What IS an eco-house?

Hi! Pinky here!

Today I am talking about the eco-house that we are going to have on the Matai islands.

A lot of peopleare just building houses willy-nilly not even focusing on how their house is actually energy efficient. So I am going to help. I am going to describe some eco-friendly things you should probably have in your house and why.


Here is a really helpful website that has a lot of different eco-friendly resources and ideas.
http://www.righthouse.co.nz/


Here are a few subjects I am going to be talking about.

• solar water heating.
  
  







• Energy efficient lightbulbs.

I would talk abou more but I don't have enough time. SORRY!

"Solar water heating"

A solar water system absorbs the rays from the sun and shoots them back through the house Solar panels are usually located on the roof of the house. This is because the sun rises and usually shines down not across. The suns rays that the solar panel has collected usually shines down directly or indirectly (depending on the system) to the water stored in the hot water cylinder.

Obviously the sun is not always shining. So when the sun has set a "back up" system kicks in. The back up system is usually powered by either eleteric, gas or wetback. A solar hot water system consists of three main parts:

• The solar hot water collecter which is located on the roof as I said before.









• A hot water tank which can be found in either the ground of also on the roof.









• And last but not least pumps and a controller.

How they work:
Solar hot water systems are either closed loop or open-loop systems

This is a closed loop system.

This is an open loop system

See if you can tell the difference.

These solar hot water heaters are good because they . . . . . . .

Cut household water heating bills by up to 50–75%
Reduced environmental impact
System pays for itself in energy savings
Makes an energy-efficiency statement

They are also very safe.

Energy efficient lighbulbs.

We've all seen those little lightbulbs that look curly. I have! Those light bulbs are really helpful. Energy efficient lightbulbs are good because they use less enbergy hense saving more money but still make the same amount of light. So why WOULDN'T you wnat them? They are just the same as normal lighbulbs but better!

Once again sorry I couldn't write more I only had a few minutes to write this!

There will be more info soon!

Thanks for reading! Pinky.