With the government keen to encourage more “eco-towns” and developments of eco-homes, it is time that many Britons began to assess the advantages of living in one of these more energy-efficient properties. Here’s a list of 10 reasons why the environmentally-conscious householder should consider moving to an eco-home:

1. Lower Bills. Possibly the greatest advantage of all to eco-homes is the drastic cut in water and energy bills, due to high levels of energy-efficiency, both in the appliances and the fitting of energy-efficienct or renewable energy systems such as underfloor heating and no-tank water heaters.
2. Be part of the environmental solution. With housing in the UK responsible for 16 per cent of the total CO2 emissions, eco-homes represent a clean break with the polluting ways of the past, and a great legacy for all of our children’s future.
3. Healthy building materials. Eco-homes are made from materials with as low an environmental impact and as few harmful chemicals as possible, enhancing the health of you and your family.
4. Strong, low maintenance building materials. An eco-home’s building materials are usually more durable than other properties, thus requiring less upkeep. Some other fittings, such as bamboo floors, are also easier to clean than fitted carpets.
5. Low-waste production. Many eco-homes are modular, built in facilities which practice waste recycling and mean that less waste is left where the homes are built. With recycled materials used in construction as well, eco-homes keep waste to an absolute minimum.
6. Local materials. The amount of “air miles” used to transport building materials is a significant factor in a home’s “carbon footprint.” Eco-homes use locally produced materials as much as possible in order to keep this footprint as small as possible.
7. Preservation of the surrounding area. Eco-homes try to work with the environment around them in order to minimise the building’s impact on wildlife and the water supply. Methods include native landscaping, which cuts out the need for additional water sources from outside the area.
8. Water recycling. Eco-homes make the most of your water – this means they use so-called “grey water” from washing and baths in toilet cisterns and irrigation. This cuts down on bills and helps the environment.
9. Long-lasting homes. In the long-term, an eco-home is built to last and will be sustainable for many generations to come. This long-life is fantastic both as a property legacy for your family and for its market value.
10. Hefty resale value. Because eco-homes are designed to be both economical and long-lasting, their market value is significantly enhanced.

With renewable energy one of the great energy and money-saving partners of underfloor heating, we take a look at five forms that sea-based green energy can take:

Wave power. Perhaps the best known of all forms of renewable energy from the sea, wave power involves harnessing the energy created by the ocean’s surface waves to generate electricity, desalinate water or pump it into reservoirs. The machines used to exploit wave power are known as wave energy converters (WECs), which can be placed on the seashore itself, just off the shore and further out to sea. Once the wave energy has been captured at source, the power generated needs to be transferred to its point of use or connected to the national grid with power lines.

Tidal Power. Quantitatively different from wave power, tidal generation makes use of moving masses of water as a whole. Although the technology is known, this form of renewable energy is not yet in widespread use due to relatively high cost and limited places with sufficiently strong tides, but experts believe it has the potential to be one of the most useful forms of sea-based renewable power – especially now the next generation of technology is coming through.

Marine current power. This form of renewable energy comes from harnessing of the kinetic energy of marine currents that can be found covering large swathes of the oceans – the Gulf Stream that keeps the UK warmer than Siberia is one such current. Marine current power is not widely in use at the moment but has great potential for the future, since marine currents are more reliable and regular than wind and solar energy.

Ocean thermal energy. Known as OTEC for short, this form of renewable energy exploits the difference between the cold water of the deep sea, and the warmer shallows to power a heat engine and produce electricity. Such temperature differentials – which increase the efficiency of a heat engine the greater they are – are at their best in the tropical oceans, with OTEC possessing the potential to offer energy levels up to 100 times greater than forms of energy generation like wave or tidal power. They can also operate continuously and are not dependent on the weather.

Osmotic power. This is the most controversial of all the forms of sea-based renewable energy options. It works due to the difference in salt levels between sea and river water, using osmosis to create energy, according to laboratory tests which are now being converted to practical use in the Netherlands and Norway. However there are serious concerns over the environmental impact of discharging large quantities of brackish fresh water into the sea, and vice versa. Osmotic power may well be renewable, but it sure isn’t green!

A new social housing estate outside of Pontefract, West Yorkshire has been installing ground source heat pumps in order to provide the £5 million project with a good source of renewable energy. The heat pumps are being installed by Sheffield-based engineering firm Danfoss Heat Pumps UK, who have worked with the primary construction firm Mansell before on another social housing development in South Yorks. There, they impressed the project manager with their high levels of technical support for the contractors and the ultimate success of their installation on the Rotherham estate.

