Get Sust! Issue 22

Wednesday 11 October 2006

	Editorial - Welcome back
	Comment - Which way will the wind blow?
	Feature - Sustainable homes new and old (conference report)
	News
	‘Cardigan’ wins sustainability prize Cooler reception for end-of-terraces Cut emissions with fibre-optics New website for Fuel Prophet
	Reviews
	Delivering improvements in existing housing Sustainable facilities management
	Events
	Energy-efficient heating systems Water - conservation and re-use for engineers Planning for Renewable Energy in the South East Building with lime-hemp bio-composites Low-carbon technology briefings G4c - celebrating successful young construction professionals Back to the future - Eric Lyons and Span at the RIBA Buildings and our changing climate Innovations for the built environment
	Careers and competitions
	Bath University team wins TRADA student prize MSc Energy Conversion and Management Sustainable Energy Engineer, London Graduate/Junior Mechanical Design Engineer, Surrey Intermediate Mechanical Design Engineer Energy Project Manager, Portsmouth Intermediate Electrical Design Engineer, Winchester Mechanical Design Engineer, south-west London

Welcome back to the 2006/07 academic session.

Many thanks to everyone who took part in the end-of-year survey last June. The comments were very useful, and changes are in the pipeline. Congratulations to Rebecca Davies, who won the £50 prize draw, kindly sponsored by Architectural Press.

Earlier this week many of you will have received the annual Get Sust fund-raising mailer. We have made it easy for readers to donate to help fund this unique newsletter. Please click here for details.

We have several new books that are awaiting reviewers, so please do contact the Editor if you would like to review a new sustainable construction title.

As always, please do continue to support Get Sust! by sending in news items, announcements and careers information. And don’t forget to pass it on to colleagues who may be interested. E-mail: editor@get-sust.com.

© Melanie Thompson 2006

There was an interesting twist to last month’s ‘resource’ event, which is now a staple of BRE’s dissemination activities (see Feature, below). Gone were the ubiquitous slides of carbon cycles and graphs where predictions of carbon emissions escalate at an alarming rate. Instead, Dr Martin Elsberger of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy and Transport opened the two-day conference with a warning about the uncertain nature of the world oil markets.

Whether or not this was a conscious change of emphasis, it is probably all to the good. I know what I think about the science of climate change; but I’ve also witnessed the confusion that can be wrought among seemingly sensible people who are misled by the powerful lobbying of the climate sceptics. A few weeks ago I read a fascinating expose of their antics in The Guardian. It was an extract from George Monbiot’s new book Heat: How to stop the planet burning. Not for the first time I was left wondering how the ‘uninterested public’ can possibly be expected to take positive actions to reduce their environmental impact when international businesses are surreptitiously funding a disinformation campaign. ‘Well done, George,’ I thought - great to expose the machinations of these vested interests.

But a few days later, here was Monbiot again, this time taking a swipe at small-scale renewable power schemes. ‘In almost all circumstances, micro wind turbines are a waste of time and money,’ he wrote, in a ‘comment’ article in New Scientist, and his thoughts on micro solar were no less strong! He said the benefits of micro-generation have been grossly over-hyped, and quoted examples of misleading information that he has found in a brochure published by Bill Dunster (designer of the BedZed development) and in Building for A Future magazine.

Monbiot is not against wind entirely though (which is perhaps just as well!). He is in favour of offshore wind farms, saying they are a ‘far better use of our time and money than putting mini-turbines in places where they will generate more anger than power’.

I can’t comment on the specific cases he cites, but I can’t help thinking that he has missed the point somewhat. There are a range of micro-renewable technologies. Not all are suitable for all circumstances; few are designed to generate all the power a home may need, though some do offer the prospect of ‘selling’ surplus power back to the grid. The reason why people are interested in micro-renewables is not that they are a one-size-fits-all solution, but that there are various alternatives, each of which can offer the building’s owners or occupants some degree of flexibility and security of supply.

And we must bear in mind that while these technologies might cause a rumpus in the local council planning meetings in the Home Counties, but you can bet they’ll be gratefully received in parts of the world where there is no reliable ‘grid’ to fall back on.

