no carbon sense

Few people have any idea how much energy they are using, let alone wasting. Over 50% of the energy consumed in the UK is used in buildings; however, it is largely invisible: meters are hidden away and bills are paid by direct debit. There is no real-time information available — until now!

We offer a range of energy monitoring devices that make energy visible and help you to manage, understand and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you produce. Whether you’re looking for your home, school or business, we’ve got an energy display to suit you.

visit the site here

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The “dash to biomass” could mean additional demand for wood fibre for use in large biomass plants could rise to 27 million tonnes per annum in the next five years, putting pressure on existing users, according to a report published by the Confederation of Forest Industries (ConFor) this week.

The independent study, by John Clegg Consulting, entitled “Wood fibre availability and demand in Britain 2007-2025″, was commissioned by ConFor – established to help build the market for timber, timber products and forest services and create a supportive policy environment for the forest industries – the UK Forest Products Association (UKFPA) and the Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF)……. (read more)

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The latest version of Revit has been released with an addition of some new tools….predominantly to me the Sun Path tool

One of the key benefits with BIM is the ability to use the model to meet the ever increasing sustainability requirements. Whether you believe all the discussions about global warming that the governments and scientist talk about, is a matter of opinion. But one thing is for sure, as an industry we need to be smarter about how we design buildings and we need to reduce the energy consumption of our buildings. To analyze a building, typically you need 3D data. Whilst Autodesk already have solutions like Ecotect and Green Building Studio, there is still a need to have tools within your favourite design package to enable you as the designer to make informed decisions. To support this Revit 2011 now includes a sun path tool, similar to the one found in Ecotect. You can use the sun path tool in solar animations; you can also grab it in a 3D view and interactively drag the sun around, depending where you are in the world, to see the impact of solar shading on your design. This is a great step forward and I look forward to seeing more tools included to support sustainable design workflows.

This will make life easier with solar shading. My next task is to detail up all my building components with as much information as possible and to set up scheduling or materials/etc for SAP use and more!

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Development of 18 apartments and houses will be exemplar for future.

Willmott Dixon and Catalyst Housing Group are to build one of London’s first Code for Sustainable Homes level six projects, the highest standard possible for sustainable housing.
The project to build 18 homes on Staines Road in Hounslow, west London, aims to be an exemplar for delivering highly sustainable, low carbon emitting homes in an urban location. The project team will capture learning and feed it back for similar future schemes.

The development, designed by architects MEPK, comprises 14 flats and four houses for affordable rent and shared ownership. The scheme will include 450 square metres of photovoltaic panels, biomass plant and rainwater harvesting. Homes will also be super insulated to give very low U values. Solar shading panels will also keep the structures cool in summer. Building will start in July, with completion scheduled for October 2011.

Willmott Dixon chief executive officer John Frankiewicz said, “We aim to use this to learn how to make level six homes affordable and replicable so that they can be built more often. At the moment, barely one hundred homes exist that are this standard and taking into account the climate change challenges we face, we need to have a step change.”

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Sustainabilitylive! is the home of five leading environment exhibitions, including BEX, ET, IWEX, NEMEX and SB – The Event. These exhibitions include hundreds of exhibitors,insightful seminars and conferences, interactive feature areas and lots more.
The 2010 show will take place a month earlier this year; on 20-22 April 2010 in halls 3 and 3a at the NEC, Birmingham. For more information on exhibiting or visiting please click on the relevant tabs.

http://www.sustainabilitylive.com/

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The term ‘PassivHaus’ refers to a specific construction standard for buildings which have excellent comfort conditions in both winter and summer. These principles can be applied not only to the residential sector but also to commercial, industrial and public buildings.

BUT this is not linked to CSH, so this would have to be designed in to! A recent Passivhaus that was constructed in the UK only achieved level 3 due to not being assessed at the early stages of design.

A dwelling which achieves the PassivHaus standard typically includes:

very good levels of insulation with minimal thermal bridges
well thought out utilisation of solar and internal gains
excellent level of airtightness
good indoor air quality, provided by a whole house mechanical ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery

By specifying these features the design heat load is limited to the load that can be transported by the minimum required ventilation air. Thus, a PassivHaus does not need a traditional heating system or active cooling to be comfortable to live in – the small heating demand can be typically met using a compact services unit which intergrates heating, hot water and ventilation in one unit (although there are a variety of alternative solutions).

