Environmental policy
Heating and insulation
The house (and water) is heated with an entirely new ground source heat pump
. In the field north of the house is buried 2600 feet hose and the pump is situated in the workshop in the barn. The pump works in principle as a reverse refrigerator.
Most floors of the house has been up and been insulated with 300 mm. Where ever possible, the old floors have been laid again.
Headboards and ceiling are insulated with flax, which is an environmentally friendly insulating material, with the advantage that you can work with it without any skin- or respiratory problems.
Renovation of the house
In many places we have reused the original materials from the house or other recyclable materials. F.ex. Our kitchen cabinet doors are bought from a recycling company and put on a new frame.
The walls are painted in most places with homemade paint - known as an emulsion paint.
It is actually cheaper than buying plastic paint and gives both a better indoor climate, as it doesn’t "close" the surface, and a better environment because no artificial chemicals are used. It has been easy to work with this kind of paint. In some places, we have also used linseed oil paint - but that was NOT so easy to work with - and consequently most woodwork has been painted with turpentine-based paint.
In our other material choices, we have similarly attempted to compensate for the practical, sensible, environmentally sound and economic against each other.
Washing and cleaning
We use detergents with enzymes and no phosphate and washes usually by 30 degrees. We are currently experimenting with the use of alternative, environmentally friendly cleaning solutions including " Wash nuts" from the Himalayas, which can be decompostedand "laundry balls" with enzymes that break down bacteria, etc. via a high PH value. The clothes are dried on our English "airer" below the ceiling in the laundry room, and outside on the clothesline when the weather permits and (unfortunately still a little too often) in the dryer.
Household
Flour, grains, spices and other groceries and dairy products are ALWAYS organic.
Fruit, vegetables, meat and other fresh produce is as far as possible (approx. 90%) organic.
We try to also be aware of their geographical origin and try to minimize the transportation of our consumer goods. Following the same philosophy we buy for example local strawberries in season, although they are not organic, when we know they were grown in a garden, and certainly have not been exposed to pesticides. What is growing in our own garden may not be called organic either, because we are not under government control.
Dividing and recycling waste is for us a natural action and we try to minimize the amount of packaging, plastic and tinfoil used in our household.
Finally a word about energy saving bulbs: In this house we do not like them! We know that many people swear to them to be the big "energy savers", but they give a very nasty and unpleasant light, which actually is not fit for a nice and relaxing home environment. And because we simultaneously do not feel convinced that the total energy consumption (including production and degradation) is much smaller than for ordinary light bulbs, we have chosen to go another way and put dimmers on many of our lamps, so that we can turn down to maybe 10-15W and that way both create a nice lighting and save energy.
Like all, we have a myriad of electrical things that uses standby power when they are not switched off. So we do our best to remember! As a guest, we hope you will help us by remembering to turn off lights when you're not in the room!
As for hot water, we have plenty of it. We love ourselves to take hot showers in the morning and it's a great luxury every day to kick-start your body in this way. But remember that in Denmark we actually bathe in clean water ... So please be grateful and send some loving thoughts to the water. Reportedly it can feel the good vibrations.
Read more here: www.hado.net |
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