Clare Bull said the EcoHouse was just like a normal home

As a minister meets the building industry to discuss ways to make new housing more energy efficient, artist Clare Bull explains what it is like to live in the country's first environmental showhome.

It contains hundreds of environmentally-friendly features including a solar thermal system which provides 50% of the energy needed for water heating.

The experience I had in the EcoHouse was fantastic. I'm very keen on environmental issues and really want to reduce my carbon footprint.

The EcoHouse is a showhome but I lived there is if it was my real house and it was inspiring to see how easy it was to live like this.

All the energy in the house was from an environmentally-friendly source. My previous house was not eco-friendly in any way and this was something I really wanted to learn about.

The thing about the EcoHouse is that it isn't that different from a normal house. Daily life isn't affected really because you are living in a way that helps the environment.

Compost toilet

If you walked around it you wouldn't realise you were in a home that wasn't normal. The heating is exactly the same as it would be and you control it in the same way, except it's coming from a renewable source.

There is a photovoltaic system and solar panels on the roof. The photovoltaic system uses energy from the sun to provide electricity and the solar panels heat water.

I never had any problem at all with the heating.

In the bathroom there is a compost toilet. Moisture and any smells are sucked away by a fan and the rest is kept in a container where it turns to dust.

I could see a future where homes like this are common Clare Bull

Every three months or so you can empty the dust into your garden.

There are taps which immediately switch off when your hands are not under them so water is not wasted.

In the cupboard I had three bins. One for compost, one for recycling and a landfill bin. So it just meant you had to divide your rubbish up before throwing it away.

The only thing I would say is that the wind turbine on the roof was a bit noisy. I would recommend people think carefully where they put them if they buy one.

Overall living in the house was easy, apart from the visitors occasionally tramping through, as it was a showhome.

I could see a future where homes like this are common. But people will need to do much more even than this to help the environment.