Why Buy Eco?

Why?

Global Warming, indoor air pollution, increased levels of asthma and allergies in children. Who cares? Well we do; and we want to make it easier for other people who care too. At Ecomerchant we know that we all need to be more socially and environmentally responsible but its not always easy to know how. We can’t afford to ignore the consequences of buying the wrong thing. But it can be very difficult to make the right choice if the alternatives are not presented in a way that enables us to make a considered decision.

At Ecomerchant we avoid selling petrochemical-based plastics, foam insulation, glue-filled particle boards and products with high levels of cement. We encourage the use of natural based materials including insulation, paint, solid wood flooring, timber windows, clay and lime products. At Ecomerchant we are committed to offering products that are not harmful to health, have minimal environmental impact, and come from renewable or sustainable sources. Or in use have low environmental impacts.

Passive House

Passive House is a voluntary building standard for energy efficiency. The aim of Passive house is to reduce the buildings overall ecological footprint, and results in ultra-low energy buildings that requires little energy for heating or cooling.

Build according to this standard the need for heating will be reduced by 90%. Compared to a conventional build, which has an average heating demand of 150kWh/m2a, homes built to this standard need only 15kWh/m2a. This means the remaining heating and hot water demand can be covered almost completely by renewable energies.

The Passivhaus standard for central Europe requires that the building fulfills the following requirements:

The building must be designed to have an annual heating demand of not more than 15 kWh/m² per year (4746 btu/ft² per year) in heating and 15 kWh/m² per year cooling energy OR to be designed with a peak heat load of 10W/m²
Total primary energy use (heating, hot water and electricity) must add upto no more than 120 kWh/m²/yr
The building must not leak more air than 0.6 times the house volume per hour (n₅₀ ≤ 0.6 / hour) at 50 Pa (N/m²)