A piece of news that I heard via the AECB (Sustainable Builders Association) and CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology):
In the early hours of this morning (22nd November 2012), electricity production from wind power actually exceeded electricity from gas! Between 3:30am and 5:30am, UK wind turbines produced around 4.2GW whereas gas power stations contributed a bit less than 4GW.
By the way - if you are thinking of checking your draught-proofing around the house, then a windy day is a great time to do it. Hold your hand near to doors frames, window frames, skirting boards, chimneys and so on to work out where cold air is leaking in and warm air is leaking out.
If you have any specific questions about draught-proofing, just email wbecohouses.co.uk and the answer might get posted on this blog.
Showing posts with label AECB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AECB. Show all posts
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Achieving air tightness
After the first air tightness test at the 1950's refurb (see previous post), we were very honoured to have a visit from Bill Butcher, Director of the Green Building Store. Bill has many years of sustainable building experience and was one of the team working on the world's first Passive House with cavity wall construction (in Denby Dale).
Bill spoke about his experiences of low energy building projects to a gathering of sustainable builders (AECB members). The discussions focused on achieving air tightness, and the 1950's refurb provided many examples of areas that present challenges!
To name a few: round the windows and doors, round pipes and cables, up through the edge of the floor, through the walls where plaster is missing / cracked, round the joists, at the eaves, and almost anywhere in the loft conversion!
Over the next few weeks, we'll be working hard to banish all draughts - with progress updates from time to time at http://www.eco-retrofit.blogspot.co.uk/.
Bill spoke about his experiences of low energy building projects to a gathering of sustainable builders (AECB members). The discussions focused on achieving air tightness, and the 1950's refurb provided many examples of areas that present challenges!
To name a few: round the windows and doors, round pipes and cables, up through the edge of the floor, through the walls where plaster is missing / cracked, round the joists, at the eaves, and almost anywhere in the loft conversion!
Over the next few weeks, we'll be working hard to banish all draughts - with progress updates from time to time at http://www.eco-retrofit.blogspot.co.uk/.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Eco Houses Under Construction - Event 4
The Coach House, a whole house refurbishment using
passivhaus principles
On Sunday 2nd October, a total of 17 visitors
took part in a tour around a Victorian coach house which is now an advanced low
energy home. Gil Schalom, who provided advice and architectural services on the
project, gave a presentation explaining how this was achieved. He introduced
the passivhaus modelling techniques used at the design stage, and included
photos of the insulation and air tightness products as they were installed.
For more details about this refurbishment project, click here
To receive an invitation to other events like this, contact Tina
on info@wbecohouses.co.uk and ask
to join the Eco House Group email list.
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 delivered by the charity Groundwork East Midlands.
Monday, September 26, 2011
AECB annual conference
The annual conference for the Sustainable Builders Association (AECB) took place on 16th and 17th September this year in Nottingham, and I went along to it for the first time. As a home-owner rather than a building professional, I thought I might be out of my depth, but I had a wonderful time and can highly recommend it!
A large part of this year's focus was on retrofit, but talks and workshops covered a wide range of topics, including:
- The launch of the AECB's "Less is More - Energy Security after Oil" discussion paper by David Olivier
- Renovating existing homes and creating new buildings to Passive House standard
- Embodied carbon and sustainability of buildings and materials
There was also a talk on "a community network promoting energy efficient buildings" - by me, about Transition West Bridgford's Eco House Group, the events organised over the last 18 months, and this blog!
If you are thinking about starting a major low-energy or sustainable refurbishment (or new build), it is worth joining the AECB as a supporter member (for about £40+), just for the useful documents that you can then download. But there is much more on the website - a forum, articles, courses, the chance to find out who's who and what some of the UK's leading sustainable builders and architects (etc.) are working on, and events for local groups.
http://www.aecb.net/
A large part of this year's focus was on retrofit, but talks and workshops covered a wide range of topics, including:
- The launch of the AECB's "Less is More - Energy Security after Oil" discussion paper by David Olivier
- Renovating existing homes and creating new buildings to Passive House standard
- Embodied carbon and sustainability of buildings and materials
There was also a talk on "a community network promoting energy efficient buildings" - by me, about Transition West Bridgford's Eco House Group, the events organised over the last 18 months, and this blog!
If you are thinking about starting a major low-energy or sustainable refurbishment (or new build), it is worth joining the AECB as a supporter member (for about £40+), just for the useful documents that you can then download. But there is much more on the website - a forum, articles, courses, the chance to find out who's who and what some of the UK's leading sustainable builders and architects (etc.) are working on, and events for local groups.
http://www.aecb.net/
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