Ask the Experts: How would you advise us to make our traditional stone holiday cottage more ‘green’?
Ask the experts…
Q. We’d like to be more ‘green’, but we can’t have solar panels or new technologies in our traditional stone cottage. What do you advise?
A. The Helpful Holidays team say:
There are many ecologically-designed holiday homes available now and Helpful Holidays has a ‘Green Cottage Scheme’ to specifically promote them. We appreciate it’s not possible or practical for every property to qualify, but there are simple steps you can take to make any holiday home a little greener.
Your property’s carbon emissions can be reduced by equipping it with A++ rated appliances, installing energy-saving light bulbs, encouraging guests to wash clothes at 30 degrees using environmentally-friendly detergents, and providing a device which cuts off power to appliances such as TVs and audio equipment when they enter standby mode. A timer-controllable thermostat is recommended for the heating, with individual controls for radiators; insulating your cottage and hanging thermally-lined curtains can also be beneficial.
Conserve water by installing a flow restrictor on your shower and reducing toilet cistern size with ‘hippo bags’. Clearly labelled bins with accompanying instructions will encourage your guests to recycle. These small steps help reduce energy and water consumption and save you money too.