For Europe (40o – 60o Northern latitudes), a dwelling is deemed to satisfy the PassivHaus criteria if:

the total energy demand for space heating and cooling is less than 15 kWh/m2/yr treated floor area;
the total primary energy use for all appliances, domestic hot water and space heating and cooling is less than 120 kWh/m2/yr

These figures are verified at the design stage using the PassivHaus Planning Package.

It is also essential to follow a quality control procedure to avoid onsite problems which may prevent excellent levels of airtightness and thermal insulation being achieved.

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Permitted development changes confirmed by Government
Housing and planning minister John Healey has confirmed further reforms to the planning system in England which should remove the need for thousands of full planning applications, in the process cutting costs and red tape for businesses.

The reforms, consulted on last year and recommended in the Killian Pretty Review, will remove an estimated 10,000 full planning applications from the system and allow industrial premises, offices, shops and schools to quickly and easily undertake minor developments without the need for planning permission.

This move follows the Improving Permitted Development (IPD) consultation which took forward recommendations from the Killian Pretty Review for removing the requirement to apply for planning permission for certain forms of non-domestic development.

Shops will now be able to extend their floor space by up to a maximum of 50 square metres without the need to apply for planning permission, and schools, hospitals and universities will be able to more easily build new facilities. These new rights will be subject to certain constraints which are designed to minimise impacts on neighbouring properties and the wider environment.

The measures just introduced focus on changes to permitted development, which remove the need to make a planning application. At a later date, replacement shop fronts and installing cash points will also be subject to a simpler, cheaper and quicker planning process, called prior approval.

These changes form a series of updates in response to the Killian Pretty Review which, when fully introduced, will save up to £180m a year for developers, ministers have estimated.

John Healey said: “Taking simpler applications out of the planning system will help councils process major applications faster, and save businesses up to £43m a year. This is in addition to over £120m worth of savings from cutting the amount of information required in planning applications and making planning permissions more flexible.”

The changes to permitted development are set out in The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (England) Order 2010.

Steve Quartermain, the chief planner at Communities and Local Government, has sent a letter to all chief planning officers setting out these latest changes and other planning regulation moves.

He explained that these measures, contained in a number of statutory instruments, “set out new arrangements in relation to the publicity of planning applications, information requirements for planning applications, and permitted development. The statutory instruments also take forward a number of other changes to the planning application and appeal process on which we have previously consulted, but are not directly in response to Killian Pretty”.

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Sustainability Day
At Bedford College we are proud to announce our third annual Sustainability Day.

Sustainability is incorporated into all courses at Bedford College and effective community
engagement provides valuable learning opportunities in a wide range of vocational disciplines.

This event will showcase students’ achievements and celebrate our successful partnerships with
many industry, community and public sector organisations. Examples include:

• Sustainable development work completed by students in a range of curriculum areas
• Information on low carbon retro-fit developments at Bedford College
• Information on current partnership activity (Pathfinder Innovation Centres for Sustainability,
Riseley Eco-House project, Retro-fit for the Future project and others)
• Exhibits with information, guidance and good-practice examples
• Interactive computer programs, competitions and many others!

Participation as an exhibitor or as a visitor is free of charge.

Parking facilities are available in the nearby public car parks.
www.comearoundtobedford.co.uk/#/parking-in-bedford/4528728883

Park and Ride: http://domino.bedfordshire.gov.uk/park/

Bedford train station is a 15 minute walk from the college.
22nd March 2010 (10:00 am – 4:00 pm)
Bedford College · Cauldwell Street · MK42 9AH
Bedford College
Cauldwell Street
Bedford MK42 9AH

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I was thinking about the code for sustainable homes and the design you have to go through to meet certain levels of the code. It dawned upon me that there isnt much geared in the CSH towards plantation of trees. Granted there is the ecological survey of the site, but this is more geared towards saving gods little creatures.  Should there be more emphasis on actual neutralizing CO2 rather than trying to produce less?

This also leads me to another question….how much CO2 are we actually pumping in to the atmosphere and how much is getting neutralized…?

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To keep up to date with ideas/plans/designs for the Riseley Eco House I have set a forum up for all to discuss ideas.

Please visit the forum @ http://www.nocarbonsense.com/forum/

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