Once in place the pumps will ensure that there is a constant supply of hot water and heat for the underfloor heating system and the radiators in the homes, by extracting heat from the ground and transferring it to a liquid refrigerant circulating in vertically-buried pipework in the back gardens of the houses themselves. This liquid eventually evaporates and the compressed gas heats up before being passed on to a condenser. This changes is back to a liquid – albeit a much warmed one – and this is what goes to power the radiators, boilers and underfloor heating systems in the building.

Speaking to The Star newspaper, Danfoss director Chris Dale noted that “an increasing number of social housing providers are investing in heat pumps both to reduce carbon emissions and to provide their tenants with a means of low cost heating. This is preventing them from falling into fuel poverty due to the impact of rising energy prices.”

Trinity Church on Hardwick Mount has been undergoing a renovation project designed to bring its facilities into the 21^st century. The “Building for Growth” project has taken five years and raised the half-a-million sum through generous donations from friends of the church and parishioners.

“The church building is quite old and the facilities we had were not really fit for purpose in 21st century Britain, so we wanted to make sure we had adequate facilities, as well as space for when the church numbers grow,” project manager Steve Short told the Buxton Advertiser newspaper.

“Our members have bought into the church’s vision and donated generously and sacrificially.”

As well as an extension block, incorporating an entrance hall, a toilet block and a kitchen, more space has been created in the main church building’s seating area, which is over 138 years old, disabled access has been increased, and the whole original building has been fitted with underfloor heating in order to keep parishioners cosy while leaving all original fixtures and fittings intact.

Explaining the choice of underfloor heating for the original church building, Mr Short – who attends the church himself – said that “while we wanted to have a modern facility, it also had to be built onto an existing building, so that had to be done sensitively – in effect a marriage of old and new.”

“In some senses it wasn’t a large job, but in another sense it was tricky working with such an old structure which is also situated in a conservation area.”

The project really highlights one of the major benefits of underfloor heating – its ability to be extremely unobtrusive while still being able to heat an indoor space of any size. Combined with its energy-efficient qualities, this explains why more and more designers are choosing underfloor heating for their building projects, whether they be domestic, commercial, or community projects such as Trinity Church.

This particular project has taken seven months to complete and was finally completed last month, enabling the public space to be used for the Christmas celebrations, following an open day showcasing the new facilities earlier in December.

The Driffield Times and Post reported this week on the official opening of a new Art, Community and Enterprise Centre – or ACE for short – at the east Yorkshire school. The centre boasts an enviable range of facilities, combining a centre for vocational and other learning with an outdoor space for hosting construction courses, a bespoke room for catering courses, an in-house manufacturing facility, plus a high-tech Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Suite, as well as five art studios – with one containing a kiln for pottery classes.

The £4 million building seeks to use renewable energy wherever possible, with solar panels fitted on the roof and a ground source heat pump which uses geothermal energy to power the underfloor heating.

Also this week, the Grimsby Telegraph reported that a new development at Franklin College in the town finally began – with one of the school’s former car parks being used as the site for 10 new teaching spaces with fully-integrated ICT units. The new development is part of the school’s new property strategy, which has seen £1 million worth of investment this year.

Boasting its own wide range of renewable energy and energy-efficiency features, such as underfloor heating powered by pumps which use residual heat from the building’s own air to keep temperatures cosy.

Renewable energy policies are not to blame for soaring energy costs, the independent Committee on Climate Change (CCC) said last week.

Instead, the ongoing increase in wholesale and retail gas prices are behind bigger bills, it argued, defending policies aimed at encouraging the use of renewable energy sources and energy-efficient forms of heating such as solar power and underfloor heating.

The CCC published research which showed that most UK homes had seen annual energy bills increase from £604 in 2004 to a whopping £1,060 in 2010. A massive two thirds of this increase was due to rising wholesale gas prices going up, whereas subsidies to renewable energy producers had only been responsible for 7 per cent of this overall increase.

When the £455 bills increase is broken down, researchers said that £290 was due to rising gas prices, £70 was due to increased distribution costs, £20 was VAT and just £75 was thanks to renewable energy policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment.

