Quick Find
YouGen Blog
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
Creating the green dream
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 16th February 2009 at 9:28 am
Converting your house to low-carbon luxury doesn’t come without a lot of hard work, and vast quantities of attention to detail. Last week I wrote about what Sue Harley and Neil Tappenden achieved in turning their Devon farmhouse into a low-carbon dream home. This week I look at how they did it, an…
Posted in: Energy efficiency, Biomass, Solar heat & hot water
Monbiot launches war on Agas
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 13th January 2009 at 10:34 am
Agas are the antithesis of energy efficiency and renewable energy, so when I heard on the Today programme this morning that George Monbiot has launched a war on Agas in today's Guardian a lightbulb pinged on. Why didn't I use Agas as the ultimate example of the heart winning over head in yester…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency
Bring some heart into renewable energy
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 12th January 2009 at 4:31 pm
I’m fascinated by the psychology of how we spend money. Is it our heads or our hearts that rule? While we probably like to think of ourselves as rational, logical human beings – and we even sometimes spend lots of time researching things to back up our beliefs – my feeling is that the he…
Posted in: General
Wind power: accessible yet frustrating
Posted by Matthew Rhodes on 8th January 2009 at 1:57 pm
Wind power is one of the most accessible and yet frustrating renewable technologies. It is accessible because it’s relatively easy to install, cheaper than many other renewables at small scale; you can buy it at any size from laptop to leviathan; it produces electricity – which is a very fl…
Posted in: Wind turbines
Equal feed-in tariff for existing generation has heavyweight support
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 30th September 2009 at 10:10 am
Support for equal feed-in rates for those who already have small solar PV, wind turbines or hydro came from diverse parts of the renewable energy sector at yesterday's RegenSW conference in Bristol. Sponsor Christine Griffiths of Aeolus Power got her passionate call in early in the day - to be me…
Posted in: General, Hydro electricity, Solar electricity, Wind turbines
Wind power without the guesswork
Posted by Cathy Debenham on 10th June 2009 at 11:01 am
Measuring wind power to see whether it makes sense to get a wind turbine has, until now, been either expensive or inaccurate. Now with the launch of the Power Predictor, it’s possible to take the risk out of what is a significant investment. The device is the invention of Toby Hammond, managing…
Posted in: Solar electricity, Solar heat & hot water, Wind turbines
The case for secondary double glazing
Posted by Tim Pullen on 21st August 2009 at 12:08 pm
I recently helped a lady refurbishing a typical 1960s three-bedroom semi with energy efficiency issues. A quick heat loss calculation gave a peak heat load of 8.5kW which should have equated to a use of about 10,000kWh of gas per year. Her actual gas consumption was 15,000kWh p.a. which was used…
Posted in: General, Energy efficiency
Follow us on Twitter
At last: an end to the damaging #solar #FITs speculation http://t.co/5V6zvWZG 2 hours ago
@philstewardson Yes, I expected that - it brings it in line with other techs, & most people don't think that long term. 2 hours ago
Returns for small scale solar PV still attractive under new rates http://t.co/g5BdI9yD 3 hours ago