For and by sustainable construction professionals
Neil Turner | EBS
In November I attended a series of four half day Passivhaus ‘bitesize’ courses run by The Green Register (TGR), Warm and AECB CarbonLite in Bristol. Based on my career background (previously with Warmcel and now with TGR partners EBS: www.ecologicalbuildingsystems.com) I was fully aware of the typical building envelope insulation and airtightness requirements for Passivhaus construction but wanted to…
Posted in Events, Features, Have your say, Recommended
Brian Murphy | Green Building Encyclopaedia
A recent announcement anticipated temperatures of 48 degrees C in London in 2050, 14 degrees higher than the Midlands peak of 34 degrees C in July 2016. Urban climate specialists argue that building façade design needs to respond to alleviate the consequences of future high temperatures.
Today’s 100% glazed sealed facades, favoured by letting agents and developers, (and often essential in the noisy trafficked and…
Posted in Building envelope, Carbon emissions, Have your say, Low and Zero Carbon Technologies, Uncategorised
Bronwen Thomas | Associate, Pollard Thomas Edwards
A window to another world… airtightness, wet stone, fancy sticky tape and ‘breathing’ walls. How we can reduce energy use, but through two very different methods, but with the same concern for moisture within the wall.
When I agreed to facilitate a day of TGR training, I wasn’t bargaining for such a mind expanding day that covered everything from the cultural impact of weather on the urban geography of the British Isles, to magic…
Posted in Building envelope, Events, General News, Have your say, Low and Zero Carbon Technologies, Recommended
Rob Borruso
We live on a finite planet, resources are limited, most stuff is running out etc. The good news is that there are resources that rely on the sun in one way or another, that are getting constantly renewed, i.e. renewables. These are solar, wind, hydro and biomass (or woodfuel). But biomass is not quite a 'renewable' as we've assumed even without the issue of using arable land to feed power stations instead of people.
As we all know the two 'big' renewables, wind and sun, have some intermittency issues for which…
Posted in Building envelope, Carbon emissions, Features, General News, Have your say, Legislation, Low and Zero Carbon Technologies, Sustainable Development
Thomas Vazakas | RPS Group
In 2008, Parliament introduced the Climate Change Act. The Act, which is independent from European Union (EU) legislation, established a legally binding target to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. The recent vote to leave the EU does not change this commitment.
To drive progress and set the UK on a pathway towards this target, the Act introduced a system of carbon budgets to be produced in successive five year…
Posted in Carbon emissions, Features, General News, Have your say, Legislation, Recommended, Sustainable Development
Cath Hassell | ech2o
The Passivhaus standard is recognised as a methodology that has a major role to play in reducing the 50% of CO2 emissions that come from the UK’s built environment. This is either in a new build scenario or as an EnerPHit to existing buildings - always assuming that Brexit doesn’t mean it will no longer have validity in the UK. But to my mind it has one major flaw, and that is the absence of a design standard for hot water use. 6% of CO2 emissions in the UK come from…
Posted in Carbon emissions, Have your say, Recommended, Retrofit, Sustainable Development, Water
Piers Sadler | Piers Sadler Consulting
I am rarely approached these days about a new project without Passivhaus being mentioned. Most architects and many clients have an understanding that Passivhaus represents the highest standard of energy efficiency; some have an understanding of the energy performance gap and are aware that adopting the Passivhaus standard will help to eliminate it; others are aware that Passivhaus provides excellent thermal comfort and indoor air quality; but few make it easy…
Posted in Carbon emissions, Low and Zero Carbon Technologies, Recommended, Sustainable Development
Views from the industry...
With only a few weeks to go, the noise around the In/Out referendum is getting louder. Concerns about the economy, immigration and the strains on public services abound but views on how the construction industry might be affected are less easy to find.
In January, Building magazine reported that there was considerable concern that UK withdrawal from the EU would be damaging for the British construction industry and the magazine has come out in support of staying in the EU. The results of an…
Posted in Features, General News, Have your say, Recommended
Niall Crosson | Senior Engineer | Ecological Building Systems
Reflecting on the International Passive House Conference, Darmstadt 2016. By Niall Crosson, Senior Engineer at Ecological Building Systems and Member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Green Building Council
I travelled once again to the International Passive House Conference which was held in Darmstadt, Germany from the 22nd to the 24th of April. The International Passive House Conference (IPHC) returned to…
Posted in Events, Features, General News, Have your say
Thomas Vazakas | Technical Director | RPS
The Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) was introduced by the Government in June 2014 and it obliges all large enterprises to carry out an energy efficiency audit every four years. The scheme is required under the 2012 European Energy Efficiency Directive and has a scope which is wider than current carbon schemes, such as CRC, as the focus is on energy, not carbon. ESOS also covers all parts of an organisation’s energy consumption, including buildings,…
Posted in Carbon emissions, Features, General News, Have your say, Legislation, Recommended
