|
By Sonia Purnell
The Telegraph UK
Mark Barthel's detached home was once like all its suburban neighbours. Sonia Purnell discovers how he was able to turn it into a temple of recycling and energy-efficiency at little cost to himself and the comfort of his family.
Far from being a sandal-wearing beardie, green guru Mark Barthel is a former City commodities broker and still cuts a dapper figure in his pinstripe suit and crisp business shirt.
From the front, his modern detached family house on the outskirts of Bracknell, Berkshire, looks no different from its quietly comfortable neighbours on a suburban cul-de-sac.
Yet, over the past few years, it has been transformed into a temple of recycling and energy-efficiency that has slashed his utility bills and reduced the rubbish output of a family of four to less than one bin bag a week.
Mark sets an example, in a practical and no-nonsense manner, that David Cameron, and other politicians trying to win the environmental vote, should look to. The 45-year-old decided to leave the City and retrain as an environmentalist after being badly injured in the Clapham rail crash of 1988. Thirty-eight people died in his carriage, including a good friend. He received compensation from British Rail and opted for redundancy from the City, allowing him to go back to university and retrain. He then went on to advise the UN on green issues, and is now a consultant to supermarkets and other companies on green and efficient packaging.
Most striking of all is that Mark's contribution to saving the planet has come at very little cost in terms of capital or family comfort. In fact far from it.
On the day of my visit - an unseasonably cold day last month - we were sitting in a large, glass-walled and light-flooded family room in a balmy 19 degrees, despite the fact that the heating had been turned off for nearly three weeks.
The 20ft glass wall overlooking the garden would in most houses have been leaking heat like water through sand. But when Mark extended his house five years ago, he installed specially E-coated double-glazed Pilkington K glass with invisible red argon gas between the panes.
"It has about the same thermal qualities as a brick wall but still picks up heat from any sunshine we do get," explains Mark. "It's very, very good. Overall, all my extra thermal insulation in the house put about five per cent on to my construction costs, but I recouped that sum through energy savings within a year.
"Without all the insulation, my energy costs would have doubled when I added 60 per cent more floor space to the house, surrounded by a lot of glass. But in fact, they have actually gone down slightly." Apart from the special glass, the cavity walls and ceiling are insulated with old newspapers coated with an organic fire-retardant. "Newspaper is highly effective and can be inserted with a sort of gun," he says.
The flat roof - normally a troublesome feature that brings tears to householders' eyes - is actually a bonus here. "It's called a green roof and is composed of an eight-inch thick mat of sedum and other alpine plants that create another layer of insulation and are also good at soaking up water, helping to prevent problems from storm surges, for instance."
The green roof, which becomes a mid-air flowering meadow through the summer months, also looks spectacular.
With so much glass, the need for electric light is restricted to after dark. But Mark has slashed electricity costs by a third simply by installing a low wattage, low ampage ring main through the house to power efficient lighting. "It didn't cost much to instal, only a couple more hundred pounds than a conventional system, and has saved us so much money since," he says.
The nine ceiling halogen lights in the family room run off this ring, as do most of the other lights in the house. His garden, including a striking heron sculpture made of recycled bicycle frames, is beautifully illuminated at night but again at minimal cost. The tiny LED lights inset in the red cedar decking use only a tenth of the power needed by traditional lights, while other points are lit up by solar-powered path-markers. The bubbling water feature is powered by a low-energy pump, and the water is constantly recycled.
Not every green gadget, however, has made it into the Barthel household. Mark and his wife Pauline looked at solar power, but had to reject the idea after being quoted £26,000 for fitting photo-voltaic panels. They were, after all, working to a budget and instead opted for insulation. The wind turbine option also had to be ruled out as the local planning officer said they would never
|
|