It is too early to tell which way the wind will eventually blow for micro wind turbines; but one thing I can say with certainty - Monbiot’s great at blowing his own trumpet. Heat is already no. 10 on Amazon’s bestsellers list (Society, Politics and Philosophy category)!

Learn more:

	•	‘The denial industry’, by George Monbiot, The Guardian Tuesday 19 September 2006 www.guardian.co.uk.
	•	‘Low-wattage thinking’, by George Monbiot, New Scientist, 30 September 2006, p24. See www.newscientist.com.
	•	‘Heat: How to stop the planet burning’ by George Monbiot, published by Penguin. Second-hand copies are on sale at www.amazon.co.uk or visit www.turnuptheheat.org.

© Melanie Thompson 2006

The UK housing market is endlessly fascinating, but so far sustainability and energy-efficiency have not had a significant impact on the national conscience - except in some notable cases. Day one of BRE’s annual ‘resource’ conference on low-carbon technologies focused on housing - new and old - and delegates heard some exciting examples of these notable exceptions that could be setting the trend for future homes.

It was good to see Stephen Philips of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on the platform for the first session of the day. The DCLG (a.k.a. dee-clog) is now the government department responsible for the Building Regulations and, significantly for the resource06 audience, the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Philips says the Department received more than 2100 replies to the Code consultation document by March this year, and they are currently being reviewed. Proposals on the table are to strengthen the Code:

• to make it mandatory for all new homes to have a sustainability assessment and be given a rating/certificate (along the lines of the new energy rating system)
• that the Code should form the basis of the new wave of changes to the Building Regulations, i.e. that the Code will indicate where the Building Regs are going in the next 5, 10 or 15 years’ time
• the government is considering the possibility of extending the code to cover existing homes
• that limits should be put on the ‘tradability’ of sustainability measures (i.e. developers cannot put all the emphasis on one aspect of sustainability at the expense of all others)
• there will be a five-level rating system, with Level 1 higher than the 2006 Part L standard, and Level 5 being carbon neutral
• there will be extra points awarded for micro-renewables.

Disjointed government?

There are still other decisions to be made - for example, whether to include wider issues such as ecology, transport and space standards; and what energy methodology to use. Despite these unknowns, Philips says the Code should be published at the end of 2006, with implementation to follow swiftly on.

What he was not able to say, however, was how the Code will tie in with the Home Information Pack (HIP), which has a similar implementation schedule and which also involves ‘certification’ and an inspection regime. Apparently the two issues are dealt with separately. Whatever happened to ‘joined up government’ - it’s certainly not happening at the eponymous De-CLoG!

Contemporary style

It’s good news then, that a number of developers and individuals are now taking up the sustainability cause and running with it. Paul Ensch, Divisional Director of Osborne Homes is a case in point. Osborne is a ‘complete constructions solutions’ company that has decided its business can benefit from developing sustainable homes. It has built Osborne House, a show home on the BRE site, to demonstrate what can be achieved. This house is the first in the UK to approach the European PassivHaus Standard, and it has achieved an EcoHomes Excellent rating.

The design is ‘contemporary’, though simple and economical, and conforms to the Housing Corporation standards for flexibility and adaptability of internal layout. Some 60 suppliers partnered Osborne to develop the house, which features (among other things):

• a bathroom pod
• a disabled through-lift
• nine types of external cladding
• slates made from recycled car tyres.

Of particular note is the Jabhouse structural insulated panel system (SIPs), which was used here for the first time. These panels play a crucial role in the house’s energy efficiency. The panels are large, so few are needed, which is good for airtightness. This also reduces cold bridging (there are fewer structural timbers), and thermal performance is high. The resulting building performs significantly better than the 2006 Building Regulations (typically using one-third of the heating energy needed for a conventional new-build). In addition, the system is extremely quick to erect. The shell of the house at BRE was put up in two days. (Visitors to resource06 were invited to tour the house.)

Carbon mixer

Energy was the focus for a lively presentation by Neil Paterson and Bobby Gilbert, who described a case study where they successfully modelled energy demand and carbon emissions at the very early stages of scheme development.

