Product Description

For a large number of homeowners, the importance of the environment has been highlighted as issues such as global warming becomes big news. With 7 chapters covering elements including Light, Power and Heat, this book covers alterations that anyone can make to their home, from changing to energy-saving lightbulbs and harvesting rainwater to harnessing sunlight through solar panels. Information is given on changes from the very small through to major projects that will male homes healthier and more sustainable. "Converting to an Eco-friendly Home" is a highly informative, easy-access book which provides clear and concise advice on what you can do around the house to help the environment. This book will be an indispensable guide, both for those people who aim to do some of the work themselves, as well as those employing designers and builders to realise their plans for a 'greener', more sustainable home.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91440 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Paul Hymers, MIAS, MBEng, is a corporate building engineer who works as a Building Control Officer for his local council in Kent. He checks and approves plans and monitors work in progress. He is the author of the hugely successful Home Extensions, Home Conversions, Home Renovations and Home Alterations and Repairs, also published by New Holland. He lives in Ashford in Kent.

Customer Reviews

A very pale shade of green
I was looking for something about the practicalities of making an older house greener rather than glossy eye candy and was also hoping that this would be more up-to-date than Edward Harland's book as technology's moving on so fast.

This is very idiosyncratic a lot of it is about Paul Hymers' personal taste rather than ecology; leather's never going to be an eco-friendly floor covering given the huge amount of pollution produced by tanneries (and I'm not even a vegetarian).

The thing that is most annoying is his blithe endorsement of greed; he starts off by recommending opening up bigger windows on the basis that 'An eco-friendly home is a home blessed with light.' Going on to devote the whole of the first chapter to how you can have more, better lighting and lots more fancy light fittings than you might have now; he even suggests solar garden lighting. Huh? Since when have we needed garden lighting? And by my calculations, more windows = more lost heat.

He certainly doesn't address any of the issues around under-occupancy and whilst he doesn't like stuff that's designed to break down that's really as far as he goes with consumerism. The section on sanitaryware is a good example of just how shallow this books is; it suggests that you might choose to buy an antique bathtub for restoration and mentions the environmental costs of re-enamelling, it doesn't think to mention that you can also get a perfectly good bathtub from a skip somewhere near you at zero environmental cost if you're not such a fashion victim.