieved a SAP rating of 166A, which places it in the top 0.001 per cent of the twelve million registered UK homes. It was a shock to realise that we will be swapping heating bills for income from the electricity we export onto the grid.

As my Friend said, we all have a responsibility to set an example to others. As a Quaker that is of course even more important. Cycling home from my Friend’s garden that day, I realised that I had a very real opportunity to lead by example. As Einstein said, it is the only way to influence others. Climate change can no longer be ignored.

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Comments

I would be really interested to see and hear more about this home once built. Thank you.

By suehampton@btinternet.com on 15th April 2021 - 12:58

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I will be following this project from here: http://www.robertashton.co.uk
You can watch his TED talk (11 minutes) from TEDXNorwichED here: http://www.robertashton.co.uk/speaking#speaking-page

By GordonF on 16th April 2021 - 11:43

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Interesting idea, but I fear that you will be extremely cold if you go ahead with this project. About as cold as if you were to live in a cave, surely?

Oliver Penrose, Berkhamsted

By O.Pnrose on 18th April 2021 - 13:20

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