Filed under: Green Build
Premiership footballers are not often thought of as environmentally friendly, they seem to love Ferraris and 4×4s for a start.
So its a pleasant surprise to find Gary Neville has submitted plans to Bolton Council for an eco-home in the grounds of his estate. Gary, a known environmentialist, wants to build the £8 million carbon-zero house next to his current 12-bedroom home, a former farmstead on moors between Bolton and Bury, Lancs.
The eco-home is a radical ‘underground bunker’ design that has been likened by critics to the Teletubbies home. I think it looks fantastic with its petal structure, certainly it is very discreet unlike some footballers’ homes.
Apparently the structure is so advanced the government wants to use the scheme as a benchmark for all future zero-carbon developments. What’s more, the Man United captain has already impressed planning chiefs with in-depth knowledge of issues and sustainable technology.
Pictured, teletubby and eco home
The architects have compared it with Skara Brae, a neolithic settlement in Orkney.
Designed by Make Architects, the unique structure is divided into six separate sections or ‘petals’, called ‘eat, ‘relax’, ‘entertain’, ‘work’, ’sleep’ and ‘play’. They are all arranged around a central communal area. Completely eco-friendly at the footballer’s behest, the home features a ground source heat pump, photovoltaic solar panels and a wind turbine to generate power, which will supply Neville’s neighbouring property as well. They also built the Sherwood Forest Visitor Complex.
Stuart Fraser, partner at Make Architects, said: “The client has been heavily involved in the design process and is passionate about preserving the natural beauty of this area. ”It has been a privilege to be given a brief which has allowed us to truly test the boundaries of current sustainable thinking in terms of design and construction and to work along some leading experts in this field.”
The England defender is reportedly planning to bow out of Manchester United with an eco-friendly testimonial lit up by wind power. He is said to have approached green energy companies about the electricity supply for the Old Trafford game
Good on you Gary. Whatever next? David Beckham buys all of his clothes at Oxfam or Wayne Rooney to open a nature reserve.
Filed under: Green Build
UK Government Should Improve Feed-In Tariff Scheme, Say Green GroupsEnvironmental group Friends of the Earth says that small-scale renewables could meet 6% of the UK’s electricity needs if the Government ups the ambition of its feed-in scheme. The Government’s feed-in tariff scheme, called the Clean Energy Cash-back, is due to be launched next April but is predicted to deliver only around 2% of the country’s electricity requirements. But according to Friends of the Earth, raising the proposed tariffs to deliver a 10% annual return on investment instead of the current level of 5-8% would triple the amount of energy produced to around 25 TWh by 2020 – equivalent to over two Sizewell B nuclear power stations. The costs would only be slightly higher, says Friends of the Earth. On the basis of the Government’s own figures, the current scheme will cost the average household an extra £2.37 per year, while upping the ambition of the scheme will only add £1.20 a year over the next four years. Friends of the Earth and 30 other organisations and businesses including the Renewable Energy Association, British Retail Consortium, the Co-operative Group and Federation of Small Businesses have written to the Government calling for a much greater level of ambition for the scheme. For further information go to www.foe.co.uk Source: www.energyefficiencynews.com
Efficient Buildings Key To Meeting UK Emission Reduction TargetsNon-domestic buildings must improve their energy efficiency if the UK is to meet its carbon emission reduction targets, according to a report out today from the Carbon Trust. Currently, the UK’s 1.8 million non-domestic buildings account for 18% of the country’s total emissions – a figure that has not changed in the last 20 years. The Carbon Trust report, Building the future, today, estimates that the right strategy could reduce the carbon footprint of non-domestic buildings by 35% by 2020 and deliver a net benefit of £4 billion. The government-backed organisation is calling for the country’s commercial, industrial and public buildings to improve their energy efficiency rating from an average energy rating of E to C by 2020 and A by 2050. The first stage is the roll out of Display Energy Certificates (DECs) and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) to all non-domestic buildings by 2015. Next, says the Carbon Trust, building regulations need to be tightened up to ensure that all cost-effective efficiency measures for lighting and heating be implemented on all non-domestic buildings over the next decade. A national programme led by energy suppliers could be set up to help businesses install low-cost measures, it suggests. Beyond that, the Carbon Trust says that more costly measures like triple glazing and ground source heat pumps will have to become standard in new and existing buildings. Realising the potential of making cuts in the non-domestic sector will require clear direction from the Government, as well as means to overcome obstacles such as covering upfront costs, general ignorance of energy efficiency, non-compliance with building regulations and the landlord-tenant divide. The Carbon Trust recommends that large public sector buildings should lead the way by implementing cost-effective energy efficiency measures over the next seven years. The Government should also tighten up the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) to encourage businesses to implement energy efficiency measures, while providing advice to owners and tenants of the worst-performing F- and G-rated buildings. For further information go to www.carbontrust.co.uk/Publications/pages/publicationdetail.aspx?id=CTC766