Platts Eyot, in Richmond, Surrey, is a new development on a ‘greenish’ site. It had outline planning permission for a combination of terraced and detached homes, masonettes (partly earth-covered), and four apartment blocks, including retaining and converting some existing buildings. This is a commercial development, so financial considerations were paramount.

The team considered a range of energy-saving options:

• orientation
• solar shading
• earth sheltering
• low-energy lighting
• efficient boilers
• low U-value materials.

They then demonstrated to the resource06 audience how they used the ‘carbon mixer’ software tool to quickly and simply conduct a series of ‘what if’ scenarios for the various options available to the site. The system modelled costs, savings and payback of each measure - in £ sterling, or in terms of carbon emissions. And as a final flourish to their presentation, they showed how the site could - in theory at least - become carbon neutral by the addition of photovoltaics, and micro turbines.

Renovation the radical way

The second half of the morning considered the refurb market, and featured two outstanding examples of what can be achieved. The first is a fairly radical approach by a committed sustainability campaigner; the second the realisation of a 73-year-old’s low-carbon dream!

Eight years ago Gil Schalom and his partner bought a three-storey Victorian semi-detached house in Nottingham. The house, formerly occupied by students, was in a poor condition, responsible for some 19t of carbon dioxide emissions per year, and cost £84,500. Having spent eight years and nearly £100,000 on it, it is now approaching carbon neutrality.

The priorities for the refurbishment were to upgrade the thermal performance, to be autonomous as far as possible, and to use sustainable and low toxicity materials. But because the house was occupied throughout the refurbishment, the work had to be tackled element by element.

They started with the roof, which was refurbished to include a membrane, and the eaves on the gable end were extended to make room for more insulation. The walls were insulated externally to the side and rear. This had the dual advantages of minimising internal disruption and keeping the thermal mass of the interior brick walls exposed to help keep temperatures more even. The front walls of the house were insulated internally, taking great care with the returns to prevent thermal bridging.

An interesting dilemma arose over the windows. Shortly before the house was sold the previous owner had installed uPVC double-glazed units. Although these were not desirable, Schalom decided to leave them in place, to avoid waste. However, high-performance French windows were installed at the rear of the house.

Other measures include:

• Heat recovery fans in the kitchen and bathroom only, because it was not practical to retrofit a whole-house system.
• Solar thermal water heating was installed on the south-facing roof, and a wood-fired boiler installed which is powered by ‘scavenged wood’.
• Rainwater is collected from the roof via downpipe diverters, which include filters to collect grit and debrit; water is stored in tanks in the cellar.

The second case study was of an 1970s semi owned by a 73-year-old lady who wanted a sustainable home. Alastair Binnie, of Alastair Binnie Architecure and Environment Ltd, and Oxford-based practice that specialises in sustainable construction designed and oversaw the works, which ultimately won the Observer Ethical Award for its owner.

Features on the owners’ refurbishment shopping list included:

• improved insulation
• rainwater harvesting
• photovoltaics
• solar thermal
• wind turbine
• new porch
• rear extension.

In the end, the PVs and micro turbine ideas had to be abandoned due to cost and difficulty with planning permission.

The rear extension is a timber-frame construction which had to be as simple as possible so that local contractors could install it. The contractors commented that they liked working with the lambswool insulation that was specified - it was kind to their hands!

Other novel features include an all-in-one solar thermal and condensing boiler system supplied by Eco-hometec, and a waste water heat recovery system, which was fitted to the shower system as an experiment.

Learn more:

	•	Most of the presentations from the two-day resource06 event can be downloaded at www.resource06.com (choose ‘presentations’).
	•	* The Code for Sustainable Homes - see www.communities.gov.uk.
	•	Osborne Homes www.osborne.co.uk.
	•	Neil Paterson, Platts Eyot Case Study. E-mail: patersonn@bre.co.uk.
	•	Alastair Binnie Architecture and Environment Ltd www.ab-arch.co.uk. See also www.sageoxford.co.uk and www.generationhomes.org.uk.

