Passage 3

Southwell in Nottinghamshire is full of surprises. The first is Britain's least-known ancient cathedral, Southwell Minster, celebrated by writers of an environmental disposition for the pagan figures of “green” men which medieval craftsmen carved into the decorations in its thirteenth-century chapter house. The second, appropriately enough, is Britain's greenest dwelling, the “autonomous house”, designed and built by Robert and Brenda Vale.

The Vales use rainwater for washing and drinking, recycle their sewage into garden compost and heat their house with waste heat from electrical appliances and their own body heat, together with that of their three teenage children and their two cats, Edison and Faraday. You could easily miss the traditional-looking house, roofed with clay pantiles, on a verdant corner plot 300 yards from the Minster. It was designed to echo the burnt-orange brick of the town's nineteenth-century buildings and won approval from the planners even though it is in a conservation area.

Ring the solar-powered doorbell and there is total silence. The house is super-insulated, with krypton-filled triple-glazed windows, which means that you do not hear a sound inside. Once inside and with your shoes off (at Robert's insistence), there is a monastic stillness. It is a sunny summer's day, the windows are closed and the conservatory is doing its normal job of warming the air before it ventilates the house. Vale apologizes and moves through the house, opening ingenious ventilation shafts and windows. You need to create draughts because draught-proofing is everywhere: even Edison and Faraday have their own air-locked miniature door.

The Vales who teach architecture at Nottingham University, were serious about the environment long before it hit the political agenda. They wrote a book on green architecture back in the 1970s, The Autonomous House. They began by designing a building which emitted no carbon dioxide. Then they got carried away and decided to do without mains water as well. They designed composting earth closets, lowered rainwater tanks into the cellar, and specified copper gutters to protect the drinking water, which they pass through two filters before use. Water form washing runs into the garden (the Vales don't have a dishwasher because they believe it is morally unacceptable to use strong detergents). Most details have a similar statement in mind.

“We wanted people to see that it was possible to design a house which would be far less detrimental to the environment, without having to live in the dark,” says Robert. “It would not be medieval.” The house‟s only medieval aspect is aesthetic: the hall, which includes the hearth and the staircase, rises the full height of the building.

The Vales pay no water bills. And last winter the house used only nine units of electricity a day costing about 70p-which is roughly what other four bedroomed houses use on top of heating. Soon it will use even less, when £ 20,000worth of solar water heating panels and generating equipment arrive and are erected m the garden. The house will draw electricity from the mains supply for cooking and running the appliances, but will generate a surplus of electricity. There will even be enough, one day, to charge an electric car. The only heating is a small wood-burning stove in the hall, which the Vales claim not to use except in the very coldest weather.

So is it warm in winter? One night in February when I happened to call on him, Robert was sitting reading. It was too warm to light the fire, he said. The room temperature on the first floor was 18°C, less than the generally expected temperature of living areas, but entirely comfortable, he claimed, because there are no draughts, no radiant heat loss,since everything you touch is at the same temperature. Perceived temperature depends on the factors. An Edwardian lady in the early years of the twentieth century was entirely comfortable at 12.5°C, he says, because of the insulation provided by her clothing. Those people who live in pre-1900 housing, he suggests, should simply go back to living as people did then. Somehow, it is difficult to think of this idea catching on.

The house's secret is that it is low-tech and there is little to go wrong. Almost everything was obtained from a builder's merchant and installed by local craftsmen. They made the house cheap to build-it cost the same price per square metre as low-cost housing for rent. Not surprisingly, the commercial building companies are determinedly resisting this idea.

According to the writer, the exterior of the Vales' house is ________.

Why did Robert Vale apologize to the writer on his arrival?

What does the writer suggest about environmental issues in the fourth paragraph?

What does the writer imply about the decision not to use mains water in the Vales' house?

According to Robert Vale, the house was comfortable in February because ________.