A zero-carbon concept home at the BRE Innovation Park in Watford offers an interesting deal for homeowners: never pay another bill again.
Designed by Zedfactory, the home — dubbed the “Zero Bills” house — is a prefabricated home that produces zero carbon. The home generates its own electricity using solar panels installed as part of its roof, storing the energy for use throughout the day and night.
The home’s designer and manufacturer claims that the average household could save as much as £1,300 per year from the home. Paired with an electric car, the home is capable of reducing bills by an additional £1,000 per year for a total average annual saving for £2,300 per family.
With three bedrooms, the flat pack eco-house offers enough space for a typical family and looks just like a traditionally constructed home.
Zero energy homes are popular in Germany, where the Passivhaus standard is used to develop houses and residential buildings with small ecological footprints. The Watford concept home has the potential to bring the concept of an ecologically friendly, zero-energy home to the UK.
Built at a cost of just £129,600, the home is equipped with an air source heat pump powered by its roof-mounted array of solar panels. Extra electricity can be used to charge an electric car as a way to further reduce living costs, the home’s designer claims.
The first Zero Bills house is currently awaiting planning permission in Newport, Essex. Flat pack houses, including low carbon houses, are poised to play a major role in the government’s goals of increasing new home construction across the UK.
Available at a lower cost than traditional housing and able to be built in under a month, flat pack units have attracted the attention of large companies like insurance company Legal & General, which announced its entry into the market earlier this year.
