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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
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