Our eco-homes journey

Gusto Homes has been one of the UK-leaders in the design and build of “eco-homes” for the general housing market for more than 20-years, a remarkable journey that started from the inspiration of the 1992 “Rio Declaration of Environment & Development”.

Gusto Homes commenced the build of its first project (Millennium Green) aligned to the principles of the Rio Declaration in 1998, a project completed in 2002 resulting in 24 new homes which in broad terms used 50% less energy and 50% less water compared to the houses being built to contemporary Building Regulations.

This project, which remains unique in the UK’s mainstream housing market, attracted national interest through CEO Steff Wright speaking at industry conferences alongside arranging educational visits to the site. The development was filmed by the BBC for the Open University and it influenced the national Code for Sustainable Homes in 2004. This has subsequently given way to more demanding Building Regulations, although these still fall short of the first Gusto Homes project.

As evolving Building Regulations have raised the eco-homes bar, so Gusto Homes has continued to raise its horizons with its most recently completed project (Woodlands Edge) resulting in 29 new homes built to such a high eco-specification that they do not require central-heating systems, are entirely electric (which is a relatively clean form of energy), and cost only £1 per day to heat, light and provide with hot water.

Currently, Gusto have eco-homes available to buy on the second phase of its unique Woodlands Edge development close to Lincoln, and at its Collingham Brook development in one of Nottinghamshire’s most sought-after villages.  Details of these can be found here.

Over recent years, awareness of the need to reduce human impacts on the environment has grown, producing energy-efficient new homes being one important way of doing this.  And it’s not, as they say, “rocket science”; we simply design and build our eco-homes to minimise the energy required to make them very comfortable, use only relatively clean electricity to provide that energy with the majority be generated via the solar PV roof panels. We then minimise further the energy required, through the use of environmental technologies and energy-efficient fixtures and fittings.

So, if you would like to live in a more comfortable, healthy home, and play your part in reducing environmental impacts, read below the things you need to know about “eco-homes”.

Eco Design & Build

Art of the eco-possible

There are numerous UK and worldwide examples of individual high-performance eco-homes or projects, made possible by the investment of self-builders, or by Government subsidy of research projects.  Mainstream house-builders, however, don’t usually build to anything higher than the minimum building regulations because of the additional cost.

As a privately-owned business, Gusto Homes has been able to ensure all their homes exceed the minimum standard and on certain unique sites Gusto do build their range of very high performance eco homes. This does add to the build-costs alongside any other increases in specification such as higher quality fixtures, fittings and finishes.

Eco by Design

The Design stage of a project is an important phase in the delivery of high-performance eco-homes, starting right from the master-planning stage.  Wherever possible, for example, the roofs and gardens of the properties need to be as close to south-facing as possible to maximise the gain from free solar energy.

On the individual homes, the majority of glazing to the key rooms is on the south side maximising solar gain and minimise heat-losses from north-facing elevations. Shading on the south elevations is also important to minimise overheating in the summer alongside ensuring the properties have smaller windows on the west elevations which can also result in overheating from the lower afternoon sun.

Eco by Design

The Design stage of a project is an important phase in the delivery of high-performance eco-homes, starting right from the master-planning stage.  Wherever possible, for example, the roofs and gardens of the properties need to be as close to south-facing as possible to maximise the gain from free solar energy.

On the individual homes, the majority of glazing to the key rooms is on the south side maximising solar gain and minimise heat-losses from north-facing elevations. Shading on the south elevations is also important to minimise overheating in the summer alongside ensuring the properties have smaller windows on the west elevations which can also result in overheating from the lower afternoon sun.

and in the Build

Maximising the performance of your new eco-home involves careful choice and responsible local-sourcing of materials, an understanding by site operatives of their role in achieving that performance, and technical know-how of how to install and successfully integrate any environmental technologies being used.  And, above all else, caring attention to the details of what they are building.

For example, eco-performance will depend in part on the extent to which the house has, through design and careful construction, been made relatively air-tight.  A typical UK home experiences around 18 air-changes per hour, with any incoming replacement air needed to be re-heated in winter.  Current building regs requires 7 air changes per hour with some Gusto Homes achieving less than 1 air change per hour.