The Road To Zero Carbon – Tuesday 9th February 2010 – The Watershed, BristolThe Government has set targets to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from all buildings, whether residential, commercial or public and new or existing. All new buildings will need to be zero carbon within a decade, starting with a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions next October, while CO2 emissions from existing buildings need to be approaching zero by 2050. We are now seeing a move from demonstration projects to an increasing number of real world low and zero carbon buildings being built, demonstrating that it is already possible to achieve significant reductions in carbon emissions. This conference will showcase some of the best of these low and zero carbon projects, with a strong focus on the steps and measures taken and the impact it had on the construction process, providing delegates with a unique opportunity to learn from those at the leading edge of compliance with this fast approaching standard. The conference is supported by the UKGBC, the SW Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) and SW Councils (formerly the SW Regional Assembly). It is organised by the Devon Sustainable Building Initiative (DSBI) and Ecos Trust. For more details go to www.sustainablebuild.org/TheRoadToZeroCarbon.html To book contact Corina Reay on corina@ecostrust.org.uk or on 01458 254349 – £211.50 incl VAT
Yorkshire And Humber Microgeneration Conference And Awards – Thursday 11th February 2010
April 2010 will be a new dawn for Microgeneration with the introduction of the Clean Energy Cashback scheme. This will reward householders, businesses, communities and public bodies with a special tariff for electricity generated from renewable sources.
The Yorkshire and Humber Microgeneration Partnership will be holding its conference on the 11th February at the Royal York Hotel in York. The focus this year will look at how prepared is our region to take advantage of the Clean Energy Cashback opportunity and reap the rewards of increased investment, new income streams, new jobs and skills, cleaner energy and lower carbon emissions?
The Conference, organised by the Yorkshire and Humber Microgeneration Partnership and supported by the Energy Saving Trust will be addressing this question, seeking the views from all those involved in this fast growing industry and also hearing first hand experiences of those customers who are already pioneers of Microgeneration technologies in the region.
The Conference is a must for commercial enterprises, local authorities, government bodies, charitable organisations, and anyone with an interest in carbon reduction and climate control. Our first confirmed keynote speaker is the Rt. Hon. Rosie Winterton MP, Minister for Yorkshire and the Humber.
Delegates to the conference also have the opportunity to attend the 2010 Microgeneration Awards Dinner, hosted by BBC weatherman, Paul Hudson.
This major conference will be the first to explore the potential of the Clean Energy Cash Back/Feed in Tariff.
For more information or to register for the event, please email info@yhmicrogeneration.org or paper copies are available from Adam Gillespie on 01484 351 778
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Filed under: Green Build
There are approximately 17,000 buildings constructed to the PassivHaus principles worldwide.
Basic Principles
A dwelling which achieves the PassivHaus standard typically includes:
- very good levels of insulation with minimal thermal bridges
- well thought out utilisation of solar and internal gains
- excellent level of airtightness
- good indoor air quality, provided by a whole house mechanical ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery
Filed under: Green Build
Obama is quite right , insulation is sexy. “I am calling on Congress to provide new temporary incentives for Americans to make energy efficiency retrofit investments in their homes and we want them to do it soon,” he said. Insulation is “sexy stuff,” he said later, because it saves money. Well sending troops to war costs money, but thats an issue for another blog.
I have been sorting out my loft insulation, almost in time for the snow!
The snow is a good indicator of how insulated your house is, heat rising through your roof will melt it. But this works better in the evening, during the day many houses are empty and the heat is off. My hot water was on this morning, you can see where a small patch has melted.
Now I have not quite finished my loft yet, but you can see some loft insulation boards in place. Unfortunately the only shop selling them www.diy.com has decided not to restock! So to complete I have had to ring round a few stores in the area. The manufacturer sales@vencel.co.uk insists that the shop will be replenished though, not very helpful.
My next problem is the loft access, as you can see there is a bit of a gap. It does seem odd that people will have most windows double glazed, every door has quality double glazing, yet the loft hatch is a thin piece of wood with gaps and no insulation. This unfortunately is not unusual, even new houses will often have a ‘cold bridge’ somewhere letting the heat out.