When this £70 was broken down, £30 of the increase was due to increased investment in renewable energy and £45 was for schemes promoting or subsidising reducing energy consumption, such as the fitting of insulation, replacement of hot water boilers or the building of new homes featuring low energy heating sources such as underfloor heating.

Businesses associated with energy-efficiency or renewable energy welcomed the report, expressing relief that it countered perceived attempts by the UK government to blame soaring energy bills on pro-environmental policies – during his recent Autumn Statement, for instance, Chancellor George Osborne complained about the “burden” of environmental legislation.

The CCC went on to suggest that if energy-efficiency measures continue to be implemented throughout the UK, by 2020 average bills could be reduced in real terms to around £1,085, which is only just more than current levels. It suggested such measures as energy-efficient light bulbs and appliances, plus loft and cavity wall insulation – together these measures alone could cut energy consumption by 25 per cent over the next ten years.

WWF-UK head of energy policy Nick Molho welcomed the report, saying that the CCC had “injected a note of sanity into the fevered debate around household energy bills.”

Mr Molho condemned the “myth” that renewable energy and energy-efficient policies had increased the cost of heating and lighting Britain’s homes, saying: “This deliberate attempt to pervert the debate and mislead consumers has also damaged confidence in an industry that can provide a major boost to UK investment and economic growth.”

“The reality is that renewables offer us the best chance to diversify our energy sources away from our excessive over-reliance on gas and to create a substantial renewable energy industry here in the UK,” he insisted.

Having seen an upturn in 2010, the report noted that the underfloor heating industry saw a slight downturn in 2011, due to a number of factors including a slump in consumer confidence and a significant lessening of homeowners embarking on DIY projects and home refurbishments.

This is set to change early next year however, with moderate growth in the underfloor heating market forecast for early 2012, MTW said. This will be followed by growth above the current level of inflation during the first six months of 2013.

The report went on to say that the underfloor heating market will continue to grow throughout 2014 with increased sales expected to continue throughout 2015 and beyond. The report, published at the start of the month, observed that some 60 percent of companies that provide underfloor heating systems have credit ratings in either the ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ categories, showing that the industry remains in fine health overall despite the recent lapse in sales.

Underfloor heating is the best way to ensure that householders derive the benefit from ground source heat pumps – the next big thing in energy-efficient heat generation.

Experts believe that if the conditions are right then a geothermal heat pump can save a household some £480 a year in energy bills, more than can be generated with photovoltaic (PV) panels.

Ground source heat pumps may sound like they burrow to the earth’s very core, but are far less science fiction than that. They are in fact a network of buried pipes which lead to a ground level heat pump which distributes a mixture of water and anti-freeze. As the ground absorbs and retains the sun’s heat, it warms the liquid, which is then extracted by the pump and made even warmer.

The pumps require electricity for their initial power, so are technically not renewable energy sources. They are, however, highly energy-efficient, so long as your house fits the bill.

The piping coils can be fitted vertically, so a massive garden is not necessary, although a digger will need to be able to get into a back yard. What is crucial is the kind of heating system in the property itself. Low heat systems such as underfloor heating are the best, while more conventional radiators will not work very well with ground source heat pumps.

Nestling in thick woods near the Lule River, “the UFO” resembles a crash-landed flying saucer and is one of the most impressive-looking eco-dwellings the tourism industry has to offer. It is one of six unique cabins making up the Treehotel resort, which recently won the 2011 Swedish Grand Tourism Prize.

The rooms themselves are made from a pre-fab lightweight composite material and installed in the trees. The UFO is highly energy-efficient and based on renewable energy, with hydroelectric power, full insulation, LED lighting, composting toilets, and underfloor heating.

The guest room is 30 square metres and fits a double bed, composting toilet and a cosy dining area, illuminated by a giant skylight. At night, the staircase retracts, completing the flying saucer illusion!

The Environment Agency published its first performance league table for energy efficiency among businesses and public sector organisations this week, as part of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficient Scheme.

There are some 1,301 different businesses and organisations taking part in the scheme, and the league table ranks them in order of the speed and effectiveness with which they have managed their energy-efficiency requirements.

The top three spots in the league table went to 99 Bishopsgate Management Limited, Arena Coventry Ltd and Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, demonstrating the diversity of the participants in the scheme. Energy-saving measures included the use of underfloor heating, energy-efficient lighting, the use of renewable energy sources and insulation.