My Eco Home Essentials Story

Hi, I'm Jeremy and I built this eco home essentials website.

I'm a chartered surveyor and have spent many years working as a domestic energy assessor, but never did I think I would build a website about eco-homes.

Eco home advic

I’ve always been interested in property. So I guess it was logical that I'd end up studying various property related subjects at college and university and then go on to become a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

My day job as a surveyor involved surveying residential properties, looking for defects and providing valuation reports and surveys to clients. I also provided energy performance certificates (EPC's) which are a mandatory requirement here in the UK when selling or renting a property.

I got interested in the eco-home side of things when, shortly after university, I realised just how inefficient and poorly finished many UK houses are.

That's not meant to be a slight on UK builders; truth is, the way we've built our homes in the UK hasn't changed for many years. Until recently, traditional building methods have resulted in draughty, poorly insulated homes which sap energy and only now are we starting to realise that this cannot continue.

I also feel I've been lucky, in that I was present at the start of the whole eco-home/green property movement and I've seen the early attempts (some of which failed miserably).

Now however, I think we're at a great point where people are becoming more aware of global warming and the need to improve the efficiency of their homes.

Whether you want to save the planet or save yourself some money on your utility bills doesn't matter. What's relevant is that we're starting to embrace these eco-technologies in greater numbers and as a result the manufacturers are starting to re-invest more money back into green technology.

The outcome of this demand and investment is that as more of us install eco home technologies, the more demand will increase, in turn investment increases, efficiency improves and prices will come down.

Sorry, I got a little carried away there (as I tend to do when I discuss this subject!). Anyway… so how did I end up building a web site?

The simple answer is, it was my wife's fault. Helen (my beautiful wife) built a wedding information web site using a company called SBI (Site Build It) at the start of 2010 and it has gone from strength to strength since then. I often wondered how she managed to motivate herself to do a day’s work and then spend a couple of hours two to three times a week building a web site. But she insisted it was fun, so I didn't question her too much.

I guess maybe I'd bored her too much talking about green technologies, because one day she suggested I should build a site of my own to share my knowledge with other people who are trying to either improve their existing home’s green credentials or designing a new energy efficient, cheap to run eco home.

So I thought about it for a few months (as this is always easier than actually doing anything about it). But the more I thought about it the more excited I got, until one day I asked Helen, "so how do I start this web site"? She steered me towards the SBI site and I bought their 10 day course. A month later I had my first page up and things just went from there.

I hate to admit it (and I’ll deny it if anyone tells her), but Helen was right, building the website is actually fun and it’s quite exciting to think that I'm helping people save money and reduce their carbon footprint. Even if that only means installing low energy light bulbs.

Now don’t get me wrong, it can be hard work and there are some days when I scratch my head for a long time or think I can’t do this. But when I go back to the 10 day course and re-read it, things usually slot back into place pretty quickly. All in all it’s been much more fun than hard slog and I’ve managed to turn my hobby into an online business.

Initially I was wary about whether SBI was another "get rich quick scheme" promising easy money for very little effort (I hate to admit it but I have fallen for some of these in the past, so I'm now very wary of them). I'm glad to say SBI isn't one of these. You will have to put in the work, but it is very rewarding.

Most people don't mind putting in a little effort, especially if it is doing something they enjoy and the beauty of SBI is they provide all the tools you will ever need to make your website a success.

After all, if I can build a website then anyone can.

So, where next?

Eco Home Essentials is an ongoing project which I update on a regular basis, so please bookmark my site so that you can come back again to get the latest articles and information to help you improve the efficiency of your home and in turn save you some money.

Or, even better subscribe to my RSS feedby (simply click on the RSS box at the top right of this, or any page on my site. That way you'll get my latest articles as soon as they go live.

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