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Why you don’t want biomass!
Posted by Gordon Traill on 11th December 2008 at 9:51 am
Well this is my first attempt at writing a blog, so please be patient and don’t expect too high a standard. To start with I find the term ‘expert’ slightly inappropriate. However, as I’ve been involved with TRECO from its inception I have become aware of many pitfalls which can be avoided, m…
Posted in: Biomass
Insulation is king
Posted by Tim Pullen on 13th March 2009 at 11:46 am
Let’s be clear, the greatest environmental impact of a house is from the fossil fuels it burns for its energy. No amount of eco-certified, recycled bamboo flooring can compensate for the impact of a gas guzzling house. Conserving energy, minimising the energy needs of the house has to be the first…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Living the green dream
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 10th February 2009 at 2:15 pm
Comfort and beauty don’t have to go out of the window in pursuit of energy efficiency and low carbon living. It is possible to live in beautiful luxury, with barely a fossil fuel involved. Banish all thoughts of The Good Life, I know it’s true, I’ve just seen the evidence. Recently I visit…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency, Biomass, Solar heat & hot water
Insulating every home relatively cheap says Stern
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 31st December 2008 at 12:26 pm
Insulating every home in the UK would be relatively cheap compared to what the Government has spent shoring up the banking system, according to Lord Stern. In a festive change to the normal BBC Radio 4's Today programme agenda of haranguing politicians, guest editor Jarvis Cocker took a look at how …
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Low-carbon living = improved quality of life
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 2nd January 2009 at 4:21 pm
Part of the difficulty of encouraging people to invest in low-carbon living is the difficulty of imagining what it will be like. Too much of the media coverage paints a picture of deprivation and hair shirts, leaving us shivering at the thought, and tempted to stick our heads in the sand. Now a…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency
Inspiring people to act - or spying on them?
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 1st April 2009 at 1:41 pm
I'm not sure if two councils makes a trend, but last week Exeter City Council and Broadland District Council both reported that they've been taking aerial pictures of homes their areas (of Devon and Norfolk respectively) with thermal imaging equipment. This allows them to see which homes and busines…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Calculators shed light on renewable choices
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 25th March 2009 at 11:16 am
Comparing costs of different renewable technologies and working out potential savings in cash and carbon has just got a whole lot easier. Encraft has developed a range of calculators that help you work out all the figures, so that you can see what's best for your house much more easily. Anyone can u…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency, Biomass, Heat pumps, Solar electricity, Solar heat & hot water, Wind turbines
Solar thermal for space heating
Posted by Gabriel Wondrausch on 21st May 2009 at 10:23 am
I am often asked whether a solar thermal system can be used for space heating as well as for hot water. Technically, it can. However in most cases it is neither cost effective nor energy efficient to do so. The cost of upgrading the system to work with space heating as well as hot w…
Posted in: Solar heat & hot water
Windows: single, double or triple glazing
Posted by Tim Pullen on 3rd June 2009 at 10:07 am
If you are thinking about changing your windows you will need to think about U-values. A U-value measures of the rate at which heat escapes through a fabric, so the lower the figure, the better. A U-value of zero means that no heat is escaping. It is expressed as Watts per square metre…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Do you want warmer homes at an affordable price?
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 13th July 2009 at 11:47 am
Fuel poverty is in the news again with oil prices on the up. The traditional way of dealing with this has been to give people in need a bit of cash to help them over the winter. This strikes us as a sticking plaster approach. You have to go on doing it year after year, and vulnerable people are stil…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
What the renewable energy strategy and low carbon transition plan mean for your home
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 20th July 2009 at 3:01 pm
Households are expected to make cuts in their carbon emissions of 29% by 2020 according to the Government's Low Carbon Transition Plan, announced by Ed Miliband last week (houses currently emit more than a third of the UK's carbon). This will be done through a combination of cutting the amount o…
Posted in: General, Solar electricity, Wind turbines
Old homes can be energy efficient: visit a superhome and be inspired
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 27th July 2009 at 9:08 am
Old homes tend to be the worst offenders when it comes to leaking hot air out into the atmosphere. This means higher than average energy bills, and correspondingly high carbon emissions. Often labelled 'hard to treat', older homes can be more complicated when it comes to installing energy eff…
Posted in: Energy efficiency, Heat pumps, Rainwater harvesting, Solar electricity, Solar heat & hot water
Warm Front leaves many households cold
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 26th August 2009 at 2:29 pm
The Warm Front scheme may be failing the poorest and most vulnerable households according to a report from the Public Accounts Committee published last month. Warm Front is meant to improve energy efficiency and reduce fuel poverty through installing heating and insulation in eligible house…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency
Whole house approach to energy efficiency needed
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 12th October 2009 at 4:32 pm
Government must make a major shift in policy to transform the energy efficiency of our residential housing stock according to the Committee on Climate Change's first annual report. A whole house, street by street approach in which households are offered an energy audit, with a follow up pac…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Making the most of passive solar energy
Posted by Tim Pullen on 14th October 2009 at 9:24 am
Using passive solar energy is a matter of design. To put it another way, if you don't design the house to use passive solar energy, it is difficult to use it well. So pretty much the same as any other form of energy then. What you need is three things; thermal mass (something to absorb …
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Scots pilot loan scheme for energy efficiency
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 16th October 2009 at 9:43 am
Homeowners in Scotland can apply for interest free loans to improve their insulation, replace inefficient boilers or install small scale renewables thanks to a new government pilot scheme. The £2m Energy Saving Scotland home loans scheme is being administered by the Energy Saving Trust in Scotla…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Is it worth insulating under the floor boards?
