The house in France

Ian is currently working 3 days a week to allow him some time to make some decisions about the house. As we are building from scratch it is possible to make the most of new technologies and make it as eco-friendly as possible. Sounds simple but to be totally sustainable in terms of energy etc would about triple the price, so we have had to think about compromises where possible. We wanted to find some way of collecting and using rain water for the house but as this is relatively new the options are quite expensive and involve various size concrete tanks and a lot of ground work. However, Ian thinks he has found an answer (see picture).



A few companies are marketing what can best be described as very large polythene bags that sit on a flat base of sand and can be use to store water. The company that makes this one is called citerneo (based in a place called Vallières-les-Grandes ) and mostly they have been used for agriculture (storing irrigation water etc) but with a bit of attention to provide a filtering system we think they may be a good and cheaper alternative.