Eco-friendly housing
Nowadays, our lifestyle destroys the planet, and the same way destroys the society of Humans who
live on it. For the time being, this planet is our unique collective housing, and personally I think it is
really beautiful, welcoming and cosy.
An Eco-house (or Eco-home) is an environmentally low-impact home designed and built using
materials and technology that reduces its carbon footprint and lowers its energy needs. Eco-homes
are measured in multiple ways meeting sustainability needs such as water conversation, reducing
wastes through reusing and recycling materials, controlling pollution to stop global warming, energy
generation and conservations, and decreasing CO2 emissions.
Benefits of an Eco-house:
-Active solar gain
Orientation towards the Sun also means that active solar systems can be fitted, both solar water heating panels and
electricity generating solar panels on the roofs, further adding to the free heat and electricity gained from the sun.
-Living gain
Living in the house also generates heat. Active human beings can produce as much heat as a one bar electric fire.
Add to this heat from cooking, washing, lights etc. and you can begin to see how an eco-house could get too hot.
By reducing buildings’ energetic consumption with a thermic isolation, every citizen will :
see his energetic bill getting lower
appreciate thermic comfort both winter and summer (no cold, no heat), and also sound comfort, which means
more silence inside
do something on the long term for the environment
-Sustainable materials
One of the wider issues of energy efficiency is the embodied energy within the construction materials. (Embodied
energy is the energy taken up with producing and transporting the materials used).
-Timber
Wood is a primary building material for eco-housing. This is because trees grow using energy from the Sun, they
don't pollute, they produce oxygen, absorb CO2, they provide a wildlife habitat, they can be replanted, they can be
sourced locally, the timber can easily be put to some other use after a building is demolished.
-Health
Other benefits of an Eco-house, aside from the obvious one of having minimal heating costs, are a healthy living
environment. For the health of the householder, and the planet, an Eco-house should be built with materials that are
free, wherever possible, from toxins or harmful products of the petro-chemical industry. [2]
The better indoor environmental quality of Eco-houses has also improved health and satisfaction among occupants
by reducing exposure to pollutants, allergens, and other contaminants. According to Dr. Joseph Allen and his
research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, this leads to inhabitants of Eco-houses suffering less from
sick building syndrome while maintaining positive mental and physical stability.
I. Vocabulary
Collective housing- it is place where several people live together not only to
share a space, but to create a community where resources and work are shared.
Carbon footprint- the amount of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds
emitted due to the consumption of fossil fuels by a particular person, group, etc.
Global warming- a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth's
atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of
carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons, and other pollutants.
Sustainable material- is something whose production is supported indefinitely by
nature, which means, a resource is used up at the same speed that it is renewed
Embodied energy- is the energy taken up with producing and transporting the
materials used.
Sick building syndrome- a condition affecting office workers, typically marked
by headaches and respiratory problems, attributed to unhealthy or stressful factors in
the working environment such as poor ventilation.
II. Specialized verbs
To reuse and recycle(повторно использовать и перерабатывать)
To generate(производить)
To reduce(уменьшать, сокращать)
To be demolished(быть снесенным)
III. Summary
The article is concerned with eco-friendly housing. An eco-friendly is a house that has been
built and designed using environmentally friendly materials and appliances. An eco-friendly
building doesn’t only consider the energetic issues, but also deals with water, household waste,
construction materials, and biodiversity aspects, to integrate holistically into the natural
environment. Also eco-friendly home provides well-being and everyday life quality of
citizens. By reducing buildings’ energetic consumption with a thermic isolation, every citizen will
a lot of benefits such as decline of energetic bill, thermic comfort and sound comfort. All those
things contribute to psychological comfort to feel good at home, in a housing in our image. To
conclude being more eco-friendly will not only help you contribute to a sustainable environment
but it can even save you money .