Filed under: Green Build
In my house all the windows are double glazed, but this one. All the nearby houses have kept their feature window, so I didnt want to replace it with double glazing, but I want my home to be greener, so I am upgrading the insulation. A fifth of your home’s heat is lost through the windows, and a single-glazed window can lose 14 times as much heat as the same area of well-insulated wall!
I have long thought that secondary glazing was an interesting alternative, so am trying it here. Rather than go the route of professionals, I thought I would experiment. I found a sheet of polycarbonate, 10mm, cut it to shape, and fitted it. It felt warmer straight away. Normally it wouldnt work, as you cant open the window easily, or see out of it as clearly. But this is a small window that isnt very clear anyway, and I can open other windows. It is said to yellow after more than 10 years, but as its inside the glass it should be protected. We shall see.
It could save you as much as £65 a year in heating bills, and cut your CO2 emissions by up to half a tonne – not as impressive as the 740kg a year double glazing could save, but exactly one hundred times more CO2 than avoiding plastic bags for a year.
Insulation R value of 10mm polycarbonate R = 1.8, so a couple of layers would be good. A kit costs £35. Mine was £20
Single window pane glass R = 1
Double glazed R=2 would be around £200
Polycarbonate is 1/6 the weight of glass making it easily to handle. It has superior insulation qualities. The UV coating contributes to the excellent weather resistant quality of polycarbonate, protecting it from yellowing and degradation. It is virtually unbreakable with an impact strength 200 times greater than glass. Polycarbonate is also flexible and easy to install.
Insulating glass, often referred to as “IG”, “double-pane” or “Thermopane” glass, was developed to create a more energy efficient window. Glass itself is a poor insulator; a single-pane window has an R-value of about 1. (R-value is the measure of a material’s ability to retard the flow of heat.) A standard insulating glass pane has an R-value of about 2, a somewhat wimpy number compared to the R-11 value of a 2×4 wall, but still greater than a single-pane window, even with a storm window on it. The R-value is greater, not because there are two panes of glass, but because there is air or gas sealed between the two panes of glass. With the addition of different gases (like argon and krypton) and films and coatings (like “low-E”) between the panes, the insulating values can reach R-6 or greater.
Just as important as their insulating value is the increased comfort double-pane windows and doors bring. They’re warmer to the touch, and minimize the potential of frost and condensation on the inside pane. And there are other less easily measured benefits, like lower air conditioning costs in summer and free solar heat in winter.
Insulating glass is created by bonding two panes of glass together along their perimeter while maintaining a (usually) 1/2- to 3/4-in. space between them. Most high-quality double-pane windows manufactured today have two perimeter seals, an inner seal that resists water, aging and corrosion, and an outer seal that provides rigidity and strength. If one seal fails, the other can—at least for a while—pick up the slack. Some windows may have just a single seal.
Filed under: Green Build
As you can see in the pictures, I had some drainage problems at my house. It was causing damp readings at the front of the house, the back has similar issues. I noticed it during some heavy rain during October, the people who built the drive gave little thought to this. As I was clearing the weeds out, I noticed a cable under the water, it connects my telephone!
Just clearing the channel helped, but water still hung around the area. So I decided to dig a channel for it, then had to find a membrane that water can get through but would keep mud out. Then fill it with gravel.
Its all relatively simple, but you wonder why the people built it like this originally. Its better to use blocks so water can drain into the cracks. And I think its best not to build right up to the house, best to leave a gap. For one thing it stops rain bouncing up from a sealed surface onto your walls.
Filed under: Green Build
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson yesterday started a scheme that will eventually improve the energy efficiency of at least 200,000 homes in the capital by 2012. A series of trials will start this month in nine targeted boroughs to give up to 10,000 homes a low-carbon makeover. An initial £9.5 million has been committed for the effort.
Residents in Croydon, Camden, Lewisham, Harrow, Havering, Haringey, Hillingdon, Kingston, and Southwark will be offered a free service of easy measures to improve energy efficiency such as low-energy light bulbs and changing to stand-by switches. More substantial measures such as loft and cavity wall insulation will be subsidised or provided free to residents on benefits.
Over the coming years, the programme aims to visit 200,000-500,000 homes by 2012 and 1.2 million homes by 2015. Implementing the simplest energy efficiency measures across the capital will save 350,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year, while the more substantial efforts could yield savings of over 1.2 million tonnes.
The Mayor has a target for the capital of cutting its carbon emissions 60% by 2025. Currently, more than a third of these emissions originate from domestic properties.
