More about the exhibition

There are just days to go to West Bridgford’s free exhibition of low energy homes on 21st January 2012 (see previous post), so here is a bit more information about the displays and presentations.

Seven low energy homes will be represented in detail, each with their own display of photos, information and in some cases, samples of energy saving products. 


(Two homes will be open to visitors during the afternoon - the timber frame new build and the 1950's refurbishment. Just sign up at the stand for either house or email info@wbecohouses.co.uk to visit at 2pm or 3pm.)

Energy efficiency advice will be available from Sheila Hood, Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Energy Officer. 

Independent information about renewable technologies will be displayed on the Energy Saving Trust stand where Tim Saunders will be able to answer your questions.

In a separate room, between 10am and 1pm there will be a series of short 20 minute presentations in the following order:

10.15   Creating a zero carbon barn conversion

      David Hill, Managing Director of Carbon Legacy

10.40   Latest news on the Feed in Tariff, Renewable Heat Incentive and Green Deal

            Tim Saunders, Energy Saving Trust

11.10   Ultra low energy refurbishment – externally insulated 1950’s brick house

            Gil Schalom, Architect and Tina Holt, organiser of the exhibition

11.30   Ultra low energy refurbishment – internally insulated stone Coach House

            Gil Schalom, Architect

12.00   Building low energy homes in the Meadows and Sneinton

            John Long, project leader for Igloo and Blueprint Regeneration

12.30   Timber frame new build – a very low energy home in West Bridgford

            Mike Siebert, Architect

If you would like any further information about the exhibition, email info@wbecohouses.co.uk

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. 

Eco House Visits coming up

In addition to the "Eco Houses Under Construction" events coming up in the next month or two, here are some additional visits being planned to low energy building projects that have been completed.

1. Green Street in the Meadows - a tour of the show home and a chance to find out more about the fabric and technologies in this Code 4 development. http://www.igloo.uk.net/projects/nottingham-green-street-meadows

There is already a lot of interest in this free visit, which will be held on the morning of either 22nd October or 29th October, TBC. If you would like to join this event, just email info@wbecohouses.co.uk indicating which date(s) you can make.

2. FarmEco straw bale building - a tour of the recently completed Ecocentre near Bingham, led by a member of the Eco House Group who assisted in its construction. Details of the centre's key features can be seen here: http://www.farmeco.co.uk/ecocentre/

This visit is free, and will take place at 11am on Sunday 30th October if there is sufficient interest. So if you want to see it, email info@wbecohouses.co.uk.

3. Hill Holt Wood - a tour of this inspiring site will be arranged in November/December if enough people register interest. To get an idea of the place and the eco buildings, click here: http://hillholtwood.com/the-community-village/

This visit will cost something (less than £10 probably), and we can arrange to share transport for those who wish to go. Email info@wbecohouses.co.uk if you are interested.

Green Street eco housing

Eco Houses are attracting a lot of interest, judging by the speed at which the new homes on Green Street in the Meadows sold. Here are a few paragraphs about this development:

The development, which is a mixture of three and four bed contemporary town houses, comprises 38 homes in total. Designed by Nottingham based award winning architects, Marsh Grochowski, it is positioned next to the picturesque Victoria Gardens on the Trent Embankment.

The scheme builds on Blueprint’s core values of design driven quality and sustainability. Features include solar photovoltaic supplemented electricity, whole-house heat recovery, super insulation and air tightness way above new building standards.

The homes were priced from around £175,000 to £235,000 and were sold nationally by Savills via their Nottingham office and locally by Royston & Lund in West Bridgford. 

Three contrasting eco-houses

Local architect Julian Marsh has passed me details of an ultra-low energy refurbishment in Nottingham city centre - converting a lacemaker's house into an up-to-date eco home. Click Lacemaker's house to view.

If you are looking for more modest refurbishment ideas (including low cost improvements), have a look at LowEhouses.

And if you'd like to read more about the very interesting eco home that Julian Marsh made for himself (below)  on the site of an old meat factory, click here.

If you are familiar with the Passive House methodology, this offers a different approach to achieving a sustainable home which Julian calls the Active House approach.

(The text has kindly been made available to us by the Architect's Journal from this article in their March 2011 issue. www.architectsjournal.co.uk)

Low E refurb design

If you are wondering how  much money you can save by using different energy saving measures, here is a 2 page document which may help - sent to me by architect Julian Marsh.

This is a design proposed for a refurbishment of a typical terraced house in the Meadows area of Nottingham, but it is broadly applicable to many solid wall homes. It includes both low cost measures and higher cost measures to create a predicted 88% reduction in CO2 emissions with a comparatively modest outlay.

This house, when refurbished, will be used as a show home to illustrate the technologies, their costs and benefits to the public. To view, go to:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2fTJ8MNPf4tM2I3NmM4YTUtMDVlYi00MmI2LTk3NTQtYzU2YjEwNTI1ZTNi&hl=en_US

It is not the only interesting projects running in the Meadows. For more information about MOSES (Meadows Ozone Energy Services, a community owned energy company, go to http://www.meadowspartnershiptrust.org.uk/energy/mozes.aspx)

House in the Meadows is a cheerfully good example!

8 Feb '11: DNC writes: I met Julian Marsh, one of my architect friends today, who was visiting the Dept of Arch and Built Environment. He has a self designed house in Nottingham and is the architect of the highly excellent Green St houses in the Meadows. He promotes the idea of the 'Active house' as better than Passive house, a sort of cheerful British interpretation of the slightly joyless German ideal.

    That idea is more like the Peveril solar house, where you don't have to live in a airtight box, dependent on a fan for breathing. You make sensible use of the PV and a heat pump, open the windows in summer for ventilation, have a sunspace with openable shutters, allow the occupants to make sensible energy saving decisions such as solar shading by day or closing curtains at night. Architecturally, it is quite unique, a great way to use a corner site.

    Like me, he has been monitoring his energy figures, to try to get below carbon zero. I will invite him as a speaker to one of our West Bridgford Ecohouses meetings in the future.
    I gather that Julian's house is about as carbon zero as the Peveril house, i.e. is covering the heating, and more than that, but with the 4kW limit on PV panels in the British Feed in tariff, he doesn't have enough PV to cover the entire electrical consumption. With being on a corner site, he has two party walls, so has fewer external wall surfaces to lose heat - and doing a big favour to the adjoining neighbours!

   He does have a small amount of MVHR, but not on the whole house - uses it on the most lived-in zones of the house. He also has rainwater collection and a host of eco-materials, recycled timber beams, bottle walls and much more. The articles in the links below provide additional information.

In 10 March 2011, the Architects Journal devoted a long feature article to Julian's house. (Unfortunately there's a paywall on the AJ website, but if you are a subscriber it is visible)
also visible are these links:

http://timgarrattnottingham.co.uk/2010/09/28/nottingham-grand-designs/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2009/10/05/trent_meadows_feature.shtml
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Green-vision-starts-home/article-960505-detail/article.html