07:40 Friday 23rd January 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
DOTTY MCLEOD: What would you do to live in a house rent or mortgage free, generally bill free, for a whole year? That is exactly what the Rayner family is doing right now in Trumpington, after winning a newspaper competition. It’s not any old house though. This is zero-carbon. It’s an eco-home, built from the ground up using the latest green technology, not only to clean up the environment, but also to help them save lots of cash. Well, not to be out-done by the latest technology, our reporter Waseem Mirza went along to take a look at this new zero-carbon house in his zero-carbon car.
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WASEEM MIRZA: Ok, so I’ve arrived outside the Rayners’ house, and I’m going to plug the car, which is electric, into the charging spot right in front of their front door. Ok, so all plugged in. Time to meet the family. (DOORBELL) Hello Mr Rayner. Good to meet you.
MR RAYNER: And you.
WAZSEE MIRZA: So you’re going to take me on a bit of a tour. Let’s begin.
MR RAYNER: Excellent. Right well let’s go straight up to the first-floor, because the most important room in the house is the children’s. When we first came into the house the children just loved it. They ran straight up to their bedroom. Got their big chalk wall to play on. They draw on the walls, and trying to stop them drawing on the other walls is a bit of a challenge. But apart from that it is brilliant.
WASEEM MIRZA: And a lovely view outside as well. Very large windows. A lot of glass there. One would have thought that there’d be an opportunity to lose a lot of heat because of the size of the glass, but that’s not the case.
MR RAYNER: With the triple-glazing it’s amazing. You could stand there. It’s just like a solid wall. And the other thing is we live in quite a built-up area, so even though you can’t hear anything. There’s planes flying past and cars, and you just wouldn’t know where you were. it’s amazing.
LORNA RAYNER: I’m Lorna Rayner. So we moved in on 12th January. First of all we were just bowled over, because it’s such a lovely house. Really excited to move in and get settled really.
MR RAYNER: When we first moved in it felt like a hotel, if I’m honest. It was amazing walking around. It didn’t really sink in until the second day when we sat here and we thought, we actually are living here, rather than on holiday.
WASEEM MIRZA: This zero-carbon eco-home was built by the housebuilder Hill. Alex Rice is a consultant.
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