Archive for December, 2009
The Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) is set to hold a one day conference that will look into issues of maintaining and improving green properties.
The conference with take place at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff (UWIC) and is due to be held on the 7th January.
The conference will include a number of green home improvement experts, including Chris Wood, head of building conservation at English Heritage, Bob Chick from the Gwalia Housing Association, and Dr Tim Yates from the Building Research Establishment.
There will be a number of topics addressed at the conference, including the needs of properties depending on when they were built, the green supply chain and the impact of the Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change on building and maintenance throughout the UK.
There will also be a special discussion looking at the skills necessary for green building maintenance. This discussion will be aimed at plumbers, builders, electricians and other tradesmen.
Green building maintenance refers to practices and materials that can help a home to be more eco friendly – both in terms of reducing waste and reducing carbon emissions.
Double glazing is just one way of doing so, dramatically reducing heat lost through windows and therefore allowing for reductions in heating bills and making homes far more energy efficient.
The CIOB was first established in 1834 as the Builders Society, and now represents around 42,000 building professionals both in the UK and abroad.
The country’s first eco home has now been officially opened at South Lanarkshire College. The property has been built to be affordable as well as energy efficient with low carbon emissions.
The building, the Aurora, was built by Dawn Homes in public-private partnership that has been supported by more than 50 private building firms, according to a BBC report.
The building uses a wide range of systems to ensure low carbon emissions. This includes insulation, heat recovery systems, ground source heat pumps and more – all of which help to cut out the need for gas central heating.
The design also means that the property has the potential to generate more electricity than it uses, meaning that those who own the home could sell energy back to the grid.
On top of all these measures, a key feature is the double glazing, as well as triple glazing, which will ensure that heat stays within the home. The layers of glass filled with air mean that minimal heat is lost – which is why this is becoming such a popular improvement for all kinds of home.
On top of this, the house has been designed to be used as a training area for future builders. At its opening, the finance and sustainable growth minister for Scotland, John Swinney, said that it represents the future of low-carbon housing in the country.
Director of Dawn Homes, Martin Egan, said that ‘the Aurora is the first step towards producing affordable and eco-friendly homes for the mass market’. Egan also stressed the importance it will have towards finding a solution for fuel poverty.
New government plans reveal that energy suppliers will install smart meters in both new and existing properties to help residents understand the way they use energy. The Government hopes that this measure will cause people to be more efficient with the way they use electricity, eventually cutting carbon emissions.
The plan was announced by Energy and Climate Change Minister Lord Hunt on December 1. Ideas relating to a ‘smart grid’ to store electricity more efficiently were also discussed.
Hunt said that a global climate deal would ‘require all of us to change how we lead our lives’. Smart meters would help to give us more control over how much we use.
When a smart meter is installed, the effect will be an itemised bill for electricity, letting us know exactly what uses the most. This is thought to be a major step to help shift people’s behaviour.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors have welcomed the new announcements, but have also stated that other measure should not be forgotten.
Director of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors external affairs Gillian Charlesworth said that ‘homes are a significant source of carbon emissions’ and that behavioural changes are extremely important.
However, these smart meters should act as a catalyst to make real changes in their home in order to reduce energy consumption.
Charlesworth hopes that it will motivate people to get insulation, energy efficient appliances and double glazing if they can see for definite how much money they start to save.
An 80 year old parish hall is set to reopen after major renovations. The refurbishment was designed to help make the hall a more comfortable place for people to meet up. This was done by installing measures such as double glazing in the windows, and a new energy efficient boiler.
The hall, located in Little Hereford, has also been given a makeover with a new rear entrance and facilities for the disabled and babies. The surrounding area has also been landscaped to help improve the way it looks.
Throughout the refurbishment work, a major aim was to leave the character of the building unaffected. Even modern measures, such as the double glazing, were designed to fit in with the distinctive style of the building.
All of this work was made possible thanks to the Big Lottery Fund who provided £118,000, Welcome to Our Future who provided £20,000, Herefordshire Council who provided £15,000 and the Mercers’ Company who gave £1,500. The residents of Little Hereford also raised £35,000.
Chair of the Parish Hall Committee, Eva Thomas, said that ‘it is a wonderful achievement which I never believed was possible’.
Thomas also added that it was important for them to make use of eco friendly materials, such as double glazing, as part of the project – to help make the hall last long into the future.
The hall is due to open to the public this week, and will hold a number of events in the run up to Christmas this year.
When it comes to improving your home, your decisions may be influenced to a degree by the value they could add when it comes time to sell your property. However, an expert has claimed that residential property owners are now increasingly opting for home improvements that suit them rather than estate agents.
Editor of Home Beautiful magazine, Julia Goodwin, has stated that the days of a ‘quick tart-up’ are gone.
This includes making the home smart and painting the walls beige in an attempt to impress estate agents. Goodwin stated that ‘that way of thinking has disappeared forever’.
This feeling is backed up by the results of a recent poll carried out for Aspect Maintenance, where 70 percent of Londoners plan on improving their homes in the next year, but only 14 percent of these are doing it to help them sell their property.
This suggests that people are thinking more along the lines of long term benefits and ways of making the home more comfortable.
Double glazing is one such industry that is becoming more and more popular over time, as people seek to reduce the amount of heat lost through windows and to make homes naturally warmer. People are also choosing additions such as conservatories as cost effective ways to add living space and improve the quality of the property at the same time.
A new scheme, named ‘feed-in-tariff’ (FIT) is due to be launched by the government in April 2010. It will provide payments to those households that produce excess energy through measures such as wind turbines and solar panels.
Friends of the Earth looked at figures provided by the Department of Energy and Climate Change to calculate how much energy would be produced by such microgeneration measures. Estimates show that it should increase to 6% by 2020, which is equivalent to the size of two Sizewell B nuclear stations.
Other FIT schemes have been successful in boosting microgeneration elsewhere in Europe.
However, Friends of the Earth claims that the government plans do not provide enough to encourage households to take up such technologies. The plans will mean an extra £2.37 is added to energy bills every year would make a large difference.
A separate report has also shown that the solar panel market around Europe will grow by 14% in 2010 alone, due to lower prices of technology and other factors.
If you are looking for a way to cut energy costs then it may be worth looking into the microgeneration schemes that could work for you.
However, it’s important to ensure your home is as eco friendly as possible before installing alternative electricity generation methods. This includes loft insulation, double glazing, installing an energy efficient boiler, wall insulation and more.