© Melanie Thompson 2006

Heelis, the Central Office for The National Trust in Swindon by Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects has won the RIBA Sustainability Award, and will receive the Award at a special ceremony at the RIBA Stirling Prize on Saturday 14 October.

What made this building stand out? The RIBA judges say:

‘The sustainable design is quite simple but well delivered; a well-handled natural ventilation system with a degree of user control, super insulation, photovoltaics, lots of daylight, sensor-controlled lighting. The strategy delivers an exceptionally pleasant working environment. It somehow feels healthy without being worthy. The National Trust has furthered the sustainable ethos of the design through their management practices.’

The building was described to the judges as a ‘cardigan building’ – you learn to adapt to its cycles by putting on and taking off layers!

Learn more:

	•	Details of the RIBA Sustainability Award are at www.architecture.com.
	•	See www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

© Melanie Thompson 2006

It’s not entirely surprising that researchers in Sweden have discovered that mid-terraced homes are warmer than their end-of-terrace neighbours. However, it is reassuring to learn that the low-energy homes the team studied are all classed as ‘comfortable’ within acceptable limits, even on cold days, and their study highlighted the need to provide occupants with good instructions on how to manage the indoor environment of their homes.

The researchers, Charlotta Isaksson and Fredrik Karlsson of Linköping University, Sweden conducted an interdisciplinary investigation of the thermal environment and the space heating in 20 low-energy terraced houses. Their research included qualitative interviews with the occupants as well as measurements of physical parameters.

They conclude that, when the houses are inhabited and household appliances and candles are being used, the temperature can be managed within acceptable limits, even on cold days. However, it was clear that those living in middle houses are generally more satisfied with their indoor temperature than the households of the gable houses. Results from both interviews and measurements show that there is a temperature difference between the floor levels, which is more pronounced in the gable houses.

The researchers suggest that information about the functionality of the heating system given to the households should be improved, and that the accuracy of temperature regulation systems could be better.

Learn more:

	•	Read the full details: ‘Indoor climate in low-energy houses—an interdisciplinary investigation’ by Charlotta Isaksson and Fredrik Karlsson in Building and Environment Volume 41, Issue 12 , December 2006, Pages 1678-1690.
	•	Read the abstract or download the paper (Science Direct subscribers only) from www.sciencedirect.com.

© Melanie Thompson 2006

Lighting strategies that couple effective daylighting with fibre-optic technology could save up to 138 kgCO2/m2 of built area in UK cities, according to research published in a recent issue of the journal Building and Environment.

Authors of the report, Enedir Ghisi, and John A. Tinker (of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil and School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, respectively) say that the full benefits of an integrated lighting strategy are only achieved when the artificial lighting system can be switched on or off as a function of daylight levels reaching the working surface of spaces. They suggest that fibre-optic technology can be used as an energy-efficient means of supplementing the daylight received at the rear of rooms.

Learn more:

	•	‘Evaluating the potential for energy savings on lighting by integrating fibre optics in buildings’ by Enedir Ghisi, and John A. Tinker of the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil and School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, respectively is published in Building and Environment, Volume 41, Issue 12 , December 2006, Pages 1611-1621.
	•	Read the abstract or download the paper (Science Direct subscribers only) at www.sciencedirect.com.

© Melanie Thompson 2006

Fuel Prophet, developed for the Eaga Partnership Charitable Trust, is a software tool designed to help housing professionals and policy researchers decide which energy-saving refurbishment measures should be supported and installed. The tool is now available via a new website, www.ukace.org/research/fuelprophet.

Fuel Prophet can calculate the performance of various measures, both individually and in combination, in a variety of typical UK dwellings and under different fuel price conditions. It works by modelling the cost-effectiveness and the reduction in fuel bills from a refurbishment measure in a single dwelling. Particular focus is on hard-to-treat homes (solid wall or off the gas network or both), with cavity wall options included, and it identifies the payback of each measure in terms of fuel cost saved by the occupier against the initial purchase and installation cost, plus annual maintenance costs.

Learn more:

•

Download Fuel Prophet v1.2 (7.2 MB) from www.ukace.org/research/fuelprophet.

© Melanie Thompson 2006