Welcome to the companion site for our new book, “Dreaming Green Eco-Fabulous Homes Designed to Inspire”. Just five years ago, when our family began a top-to-bottom green renovation of a Manhattan brownstone, it seemed like a completely radical decision. Even though I’m in media and always up on the latest studies and trends, and Paul is an architect, earth-friendly design never seemed like a viable option for us. As city dwellers, it was something we associated with hippie living – picturing far-out houses with roofs made from soda cans, wind generators in the back yard and lifeless brown hemp fabrics. It took an emotional meeting at an environmental fundraiser with a couple who built an eco-friendly house after they lost a child to an environmental cancer to make us aware of the link between health and home. As parents of three growing children, we are concerned about the environmental toxins our family is exposed to every day, and we’d introduced organic produce, natural beauty products and homeopathic medicine into our home. However, we didn’t know about the lurking dangers most of us have inside our homes. It was frightening to learn that items we all have such as mattresses, cabinets and rugs, contain toxic chemicals like flame-retardants, formaldehyde, and volatile organic compounds. What’s worse is that those chemicals stay in our homes for years, off-gassing into the air we breathe and causing a host of potential problems that are being linked to diseases such as asthma, cancer and Alzheimer’s.

After that life-changing meeting, Paul and I knew that for the health of our planet and for our children, we had to go completely green. To be completely honest, though, we didn’t know exactly what that would entail; it was literally like stepping into an entirely new world. We can tell you however, that it was one of the smartest and best decisions we ever made.

The homes featured in our book are exceptional. But one day, green building will be the rule and not the exception. We hope you’ll join us in this revolutionary ideal by sharing your ideas and exploring the world of green living as we all learn how to live more healthy lives.

- Lisa Sharkey and Paul Gleicher

You can read more about our green townhouse plus 16 more urban, suburban and rural green homes in our book, “Dreaming Green”

On sale Now. You can order your copy here:

From Friday March 19th through Sunday March 21st, Paul Gleicher will be setting up shop at Pier 94, 12th avenue at 55th Street, New York City at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show and spaces are limited so sign up for a time slot when you first arrive at the show.

The modern central heating system works in much the same way, with a few refinements. Most boilers in use today are powered by natural gas, which comes via a pipe from a centralised gas supply network, with an electric pump and lighting mechanism. When you switch on a gas boiler, a valve opens which lets gas enter a sealed combustion chamber inside the boiler, and an electric ignition system lights the jets of gas emitted from the valve. These heat a pipe containing cold water, heating up the water to a temperature of around sixty degrees Celsius.

This pipe forms part of a larger network of pipes that travel all the way around your home. These pipes are connected to radiators, which convey the heat from the hot water inside them into the room by means of their large surface area. The water travels all the way round all the pipes and radiators in the house, and by the time it returns to the boiler, it has cooled down by a fair amount, as much of its heat energy has been dissipated into the room. It is then passed over the flame again and the whole process is repeated indefinitely until the heating is switched off.

Needless to say, a lot of energy is wasted in this process. Quite a lot of the energy is lost to the atmosphere, through windows, walls, and the roof. However, by installing double glazing and fitting extra insulation to your home, you can reduce the amount of heat that you lose this way. A significant amount is also lost within the boiler itself, although modern boilers are a lot more efficient than their older counterparts. If your boiler is over ten years old, the chances are that it is only 75% efficient or less, whereas modern condensing boilers can be made over 90% efficient. Look up the British Gas website for more information on gas boilers.

Whenever you leave the house for a few hours, you should turn down your thermostats. It takes more energy to keep a house warm for a few hours than it does to heat up a cold house to the same temperature. If you are going to be away for a few days or more, you should turn them down even more, to around twelve degrees Celsius. While you might be tempted to turn off your boiler completely for this time, this is not advisable during the winter months, as it can cause the water in your pipes to freeze up and burst the pipes. Turning down your thermostat will also mean that your freezer and fridge will have an easier time of it trying to keep things cold, which will save electricity.

Find out just how low you can turn the thermostat without it feeling too cold in your home. A drop of just one degree can cut 3-5% from your gas bill. It is a good idea to drop the temperature by one degree a week, so that the change is less immediately noticeable, and you can get time to acclimatise to it.

Your bedclothes will keep you warm at night, so there is no need to have the heating up as high as when you are walking around. Turning down your thermostat by a few degrees at night will not only save you money, it will help you sleep better as well, as cooler temperatures are more conducive to sleep.

Older central heating systems tend to be a lot more inefficient. Even though it may cost a fair amount of money to install a new high efficiency boiler and modern programmable heating controls, they will save you money in the long run. The British Gas website is a great place to look for all sorts of eco friendly central heating equipment, from programmable set back thermostats and TRVs to energy efficient Vaillant boilers and solar water heaters.

Solar water heating is a great way to cut down on your gas bill, not to mention your carbon footprint. The reason why it is such a desirable technology is that once you have it in place, it will provide free, carbon neutral hot water for a long time to come. It does not need to be replaced unless it gets badly damaged, and in a well insulated home, a typical system can provide over half of the total hot water requirements, saving over ten percent from your household gas bill every year.

While eco enthusiasts have been installing DIY solar water heating systems for many years now, it is only recently that commercial solar heating systems have become a mass-market product. There is now a wide range of solar heating equipment available to suit different types of heating systems and houses. As long as the building that you live in is not listed, you can have it installed without having to apply for planning permission in England, and it is expected that this will soon become the case around the rest of the UK.

A solar water heating system basically consists of one or more solar collectors or panels installed on a roof, and a water cylinder. If you already have a central heating system with one or more hot water cylinders, you may not need to install a new cylinder, but if you have a combination boiler, you almost certainly will. Also, they can only be fitted to homes with South-facing slanted roofs, as otherwise the panels will not collect enough sunlight to make it worth the trouble.

The initial cost of these systems can be quite high, with a typical system costing around £5,000 to purchase and install. However, you will make this money back over time through reduced energy bills. Also, should you choose to move on, solar water heating will add to the resale value of your home. Government grants are also available to help you offset the cost of installing eco friendly measures such as these. For more information about fitting solar water heating systems, as well as other eco friendly heating equipment such as high efficiency boilers from the likes of Worcester Bosch UK, go to the British Gas website.

Happy Earth Day!

Dreaming Green is on sale Now. Order your copy today:

Dreaming Green is on sale Now. Order your copy today:

On sale Now. Order your copy today:

Read the story of how my family went completely green… Featured on The Daily Green website…

And now that there is a book, I suggest you pick one up right here:

On sale Now. Order your copy today: