Exhibition of local low energy homes

As part of the Eco Houses under Construction series, we have organised a FREE Exhibition on Saturday 21st January 2012 (10am-1pm) at St Paul's Church Hall on Boundary Road in West Bridgford. To see to poster, click here.

The exhibition will showcase all the houses that have already featured in the Eco Houses under Construction series, with a few additional examples as well. From a solid wall home insulated with minimal disruption to the occupants, to full scale ultra low energy refurbishments and new builds, this is a sneak preview of the homes of the future.

It is a great chance to see the displays and talk to the home owners, architects and those who provided the products and services to create these low energy homes. And it is a one-off opportunity to compare the different projects while they are all represented under one roof.

• If your New Year's resolutions include cutting your energy bills, come and have a chat with Rushcliffe Borough Council's Energy Officer. She will be offering independent advice about improvements that should save you money in the short to medium term. And we'll have the latest news on the Green Deal - a scheme designed to help people finance energy efficiency savings with no up front cost.

• If you live in a solid wall house and find it increasingly expensive to heat, come and talk to the home-owners who have already improved their homes, and the experts who helped them.

• If installing renewable energy generation technologies might be for you, independent renewables expert, Tim Saunders from the Energy Saving Trust will be able to answer your questions.

• If you have ambitious plans to live in an ultra low energy or zero carbon home, or to be completely self-sufficient by producing all your own energy, this exhibition is a must-see.

We hope to make the event enjoyable as well as informative, so Taste Cafe will be there selling their delicious cakes and light lunchtime snacks.

The Eco Houses Under Construction project is funded by Climate East Midlands, East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and Communities and Local Government with a Growing Climate Friendly Communities grant. It is overseen by the charity Groundwork East Midlands. 

High Court ruling on Feed in Tariff

24 Dec 2011: It seems that the High Court found that the government were wrongful in pressing ahead with major changes to the Feed in Tariff without considering that the consultation process was not completed, and that the deadlines given have caused untold chaos in the solar installation industry.... and we should not forget some of the inevitable job losses or company closures.

[See the Guardian Report for details. ]

Most people assume that Cameron and Osborne (who seems from his actions and saying to have little regard for the 'Green' revolution) will just carry on regardless of the Court ruling, or of the effects on the Solar industry and customers. 

Why link to Insulation?

When this was first mooted, it was proposed that the higher tariff should apply to houses which meet an Energy Performance Certificate of level "C". Although this sounds at first sight like a good incentive, it reveals, at closer inspection to be just another form of discouragement, and favouring the well off.

   Energy Generation is a different matter from Energy Conservation, and both are excellent, but there is No Reason for them to be so tightly linked, or for one to exclude the other. Should we also make a law that only houses with PV panels should be Insulated? Of course not. That demonstrates the absurdity of the proposal. There are other ways to incentivise insulation, and these are being done.

  Society needs Energy, so why should we not encourage panels to be fixed on garages, barns and old houses that are not easy to insulate? In the same way, there are many buildings than can and should be insulated, but because of chimneys, dormers, trees or hips, they cannot be adapted for photovoltaic. 

    It can cost more to insulate a house up to level C than to fix solar panels. This becomes a charter favouring the rich or the owner occupier, because it requires an expensive operation on the house first, and perhaps a season's delay. 

   What does it do for social housing (especially of older dwellings)? A quick one or two day installation of panels can reduce future fuel poverty for a whole street, but a programme of insulation of a whole street would mean a complex and expensive process of decanting tenants etc. with funds that the local authorities or housing associations do not have.

Green Deal Consultation - we want your views!

A few of us attended the "Greening the Green Deal" event in Radcliffe on Trent on Saturday 10th December. It was run by Terena Plowright, the founder of the Greening Campaign, and champion of putting communities in the driving seat.

After a very useful review of the Green Deal's key features, Terena invited us to read the consultation document and to respond to it.

Questions you may wish to consider:

• Do you think communities have a role in the present outline policy?
• Where do you think the blocks to the household uptake will be?
• Can you see an opportunity for communities to make money? How?
• Can you seen an opportunity for setting up community energy schemes? How?
• How can community energy develop within the framework of the Green Deal?
• What needs to be added or altered to the Green Deal framework to make this easier?
• What blocks stop community energy schemes taking place?

The online consultation response document is rather heavy going so Terena invited us to email our comments to her for her to discuss with DECC directly. If you would like to take part in this process, please read the consultation document and email your thoughts to info@wbecohouses.co.uk and I will send on the combined "wbecohouses" response. 

The consultation ends on 18th January 2012, but Terena may need our responses before that. If I can get an exact date I will add it here. I hope to hear from you -  the sooner the better!

10 Dec 2011: If you are thinking of going to the Green Deal Seminar, in Radcliffe [Dec 10th 1-4pm], it is still possible to book, read the link below of the report of the London seminar held earlier in the week, and check a couple of stories below this for the details for booking the Radcliffe event.

http://blog.emap.com/footprint/2011/12/09/eco-refurbishment-and-the-green-deal/

List of events, and how to book, see:
http://www.greening-campaign.co.uk/green-deal-event-list.html 

1950's refurb - mini event 2

As part of the Eco Houses Under Construction series, a second mini event was held on site at the 1950's solid wall house. (...mini events because it would be impractical to have many people present at one time).

Gil Schalom (the architect) started by talking about how the ground floor is being insulated. Then attention turned to the roof. Due to the obvious shortcomings of the roof in its present state, and the plan to carry out a loft conversion with dormer and change from hip to gable at the back of the roof, major work will be needed.

The wind whistles through the loft due to the deterioration of the roofing felt, and the loft insulation was thin and full of dust. These two things alone conspire to make the house much colder than it should be.

Had the condition of the roof been better, most of the existing structure and the tiles would have been preserved, and insulation placed between and possibly beneath the rafters. However, in this case, we've decided to renew everything so that it will last long into the future, and at the same time aim for a very air tight construction and super-insulate at rafter level.

Another 1950's feature we won't be retaining is the state-of-the-ark Baxi fireplace! It's funny to think that this is where Baxi must have started when you consider the range of systems they now offer (from gas boilers to ground source heat pumps, air source heat pumps, one of the first domestic "combined heat and power" systems, solar hot water and so on!)

To see more about this house, click here