Making your home more energy efficient used to mean buying a lagging jacket, using nightsaver electricity, and having family rows when the house looked like Blackpool illuminations with lights blazing all over the place, even when some rooms were not in use.

But today it's a much more adventurous undertaking that can involve using passive solar energy for space and/or water heating, using environmentally friendly building materials, recycling some of our waste and opting for natural furnishings and decoration in terms of fabrics, paints and floor coverings. We can go much further in creating homes which are healthy, harmonious and ecologically sound.

Even if we go only 2 per cent of the way to being energy efficient, we are contributing to making the world an environmentally better place, according to Anna Doran of Sonairte. Sonairte is the National Ecology Centre at The Ninch, Laytown, Co Meath, and a showcase for all these options. A registered educational charity, established to increase public awareness and interest in the environment, Sonairte encourages and role-models the use of appropriate technology, organic horticulture, energy conservation techniques and renewable energy sources. The five-acre property consists of a two storey house, a garden, and a series of courtyards built around a centuries-old "Big House".

The restored buildings have been aesthetically designed in stone and brick and the Queen Anne facade of the original house gives an idea of how magnificent if could be if restoration funds were forthcoming. It's the brainchild of Anna, an early Green who started working on the disused farmhouse site years ago. Today its many attractions include an energy courtyard with a variety of alternative energy exhibits of wind, water and solar power, a two-acre walled organic garden, a nature trail and river walk, an indoor and outdoor children's play area, a shop, and coffee shop.

With a strong educational remit, Sonairte offers residential workshops and caters for school tours, but as Anna Doran says, probably their most important visitors are Mr & Ms Two Percent and their children. "This is the ordinary person who's just out for the day, and stops, comes in and wanders round. They may have no interest in or knowledge of much of the environment. If people like that were encouraged just to go 2 per cent of the way, it would make a difference," she says.

"Going 2 per cent could mean taking their bottles to the bottle bank, looking for organic vegetables, thinking more about recycling and re-using generally, about not taking plastic bags from the supermarket, for example, or using natural materials in their homes such as cotton, wool, muslin, jute, cork, non-lead paints, products which are breathable and not synthetic. "If everyone does a little bit, it makes a huge cumulative difference." Sonairte gets 8,000 schoolchildren visiting each year who receive a fun and thoughtful tour. "Earth education tours can be boring," says Anna. "I couldn't bear to see kids walking behind a teacher all chalk and talk." Today, the centre has 10 trained school guides. The tour programme starts weeks before when a participating school receives a Secret Package from Sonairte which kids and teachers begin to work on. On arrival they pass through the Portal of Crisis into an environmental courtyard. This has working exhibits which demonstrate in simple, graphic and imaginative ways how energy can be created by wind, sun and water.

One exhibit, for example, shows a model aeroplane whose propellers are driven by the sun. "Some kids say it's not the sun at all, so we block out the sun and the propellers slowly stop," says supervisor Sean McCabe. Making quite small waves in a trough of water gets a small windmill spinning above. There is also a solar cooker. "People think the panel is a satellite dish," says Sean. "But we have the kids go into the garden early, choose their vegetables, and place them in the pot. While the tour is on, their dinner is cooking, ready to serve at lunch time."

Some foreign visitors have been very interested in the solar cooker which has given them ideas for al fresco cooking at home. Irish adults too become enthusiastic about economics of solar warming. A solar water heating system will cost £2,000 to £3,000 to install. On a reasonably sunny day in October, the water in the tank was 42C. A small solar panel to work a pump in a garden water feature will cost as little as £200 to £300. The peaceful organic garden produces vegetables, fruits and herbs which are sold at the Dublin Food Co-op every week. "As much as I can fit in to the Fiesta," says garden supervisor Gerry Reilly. "We sell about £200 worth a week, and we can't keep up with the demand."

Sonairte has workshops geared to people who are interested in learning about sustainable lifestyles. "I get at least three letters a week from people who either want to move to the west of Ireland or have done so. The rural resettlement programme has been very successful," says Anna.

Workshop programmes include interior design using natural materials to stone building to herb growing. In November, there are courses on gourmet vegetarian cooking and on recycling old rags and fabrics into quilts, cushions, toys. A course next March will concentrate on small-scale renewable energy supplies. In May, a course called Self-Build allows students to take part in theoretical and practical sessions on the basic principles of building their own energy-efficient home.

Courses may be day or weekend, and cost from £50. Accommodation is in local guesthouses. One of Anna Doran's dreams is to refurbish the big, old house on the site to offer low cost accommodation to visitors and students alike. Sonairte couldn't manage without its support from FAS, which provides staff via Community Employment Schemes. Income is derived from visitors, the coffee shop and eco shop, school tours, and vegetable sales.

The shop sells recycled glass, unbleached cotton, biodegradable nappies, books and magazines on the environment. The solar heated coffee shop sells home-made vegetarian food. "I would like to see places like Sonairte all over Ireland," says Anna. "There are old mills and old farm buildings all over the country which could be offering employment locally."

Her ultimate vision is that Sonairte would become an eco village - not a pipe dream, but already a reality in other countries. An eco-village describes a small community of local people with a mix of private and local authority housing, a mix of age groups, using natural energy systems in whole or in part, as well as such elective measures as a car pool and a tool share.

"The central government may be on plan for the economic benefits of the Celtic Tiger, but people are noticing the quality of life changing and questioning what the benefit is for them," says Gerry Reilly.

On December 6 next Sonairte will hold an exhibition and sale of natural gifts - wooden toys, fabric gifts, organic foods. Sonairte, The National Ecology Centre, is at The Ninch, Laytown, Co Meath, tel 041-9827572