Posted by Tim Pullen on 4th January 2010 at 12:20 pm
Around 15% of the heat leaving a house exits through the ground floor. And that does not account for the draughts coming up through the floor. So the simple answer is Yes - it is worth insulating under the floor boards. The problem is that, unless you have space to get under the floor boards, it …
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Renewable energy is coming to a supermarket near you
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 1st March 2010 at 10:31 am
"I'm just popping down to Tesco for a solar panel" doesn't sound right somehow. Maybe it's just me, but I not sure that the entry of the supermarkets into the renewable energy market is a good thing. Sainsbury is first out of the starting gates. It opened Home Energy Centres in three of its…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency, Solar electricity, Solar heat & hot water
Is a heat pump suitable for my home? 3 key checks
Posted by John Barker-Brown on 15th March 2010 at 9:59 am
Heat pumps are one of the most talked about renewable technologies - on television, in newspapers and magazines. The way they are portrayed they seem to be the answer to all our problems and will suit all properties. But is this true? Heat pumps (ground, air or water) suit only certain applicatio…
Posted in: Heat pumps
How much loft insulation is enough?
Posted by Tim Pullen on 19th April 2010 at 10:22 am
Everyone understands the need to insulate the loft but few people know how much is enough. The loft is second only to the walls in terms of the proportion of the heat lost at 25%, but it is by far the easiest to deal with. I often get told that the house is “super-insulated” as …
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Introduction to draught proofing your home
Posted by Tim Pullen on 9th June 2010 at 8:37 am
Have you insulated your house, yet some of the rooms are still cold? Draught proofing may be the answer. Two clients I saw in recently both had this complaint and the solution was the same for both. The complaint; a room that has been insulated is still cold. In one case the problem was immedia…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
The Green Deal: who would you prefer to deliver it?
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 14th July 2010 at 10:56 am
For mass take-up of energy saving measures we need effective financing schemes, so we welcome the glimpses of detail on the Green Deal that Greg Barker gave us at the end of June. However, it’s not enough to get a clear view of how the scheme will work. How will it be delivered? Barker said…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency
Poll reveals Government is on the wrong track with Green Deal
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 23rd August 2010 at 12:01 pm
The Government is talking to big national retailers about delivering the Green Deal, yet our poll on YouGen found that 84% of people would trust locally-based, specialist suppliers more than national retailers such as M&S, Tesco (15%). The idea for the poll came from Greg Barker saying that "…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency
How to insulate your loft conversion - Q&A
Posted by Tim Pullen on 4th October 2010 at 9:35 am
Q: The house I bought recently has the loft converted into extra rooms. Should I pay a company to take down the plasterboards on the wall and ceilings and install insulation such as Kingspan boards, as there is only 10cm of insulation according to the blueprints? A: To answer this question direct…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Life gets cosy in social housing in Manchester
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 1st November 2010 at 12:55 pm
Warm homes and lower energy bills for tenants have combined with lower carbon emissions from social housing managed by Ashden Award finalist Northwards Housing in Manchester. The company has gone well beyond the minimum standards of energy efficiency required by the Decent Homes programme which i…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Why would anyone be interested in the Green Deal?
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 1st December 2010 at 8:42 am
This question was asked of the Question Time panel at RegenSW's conference last week, and their answers weren't a ringing endorsement of the Green Deal, the government's flagship policy for making domestic housing more energy efficient. "I'm pessimistic that it will work," said Ian Marchant, chie…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Energy grant of £1,000 available for community buildings in the south west
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 15th February 2011 at 3:28 pm
Grants of £1,000 are still available for community groups across the South West of England and South and West Wales, who are looking to reduce their energy use. The Western Power Distribution Community Chest is open to all eligible groups (although applications from Cornwall and Wales are partic…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
How to install a heat pump into an existing property
Posted by John Barker-Brown on 21st February 2011 at 9:18 am
As the advantages of heat pumps become better known and with the expected Renewable Heat Incentive, more people are looking at whether the technology can be applied to their existing properties. The advantages of installing a heat pump in a new build property is well documented. It is als…
Posted in: Heat pumps
The Green Deal explained
Posted by Adrian Wright on 17th October 2011 at 3:23 am
Any home or business in Britain will be able to carry out a full energy efficiency refurbishment of their property and fund it through a loan of up to 25 years from October 2012. Under the Green Deal, the loan will be lodged against the property (not the occupier). Repayments will be added to the p…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
My top five energy saving tips
Posted by Adrian Wright on 3rd November 2011 at 3:03 am
1) Insulate!! Insulation is a no brainer. Why allow all of that expensive heat to escape through your walls and roof when you can receive grant funding from energy suppliers to have your home professionally insulated? Enact Energy can now do this for you completely free of charg…
Posted in: Energy efficiency, Solar electricity
Secondary glazing for sash windows cuts cost and increases comfort
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 15th December 2011 at 9:55 am
'I bought my existing house in 2009 and, although the walls had been well insulated in 1994 by the developer with 100mm expanded polystyrene fitted between the studs, there were improvements that could be made,' writes Brian John Griffiths, one of our shortlisted contributors. 'Firstly, I topped …
Posted in: Energy efficiency
Does cavity wall insulation cause damp & condensation?
Posted by Tim Pullen on 19th December 2011 at 3:58 pm
Q: I am considering having cavity wall insulation but have read that it can cause damp and condensation. Would be interested in your views. A: Cavity wall insulation is a great idea if you have a clean cavity. It is true that filling the cavity with insulation can cause damp and this is usually…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
How can we stop heat loss from our bay window?
Posted by Tim Pullen on 13th January 2012 at 9:31 am
Q: Hi we have a semi-detached 1950s bay fronted house and the only part not insulated is the upstairs bay (which sounds like it's made of wattle and daub!) and the flat roof above the bay. The flat roof part is perhaps 3 inches deep only, and covered with lead. Despite the radiator being in the bay,…
Posted in: Energy efficiency
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