Whilst ventilation is important this is done in a controlled manner rather than by building a draughty home

Eco-Technologies

 

From a starting-point of a well-insulated, well-built, and overall well-designed home, well-integrated incorporation of selected eco-technologies will further improve the environmental performance of the finished product; a word of caution though, simply “bolting-on” eco-technologies to an otherwise Building Regulations home will not produce the desired results.

Gusto Homes are experienced experts in integrating the right eco-technologies into their projects, carefully matched to the specifics of the development site, and local housing market conditions.

Below are brief explanations of several of the eco-technologies Gusto use regularly, mixing and matching them as appropriate to the development, and to the designs of individual properties.

Solar-thermal

These roof-mounted, south-facing panels capture the heat of the sun’s rays, which is stored in the hot-water cylinder, thus reducing the amount of energy needed to bring the household hot water supply up to the required temperature.

They are less popular now, having been supplanted by Solar-PV panels which compete for the same roof-space and are less dependent on sunshine.

Solar-PV

Solar photo-voltaic panels are now widely in use in the UK, following several years of generous subsidy for private buyers, and for operators of “solar farms”.

Unlike solar-thermal, solar-pv panels generate electricity, rather than heat, the sun being the light-source.  As with solar-thermal, solar-pv panels need to be facing as close to due south as possible, and be angled at about 30-degrees, to reach maximum effectiveness.

They are much lower maintenance than the solar thermal and by using a power diverter the electricity can easily be used to heat the hot water.

Solar-PV

Solar photo-voltaic panels are now widely in use in the UK, following several years of generous subsidy for private buyers, and for operators of “solar farms”.

Unlike solar-thermal, solar-pv panels generate electricity, rather than heat, the sun being the light-source.  As with solar-thermal, solar-pv panels need to be facing as close to due south as possible, and be angled at about 30-degrees, to reach maximum effectiveness.

They are much lower maintenance than the solar thermal and by using a power diverter the electricity can easily be used to heat the hot water.

Air-management systems

These too are regularly used in eco-homes, where the air-tightness achieved could cause the air trapped within the house to become stale.

To avoid this, air management systems automatically expel air at an appropriate rate and replace it with fresh, pollen-filtered outside air.  In the process, the heat-content of the expelled air is transferred to the incoming air to minimise energy-losses.

Air-Source Heat Pumps

An air source heat pump (ASHP) is a system which transfers heat from outside to inside a building, or vice versa. Using similar principles to that used by refrigerators,  an ASHP absorbs heat at one place and release it at another. They can be used as a space heater or cooler, and are sometimes called “reverse-cycle air conditioners”.

In domestic heating use, an ASHP absorbs heat from outside air and releases it inside the building, as hot air and/or domestic hot water supply. The same system can often do the reverse in summer, cooling the inside of the house. When correctly specified, an ASHP can offer a full house-heating solution and provide domestic hot water up to 80°C.

For every KW of electricity used to run an ASHP approx. 3KW of hot water is produced.

Air-Source Heat Pumps

An air source heat pump (ASHP) is a system which transfers heat from outside to inside a building, or vice versa. Using similar principles to that used by refrigerators,  an ASHP absorbs heat at one place and release it at another. They can be used as a space heater or cooler, and are sometimes called “reverse-cycle air conditioners”.

In domestic heating use, an ASHP absorbs heat from outside air and releases it inside the building, as hot air and/or domestic hot water supply. The same system can often do the reverse in summer, cooling the inside of the house. When correctly specified, an ASHP can offer a full house-heating solution and provide domestic hot water up to 80°C.

For every KW of electricity used to run an ASHP approx. 3KW of hot water is produced.

Ground-Source Heat Pumps

Ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) work on similar principles but, as the name implies, draw their input energy from under the ground; this provides the obvious attraction that on a cold winter’s day, temperature underground is likely to be higher than the outside air temperature.

This boosts the efficiency of the heat-transfer process and improves the efficiency. For every KW of electricity used up to 4KW of hot water is produced.

As with ASHP systems, GSHP systems can also be used to cool the home on a hot day where the air and ground temperature relationship is reversed.

Waste-Water Heat Recovery

Having gone to the expense of heating your shower-water, it makes neither financial nor environmental sense to allow this energy simply to drain-away.

