As an independent film maker, Good Energy customer Tony Hill is known for his novel way of looking at the world in which we live, challenging the viewer to rethink assumptions about how we see what’s around us. In order to shoot his often bizarre vantage points, many of his award-winning films have been created using camera rigs he has designed himself, frequently implementing mirrors and lenses in innovative ways to capture our surroundings afresh. When Tony and his wife Pat decided to build an eco home in Cornwall they took a similarly novel approach. Working in collaboration with local sustainable architect’s firm ARCO2, they finally completed Burntwood Eco House in July last year: six years after milling the first pieces of timber from a nearby woodland . Highly Commended for Sustainability in the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors SW Awards 2010 and shortlisted for the 2010 Cornwall Sustainability Awards, Burntwood is a zero carbon home with minimal running costs thanks its 4.2kWp solar PV array and solar thermal panels. After spending £30,000 on the technologies (£13,000 of which was covered by a grant) the Hills earn over £650 a year from their installations thanks to the Feed-in Tariff.

But Burntwood Eco House is about so much more than awards and financial incentives; it was a labour of love that will endure as an example of what sensitive design, low carbon technologies and sustainable building techniques can achieve. Built on the site of an existing three bedroom house which was demolished, its materials reused or recycled where possible, Burntwood is constructed from around 85% local Douglas fir, oak and  western red cedar. “Most of the floorboards and all the floor joists are from the woods across the valley” says Tony, “and the two big round posts that run up through the centre of the living room to hold up the roof have come from another local woodland.” Add to this the fact that the walls and roof are ‘super insulated’ with wool, most of it a by-product from local carpet making, the building itself sequesters a huge amount of carbon, meaning the construction actually began life in carbon credit. Even the kitchen work tops are made from recycled slate sourced from an old snooker table.

The design and layout of the house centres around maximising passive solar gain with the main living quarters spread over a split-level on the sloping, southwest facing side of the site. The back of the house is built into the hillside, further helping to regulate indoor temperatures thanks to the thermal mass of the retaining walls. Additionally, there is a striking, glazed ‘sun space’ extending over three storeys on the south corner of the building. In the winter the air within the store is and spread to the rest of the building using a central ventilation system, while during the summer months windows at the top of the space provide rapid ventilation. Combining this sensitive design with the technology of the solar PV and solar thermal panels on the roof means the house requires only minimal heating during even the coldest winter days: this is provided by two wood burning stoves fed with logs from the Hills’ own eight acre coppice woodland.

And the Hill’s commitment to local resources reaches beyond the raw building materials; he used local labour where possible too. “It’s just a matter of asking,” Tony said. “You ask a builder if he knows a plasterer. You ask a plasterer if he knows a tiler. And so on. It’s not difficult. And we were very lucky because they were all very good.”

Visionary projects like Burntwood Eco House are both inspirational and traditional, evoking thoughts of a bygone age. When so many of the things we use in our everyday life are made of composite parts coming from all corners of the earth, constructed by hundreds of anonymous hands it’s good to be reminded of the wealth of resources on our doorstep and the value a close connection to them can have. It is no wonder that so much of what Tony has achieved resonates with us here at Good Energy. “Keep it simple and take your time....” is the philosophy Tony and his wife profess on their website, but I’m pretty sure that Good Energy’s mantra “Together we do this” would sit rather comfortably there too.