Green Living - Home - Wrap up your home When Penney Poyzer and her ‘green' architect husband Gil moved into their Victorian semi in Nottingham six years ago, ‘the only form of insulation was mould,' she says. One of their top priorities was to insulate, internally and externally, from roof space to cellars. Along with other eco renovations, Penney estimates that ‘we now save £1,000 a year on heating bills and our carbon emissions have gone from around 18 tonnes to just a fraction of a tonne.' ‘Insulating the loft is a no-brainer, it's so cheap and easy to do,' says Martin Normanton - who, from top to bottom, and room by room, has dramatically improved the insulation of his 1903 solid wall house in Walsall. Nearly 50 per cent of all heat loss in an average home escapes through the walls and roof according to the Energy Saving Trust. Loft If your loft isn't insulated, a third of your heating costs could be going through the roof. The recommended depth of loft insulation is now 270mm (10 inches), so you may need to top yours up.
The UK’s 100% renewable electricity supplier | Good Energy The Official Online Prank Store and Gag Gifts Shop at PrankPlace.com Retrofits are go! At first glance‚ some houses look just the same‚ identical to any other on their particular street. It is only on closer inspection that their identity as ‘eco homes’ become apparent. When people think of eco homes‚ most think of the ultra-modern. But ‘eco-retrofits’ can come in all ages‚ shapes and sizes‚ ranging from 17th century cottages to 1920s semis. ‘An eco-renovation‚ or retrofit‚ is when you look at every aspect of a house and have a goal of getting the energy use down‚’ says George Marshall‚ a climate campaigner who has fully retrofitted his house in Oxford (see ‘The Yellow House’ opposite). ‘A lot of homes now have insulation or more efficient boilers‚ but that’s not eco-renovation‚ that’s home improvement.’ Ecovation (www.ecovation.org.uk)‚ which Marshall helped set up‚ is the first UK website to feature case studies of people’s eco-renovation projects‚ written in their own words. ‘People were really excited and inspired by it‚’ says Marshall. Why retrofit? How to do it
Greenpeace UK Halloween Gifts | Thanksgiving Gifts | Holiday Gifts The Obsession Gift Box Company Green Living - Ecologist guides - Ecologist guide to greening your home Eco retrofits For inspiration, check out these pioneering examples of full eco-retrofits on the Ecovation website. You'll see super-insulated, energy efficient, energy generating houses around the UK that have been transformed by their owners. There are houses of all ages, shapes and sizes - from a church cottage to an 1890's Oxford semi. Insulation and glazing Around half of the heat loss in a typical home is through the walls and loft so it's worth checking whether yours are insulated. Cavity wall insulationSolid wall insulationFloor insulationLoft InsulationDraught proofing around doors and window framesHot water tank and pipe insulationDouble glazing for windows For more details including cost, payback and savings see the Energy Saving Trust's guide to home insulation and glazing. For information about where to start and what materials to use click here. Find out about the grants and offers available to help you to make energy saving improvements to your home here. Heating and hot water
AECB Home Page - Find Me A Gift - the Home of Fun and Unusual Gifts and Presents News - News Analysis - Low-tech retrofit experiment could transform social housing From a distance it may look like any other rural council house, but a retrofit experiment taking place in 21 The Street, in the pretty Norfolk village of Ringland, could represent the future of social housing in the UK. Most of the UK’s 1.7 million council houses were built decades before such things as green building regulations, fuel efficiency and optimised insulation, and in a world of diminishing resources, most are unfit for purpose. Poor design, inefficient use of energy and the rising price of fuel make properties costly for tenants and the environment both – a quarter of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions come from housing sector. Up until now councils and housing associations have simply been knocking down old stock and building anew, but the question being posed in Ringland is, why demolish when you can retrofit? The proof of the pudding will be in the living, however. ‘The trick is to capture and store heat in a healthy way.
Bioneers - Revolution From the Heart of Nature Candy Wrapper Handbags, Purses, and Bags | Eco Friendly Bags | Recycled Purses | Handmade Handbags | Eco Gifts | Recycled Fashion | - Ecoist.com Interviews - LSE's Anne Power: the Government's Feed-in Tariff is great news Matilda Lee: How big are the energy costs of our homes? Anne Power: Massive, in three different ways. One, the land they sit on and the roads that they require cause floods, affect biodiversity and use up land needed as a sink for our pollution. Second, the energy required to build homes, from brick making to quarrying slate and creating steel girders, is huge. Third, they leak out heat through poor insulation and draughts - which is where we could make an 80 per cent saving. The more we preserve older homes, the more we encourage greater density, and the less we encourage sprawl, green field building and wider environmental damage. ML: What is your recipe for the 80 per cent energy savings you mention? AP: I use the analogy of the tea pot. Very alarmingly 35 per cent escapes through the walls, 15 per cent through the floors and 15 per cent escapes through doors. Another aspect of the tea cosy is to stop draughts of cool air chilling your teapot. ML: What is it about the German approach?