In the summer the Green Party commented on an earlier scheme that was for£3m, Darren Johnson AM said: ”Given that it takes an estimate £11,000 for a home to achieve the 80% cut in emissions needed, it is very disappointing that the Mayor is only offering £3m. Unless much more in invested, only about 280 London homes would be made truly carbon friendly.” It sounds like his advice was followed, just in time to get headlines for Copenhagen.
“To tackle climate change and cut energy bills across London every street must be tackled in a systematic way, with a plan to work through every ward in London. To secure the necessary investment the Mayor must negotiate with Government and use some of the £13m that he failed to spend on emissions reductions in his first year in office.” said Darren Johnson AM.
Meanwhile Scotland also Targets More Energy Inefficient Homes
The Scottish Green Party said they were ‘disappointed’ with the government’s energy plan. Patrick Harvie MSP said: “SNP ministers want us to believe they understand the benefits and opportunities real energy efficiency can bring. ”Their rhetoric may be excellent, but their actual commitments remain a spectacular disappointment.” Again things have improved since this was said, when only £2m was available, the change coming just in time for Copenhagen.
Filed under: Green Build
Filed under: Green Build
• more exhibitors – 1,000 suppliers, the biggest showcase of sustainable construction products anywhere
• over 100 free conference and seminar sessions
• dozens of inspiring attractions and special events
• exceptional speakers including Andrew Neil, Terry Farrell, David Puttnam, Rosie Boycott and Simon Jenkins
All free when you register for Ecobuild 2010
We’re looking forward to seeing you at Ecobuild next year.
http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/new-for-2010.html
Ecobuild is the world’s biggest event for sustainable design, construction and the built environment.
Combining an 850 exhibitor-strong product showcase with more than 100 free conference and seminar sessions and dozens of interactive educational attractions, Ecobuild connects formal learning with practical experience, and with products and suppliers.
Almost 35,000 visitors attended Ecobuild 2009, including some of the most influential organisations and individuals responsible for some of the most valuable construction projects across the UK and beyond.
Almost doubling in size every year since its launch in 2005, Ecobuild 2009 hosted 857 exhibitors and 34,617 visitors at London’s Earls Court.
Home owners will need to spend up to £15,000 on an energy efficiency makeover if the government is to meet its ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions, the head of Britain’s climate change watchdog has said.
Lord Adair Turner said that radical steps would have to be taken by home owners and industries while the government needs to step up its efforts in the field of electricity generation. The chairman of the climate change commission said that tough decisions were now needed because Britain was running out of “easy things” to do in the home. ”After home insulation and more efficient boilers, we now need more intrusive things – double glazing, cavity wall insulation, solid wall insulation,” he said. ”We need much more of a whole house approach – one-stop shops where people can get a total report on what they need to do to their homes. It may be expensive – between £10,000 and £15,000.”
The CCC believes that the cost of the scheme would be paid for by a combination of government subsidy and higher electricity bills. The government has pledged to cut carbon emissions by 34 per cent from their 1990 levels by 2020. It has allocated £250 million to hasten the arrival of electric cars but Lord Turner said there was a case for greater state intervention. He said that £800 million of public money should be spent on setting up a network of charging points.
He said: “We need support for the initial wave of electric cars. It’s chicken and egg. Motorists won’t buy the cars unless there are enough charging points; the government is reluctant to put in the charging points while there are no electric cars.”
Ministers have accepted the CCC’s recommendation that carbon emissions should be reduced by 80 per cent from their 1990 levels by 2050, and the first three carbon budgets covering the period up to the early 2020s were made legally binding earlier this year.
“The 2020s will have to see the radical decarbonisation of electricity, ” he said. “That means more renewables, a significant expansion of nuclear or carbon capture and storage plants.”
Guest post by Ben Leach 11 Nov 2009
Also in the Telegraph, Guadrian, Business Green, Env Expert, etc
Personally I think CCS is not yet ready, and it may take some years before it is, so to rely on it now is dangerous. Nuclear power is clearly even more dangerous, with no solution to storage of waste materials, the centralisation of power, not renewable, vulnerable to rising sea levels as they are on the coast and basically not safe. But thats what you get when you appoint the man who failed as FSA Chair to be in charge of the Committee on Climate Change.
Lord Turner’s unstinting criticism of the regulatory system shouldn’t have surprised too many. After all, he was never going to blame the bankers, having been one of them himself until not too long ago. – quoted from Private Eye, No. 1231- 6 March – 19 March 2009
