Hi, and welcome to the Eco House Group blog.

Here is the invite that’s been emailed out in July 2010 to everyone who has already joined the group. If you’d like to join too, just email me: info@wbecohouses.co.uk

Before I go ahead and arrange the first get-together for the group, it would be useful to have some idea of what everyone in the group wants from it!

It is your group so please feel free to make suggestions on topics of interest to you, and the kind of activity that you would find useful. If anyone has bright ideas on how to run and organise the group, please add those too.

I’ll start with a bit about me and why I set it up, plus the things that most interest me. If you could reply with an equivalent summary from your perspective, and perhaps a suggestion of what our first meeting should involve, that would be great.

Why?

My partner and I are about to embark on an extension and radical eco-retrofit of our 1952 solid brick house. We are currently considering whether it would be technically and financially feasible to bring it up to passivhaus standard.

I thought it would be great to have the chance to talk to others who have fitted or are considering fitting eco-features (retrofit or new build), hence forming the group!

Topics of interest:

□ External insulation
□ Airtight membrane and MVHR (if going to passivhaus standard)
□ Solar PV
□ Solar hot water
□ Double or triple glazed windows (not uPVC)
□ Internal insulation for loft conversion
□ Water saving devices (low flow etc)
□ Green / brown roof (for extension)

□ Ground source / air source heat pump, hybrid source.

□ Other technologies e.g. Ground source / air source heat pump, Lexin panels, etc

First meeting:
Maybe this could be just a chance to meet up, mingle, and get to know who is interested in what. Or not… what do you think?

Subsequent meetings:

Things like talks from independent experts. Maybe have gatherings to compare suppliers and experiences on specific topics (so someone interested in solar hot water doesn’t have to sit through a long discussion on external insulation, for example!!). We may even get to the point of evaluating and purchasing as a group, if this gets us what we want to have, but cheaper.

If there is anyone else you know who would like to join us, just ask them to email me so I can add them to the list.

Kind regards

Tina

Rushcliffe Solar takes off!

Do you want free energy for the next 25 years?? This could be time for a rapid piece of 'Ecovation' to your house that could be the best investment that you can currently make - in excess of 8% - capable of meeting your electric and gas bills combined, plus additional income. One single house can generate over 3 megawatt-hours per annum.

Starting July, there is a project in Rushcliffe to encourage householders to fit Photovoltaic roofs! It's a partnership project of Rushcliffe BC, West Bridgford Transition, University of Nottingham, and Energy Saving Trust. Please check out the website as it progresses. Let's make West Bridgford into a 'swarm' of home power generators, collectively equal to a powerstation!

For the month of July and August only, we have two senior architectural students doing mapping surveys of West Bridgford, estimating the potential for home generation, and giving free advice to householders of the costs and payback. Please make use of this! (It's primarily by email). We shall also have open air 'Solar Surgeries' on Central avenue on several Saturdays during the summer months.

Email rushcliffesolar@gmail.com advising them off your Postal Code and Housenumber, and any other relevant details such as trees, slope, boundary conditions, shared ownership, for a rapid estimate of the possibilities. If your house has changed since Googlemaps aerial photos were taken, please include that. If the house doesn't have a number, please describe it, eg, 'the converted boathouse next to the pub'.