Waste-water heat recovery systems are therefore used as standard in Gusto eco-houses (but not bungalows), working on the simple principle of a coiled tube around the shower-waste pipe that efficiently transfers the outgoing heat energy from the shower waste water to the cold-water feed into the shower.  The outgoing and incoming water do not themselves mix, of course, but the heat is transferred between them by the coil around both.

This means that less hot water needs to be added through the shower mixer-tap, saving up to 60% of the normal energy in the process.

Waste-Water Heat Recovery

Having gone to the expense of heating your shower-water, it makes neither financial nor environmental sense to allow this energy simply to drain-away.

Waste-water heat recovery systems are therefore used as standard in Gusto eco-houses (but not bungalows), working on the simple principle of a coiled tube around the shower-waste pipe that efficiently transfers the outgoing heat energy from the shower waste water to the cold-water feed into the shower.  The outgoing and incoming water do not themselves mix, of course, but the heat is transferred between them by the coil around both.

This means that less hot water needs to be added through the shower mixer-tap, saving up to 60% of the normal energy in the process.

Solar PV Power-diverter

As described above, Solar PV generates free on-site electricity during daylight hours, which correspondingly reduces the electricity you purchase from your supplier.

All Gusto solar-powered eco-homes are fitted with devices which automatically switch any excess electricity being produced to the immersion heater in the hot-water cylinder. This generally means that for 9 months of the year your hot water is free and even in the depth of winter if the sun is bright your water will be heated without the mains boost being required.

Energy-Saving Fixtures & Fittings

 

Having designed and built a house needing the minimum of energy to run, powered it with relatively clean electrical energy, equipped it with solar panels to generate free electricity on-site, and used a range of environmental technologies to minimise energy-usage, the final flourish is provided in a Gusto eco-home through our careful choice of fixtures and fittings.

All the appliances we install for example, such as refrigerators, hobs and stoves, invariable have energy ratings that provide low consumption, whilst all light-fittings are for LED bulbs which consume a fraction of their conventional equivalents.

Insofar as individual rooms might occasionally require a space-heating boost on a really cold winter’s day, this is provided instantly by energy-efficient, discretely mounted, infra-red ceiling panels.

Alongside energy-efficient fixtures and fittings, if any dish or clothes washing machines are included in a property’s specification, we also make sure that these too are as water-efficient as possible;  using less water means using less energy to heat it.

We’re “eco-water” too

 

Not generally appreciated, water supplies in the whole of England south of the Humber estuary are under severe stress – and forecast to become more-so as weather patterns continue to evolve.

Under these circumstances, it makes no environmental sense at all to use highly processed tap drinking water to flush toilets, wash clothes, wash the car, or irrigate the garden; these are all water usages that could just as easily be undertaken using non-potable rainwater.

Gusto Homes has therefore been proud to pioneer the development and use of rainwater harvesting systems in the UK, their use helping to reduce mains water consumption by around 50% compared to typical UK homes, or around 40% compared to new homes built to current Building Regulations.

Gusto Homes have therefore installed rainwater harvesting systems on many of the new homes it has built, and will continue to do so when site conditions are favourable.

Three simple steps to harvesting rainwater

The rain falling on the roof is routed to an underground tank, where it is stored awaiting use for non-potable services such as toilet-flushing, which accounts for a large percentage of domestic water-consumption.

When a toilet is flushed, the necessary water is supplied, via its own dedicated non-potable pipework, from the rainwater stored in the underground tank; this can be either directly (as pictured), or via a header-tank in the loft.

To ensure continuity of supply during long dry spells, if the underground storage tank runs dry, the electronics which manage the system automatically introduce mains-water, pending the next rainfall.

Helping to meet drainage regulations

Building Regulations require that when new developments take place, the introduction of new roads, roofs and other hard-standings does not increase the rate at which rainfall runs off the land, potentially increasing the risks of downstream flooding.

Harvesting rainwater is a win-win way of meeting this requirement, in that not only does it reduce the stresses on water-supplies, but it also reduces the flood risk.  This is achieved by storing/consuming as much of the rainfall as possible, using any excess to feed eco-friendly site amenities such as picturesque ponds.