Eco-friendly residents open homes

The house in Windover Crescent is clad with locally sourced wood

Eco-friendly residents of an East Sussex town have opened their homes to show visitors how they have reduced their carbon footprint.

The owners of the 10 homes, in and around Lewes, have installed a variety of eco-systems including insulation, wood-burning stoves and solar panels.

Others have water-saving devices and methods of reducing the use of electricity by maximising daylight.

The two-day weekend event was organised by Transition Town Lewes (TTL).

The group was set up to respond to the challenges of climate change and the end of cheap oil.

Last year it introduced the Lewes Pound, giving the town its own currency to encourage shoppers to support the local economy.

Among the homes opened was an award-winner, built on a wedge-shaped plot.

But TTL said most of the properties were "ordinary and oldish" and had been made energy-efficient in ways that ranged from the cheap and effective to the engineered and ambitious.

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