Visitors to the 1999 Our House Exhibition at the Point Depot in Dublin this weekend will find plenty of imaginative ideas for home improvements, most of them focused on energy conservation and cost efficiency. But be warned. With country-style kitchens, home saunas, iron garden furniture and a range of interior design firms exhibiting, the temptation to revamp your entire house could be irresistible.
At the exhibition, the Irish Energy Centre will be promoting the Home Energy Show, concentrating on insulation, heating systems, glazing and window restoration in addition to renewable energy systems for the home. Visitors will take away information on wind, water and solar energy and a range of ideas on conserving energy. The exhibition, run in association with the Energy Centre, grew out of RTE's Our House, and its presenter, Duncan Stewart, will host a series of seminars.
This year's show-house will feature an energy-efficient building system developed in Sweden by ThermoneX Limited. This consists of extra light concrete panels cast around polystyrene blocks to form watertight units with a low energy consumption. The promoters claim that speed of construction is one of the advantages of this building method and they cost no more than conventional materials.
Among the exhibitors will be the Kilkenny-based Kingsriver Community, who will be showing handcrafted furniture made from native beech, oak and elm. There will be stands with antique furniture, persian rugs, waterbeds and wood flooring. Builders of last year's show house, Century Homes, will be promoting its timber frame homes. A separate outdoors section will show a range of garden furniture, tools and plants.
The seminars by architect Duncan Stewart will cover various aspects of home improvement and design, from landscape gardening to feng shui. He says the exhibition is "designed as a one-stop shop for anyone interested in improving their home - it's got something for everyone."
The Our House exhibition will run at the Point Depot from today until Sunday.
