Who will insure an eco-house?

CityLiving: Insurance companies obviously don't bother with research departments. It appears if they don't understand a concept they will dismiss it as an excessive risk.

Getting off death row is almost easier than getting a quote from an insurance company if the house you are building is anything other than traditional concrete and cement or timber frame. Whatever hope you have of getting the finished house insured, it is virtually impossible to get cover during the construction phase.

It doesn't matter if the house is ecologically sound, energy efficient, less flammable than bricks and mortar or if it has been successfully tried and tested in other countries . "Everything has become so streamlined, if the insurance companies can't tick certain boxes, it becomes awkward and not worth bothering about," says Quentin Gargan who approached a long list of companies to insure his four bedroom straw bale house near Bantry in Co Cork. "Even the company that insures my farm wouldn't touch with it with a barge pole."

Despite a common misconception, you can't huff and puff and blow a straw bale house down. As well as being a renewable resource, straw bale provides superior insulation, natural air conditioning and is reported to be relatively easy to use as a construction material.

There are many examples of straw bale houses throughout Europe which date back several hundred years. In the mid-1980s the National Research Council of Canada carried out fire safety tests of plastered straw bales and found them more resistant than conventional building materials.

A study conducted in Wyoming discovered that straw bale structures consistently withstood severe weather and earthquakes.

Despite its durability during earthquakes, Irish insurance companies don't seem to believe that straw bale buildings can withstand the soft Irish weather. A straw bale construction site, according to Gargan, is no more of an arson risk than a conventional one but is perceived to be one.

Eventually after firing off enough letters to paper one of the rooms of his house, Gargan got insurance for his finished house through a Lloyd's underwriter at a 50 per cent premium.

The conundrum is at the same time as environmentalists are being thwarted at every turn in their efforts to build energy and resource efficient houses, we are all being told we should be reducing the CO2 emissions from our homes in line with an EU directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings - which will pass into Irish law and European law in January 2006 . The directive arises from the Kyoto Protocol, which lists the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an important objective. Co2 is the most significant of these gases, almost half of which derives from energy use in buildings. In the future, a bad energy rating will affect the saleability of a property.

Conventional building methods rely on the earth's dwindling resources, like the oil used in cement."This has allowed us in past decades the luxury of building houses without giving any consideration to energy efficiency. It is fast becoming a necessity that we find new ways of building houses."

Two years ago Rob Hopkins and his wife Emma obtained ground breaking planning permission to build cob housing at The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability, www.the holliesonline.com , near Enniskeane in Co Cork. Unfortunately insuring the first cob house during the building process proved impossible and it was destroyed by arsonists only months from completion.

All that remain of the house which had solar water heating panels and natural floor insulation are the cobb walls, leaving the families involved facing bankruptcy.

Cob building is where earth, sand and straw are mixed together and massaged onto the foundation. According to Hopkins, one response when looking for insurance was that the house would " wash away in the rain."

" People are misinformed which is understandable in some ways , but cob houses are often more durable than concrete ones. There are many examples of 300-400 year old cob houses in the south west England."

It is not just cob and straw bale that insurers are reluctant to back , any alternative form of building is likely to come up against stumbling blocks.

These include pure timber construction, where no concrete blocks are used, mud brick, hemp and lime and clay straw houses. Often the materials chosen are used is based on local resources.

And its not just insurance, obtaining a mortgage for one of these houses could prove difficult. In the UK, where alternative forms of building are gathering momentum, there is an ecology building society that provides financing for green projects.

"Ireland in an environmental backwater," says Quentin Gargan, "It's hanging on to the tail of the tiger instead of leading the way.. We have the potential to be leaders in organic agriculture, win generation and alternative house building but nobody seems to be paying attention."