March 17th, 2014

Visiting Eco Homes in Frome

by Alex Hallatt

At the weekend, it was Frome Open Homes, where you could see what other people were doing to minimise their environmental impact. From new builds to retrofitting; insulation to food growing; it was a diverse mix.

The places I visited included an old house where the double glazed conservatory was retrofitted to become quadruple glazed and a swanky barn conversion which used the River Frome to provide hydropower to put into the grid – enough for more than 130 homes.

If we end up back in New Zealand at some point, I’d love to use some of these techniques to secondary glaze a lot of the windows in the house. But I don’t think we’d ever do anything on the scale of Tellisford Mill!

The River Frome going towards the mill

The old mill house

The barn conversion that houses the turbine

the owner stands above the turbine