If you would like to make your house green, but are worried it will put you in the red, you can now visit a whole host of ‘ordinary’ people who have created their own eco-homes and stayed in the black.

Oxfordshire’s second Eco-homes Open Days event begins today and 19 homeowners across the county will throw open their doors and invite the public in to share their visionary green renovations.

Most of the eco-homes look like ordinary houses on the outside — semis, bungalows, flats and Victorian villas.

But beneath their rafters, floors and even their gardens, lurk a host of nifty ways of lowering their energy consumption — from sheep's wool insulation to walls made of straw bales and windmills to generate power. One home is even heated by a heat pump that draws energy from the River Thames.

Simon Kenton has the most unconventional eco-home of them all.

Annie the Green Boat, a narrow boat moored at Wolvercote, Oxford, which not only runs on vegetable oil, but also has solar power, a compost toilet and even a 'greenhouse' on deck, filled with delicious tomatoes.

Mr Kenton, 36, said: "I was a volunteer with the first Eco-Homes event last year but this is the first year I have opened Annie up for public viewing.

“I am excited about showing people what can be done so easily and with such great effect.

"I came to live on Annie after returning from living in France. I had been running a reclamation yard, so using reclaimed timber and paint was not only easy but also a great way of producing a sustainable way in which to live.

"The changes took nine months and I am thrilled with the results.

"Living on a boat means you don't have the limitless resources of gas, electricity and water you might get in a house, and you can't just flush a toilet and forget about it, but it also means you are very aware of the energy you are using.

“I'm really looking forward to showing people around Annie — showing them easy ways in which you can adapt your home that actually work and also proving that you don't have to have a beard and wear hairy shirts and sandals to live on a boat!"

Annie the Green Boat can be found opposite Wolvercote Green and the Plough Pub, just south of Wolvercote Lock and Godstow Road. Nearest parking is on Godstow Road or by the Plough. She can be viewed on Saturday and Sunday, from 10am-4pm.

The eco house owners themselves will show visitors around and share the excitement, challenges and sometimes frustrations they encountered in creating their green home.

'Green Granny' Averil Stedeford will be showing her home, which took three years to transform.

Retired Sobell House doctor Mrs Stedeford, 73, owns 70 St Leonard's Road in Headington.

A seemingly normal home from the outside it now has sheep's wool fleece insulation in its walls, super heat-retaining glass containing argon in the windows and an underground water tank in the back garden, which collects rainwater for use in the washing machine, flushing the toilet and outside taps.

And it doesn’t end there.

Solar panels on the roof heat the house’s water and a wind turbine and photo voltaic panels generate electricity.

She said: “I took part in the event last year and the people who visited my house were very enthusiastic and said they had learned at lot.

"They were particularly interested in rainwater harvesting and organic paint. I’m looking forward to showing people around this year.”

You can see the house itself tomorrow and Sunday, between 11am and 5pm.