Jason Walsh
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Off grid in the middle of nowhere

With all of the talk  about zero-carbon housing, the Guardian reports on one project that has resulted in an off-grid house.
 
Impressive as the results may be considered by some, it's probably rather too extreme for most people:
 
 Life on the most northerly inhabited island in Britain can be very tough indeed. On Unst the winters are harsh, and the winds brutal and relentless, regularly sweeping across the treeless landscape at more than 100mph. But Unst is the island chosen by a retired couple from Wiltshire to build one of the world's greenest houses - a "zero carbon" home powered entirely by the wind and the sun. It sits on the same latitude as southern Greenland, but will soon boast lemon trees, grapevines and green pepper plants in its greenhouse, an electric car powered by the wind, and floors heated by drawing warmth from the air.
">  The newspaper also states that the owners found their website, zerocarbonhouse.com, is the fourth most popular on Google, a rather unlikely claim. If the site was was that popular the owners would know all about it as their web hosting bill would run into millions of dollars. It would also mean the claim to be 'zero carbon' would be a little dubious – the server farm required to run such a popular website would require quite a bit of juice. I suspect some confusion has arisen over the issue. In all likelihood, the site is the fourth most popular site when a particular search is performed, presumably one related to low-carbon housing.
Last modified on Monday, 19 May 2008 12:42