Homebuilding & Renovating Show

The Homebuilding and Renovating Show is being held at the National Exhibition Center (NEC), from the 2nd to the 5th March 2006, and includes The Green Village.

In the words of the shows organisers:

"Make your ultimate dream home a reality now. Whether you are building a home from scratch, extending or improving your existing home or taking on a conversion or renovation development - The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show is the perfect place to source the right products, services and advice you’ll need to get your project underway!"

The reason for posting this event is that there are two features that make this event worthy of note - as well as the usual plotfinder
stands, and other useful resources, the one is the range of seminars, which will surely interest anyone thinking or planning to build their
own eco-friendly home, some examples of which are below:

• A beginner’s guide to building your dream home


• Finding and assessing land and renovation opportunities


• Modern heating plumbing and ventilation/climate control


• How to design your dream home - the fundamentals of good house design


• A guide to ecological home design and sustainable construction

The other thing that stood out about this exhibition is an area within the main exhibition called The Green Village:

"Discover how you can create a sustainable and eco-friendly home. See over 30 companies representing eco-friendly and fair traded products and services such as: solar heating, alternative heating systems, wood burning stoves, timber log frame, natural paints, insulation, thatching, recycled materials, UFH, rainwater systems, waste systems, windows, skylights, books and many more. For anyone renovating or building a new home, the Green Village will provide you with all your ecological building solutions."

So, get yourself off to the Homebuilding and Renovating Show at the NEC, Birmingham (UK) and see if there is anything in the Green Village, that you can utilise in your own home to make a more sustainable and/or greener future for yourself - or go the whole hog and build something from scratch!

Tickets are £8.00 each and can be booked in advance from the NEC box office.

Building for a Future

Building for a Future (Winter 2005/6 Edition) is a quarterly magazine that provides information to help you create healthy and ecological homes and buildings, or as the magazine states on its cover, it's:

"the independent journal for 'green building' professionals and
enthusiasts".

I have always had a 'green' outlook and understanding, yet am relatively new to much of this applied specifically to homes and buildings, so this publication was quite an eye opener for me.

First Impressions

The review copy of the magazine arrived in a large brown envelope - but I am assured that the regular subscriptions are mailed wrapped in recycled content film. The publication itself had a heavy matt full colour cover, containing pages of equal quality on a lighter medium, and yes, it is printed on 100% recycled paper by Cambrian Printers - who themselves seem to have a very ethical approach to their trade which is reassuring.

Although the information within would be your reason for acquiring Building for a Future, it's presentation, manufacture and composition are always of interest to me, as this is where some organisations fall over with their use of new paper stocks or choice of packaging.

I can gladly say that Building for a Future came through as a shining light in this regard, with the 'green' attitude maintained throughout. This demonstrates to me a high degree of care and belief in their subject matter, right down to the attention paid to its overall production.

Contents

Obviously, the real interest is the contents, and this too does not disappoint. On first glance I was intrigued by the word 'interactive' on the cover, half expecting a CD ROM or similar to drop from its pages, but on closer inspection the term 'interactive' refers to the fact that every article has a corresponding thread on the Building for a Future forum. This is a fantastic idea, and one that I hadn't encountered before. It gives the readers the opportunity to give feedback to the authors of the various articles, or perhaps ask questions and for the authors to respond. This makes it truly interactive, and in a very useful way.

As stated above, I am reviewing the Winter 2005/6 edition here and the articles themselves cover quite a broad spectrum including:

• Timber build at the Eco Project
• Rooftop wind energy
• Continued existence of asbestos in our homes
• Converting tower blocks to sustainable energy
• Greener Plumbing
• Passivhaus system from Germany
  

There is much more besides, and each subject is given sufficient space to allow for a reasonably in depth analysis or review. I like this, as it means the topics aren't just skimmed over or given a fleeting glance, but have the room to give more information, images, facts, statistics, graphs and illustrations where they apply.

Accompanying the articles within Building For A Future are the website addresses of the various projects or organisations where they are available, giving you the opportunity to further explore or research any particular projects or topics that interest you.

A few of the articles in this edition were accompanied by various performance figures and accompanying graphs or statistics, which in a few cases were over my head. But it does go to show the depth of the magazine, and the scope which it covers. It is very suitable to for a professional in this field, but contained more than enough to interest and teach the casual observer or keen amateur alike. I'd say that I fall into the amateur enthusiast category, but I still thoroughly enjoyed reading it, coming away with a lot of useful and worthwhile information.

I did notice when reading through this issues forum postings, that the article Beware of the Blanket Approach quoted some insulation depths/thicknesses that were questioned by a reader. The author of the piece quickly replied with the fact that this was indeed an error and listed the correct values. This really shows the power and the value of the 'interactive' facet of this magazine. It gives the rare opportunity to question the author, to correct mistakes (which happen to us all on occasion), and to add of further information or links should the need arise - even after it has gone to press! This really adds value to the publication.

Another feature of the website, is being able to purchase back issues of the magazine from Autumn 2000 - as long as an issue still has copies remaining. If not, then no need to worry as you are able to download back issues of the magazine in PDF format (Adobe acrobat reader required). If you really want a taster of what this magazine has to offer, then download a back issue.

The magazine has its fair share of advertisements - as have all magazines, but not in such a way as to degrade or detract from its excellent content. All of the ads are related to the topic of the magazine, so many people will find them useful when the time comes to source materials, services, or contractors.

Conclusion

Overall, I must say it was a pleasure to read Building For A Future - it was clear and beautifully produced, had good editorial, nice imagery, not to mention informative with great web support.

Leading by Example?

David Cameron the new Conservative Party leader has commissioned eco-architect Alex Michaelis to give his new property in Notting Hill, London, an environmental makeover.

The re-design will include photovoltaic panels, solar water heating, additional insulation, rainwater and grey water harvesting, as well as a wind turbine and more efficient glass to be fitted.

This isn't a promotion for any political party, nor an indicator of my own political leanings, just a few thoughts about those that are supposed to be leading us here in the UK.

That aside, I think this is a very positive and encouraging move by David Cameron (such as often riding his bicycle to the House of Commons) which can only be a good thing. Obviously, not all people can afford to have these devices retro-fitted to their properties, but with a prominent politician leading the way, then surely more people will follow which will slowly bring the price of such installations down to a more acceptable level. Click on the title for more information.

What I do find quite refreshing is that instead of our polititions sitting back and telling us what to do, while sitting back in their very large houses or gas guzzling cars (2 jags Prescott?) and doing nothing, is that David Cameron is actually just getting on with it .. I hope this isn't just some kind of PR stunt and that it is a real act of concience.

The Woodland Trust

Happy New Year!

I hope you're all enjoying a happy and enjoyable holiday season.

It'll soon be time to take down those christmas cards and decorations, but what will YOU do with your old cards?

The Woodland Trust is an organisation dedicated to saving our UK woodlands and ancient trees. They are again running a scheme to collect and recycle all our old Christmas cards. Last year, they collected 58 million old cards, which is equal to about 1150 tonnes of rubbish, and approximately 19000 trees saved.

This year they hope to collect 60 million cards before the campaign ends on January 31st 2006.

You can take your cards to any high street branch of W.H.Smith, or to larger branches of Tesco, which means it shouldn't be too hard to find a branch near to you whereever you live.

This isn't generally the type of thing I post on this site, but for such a worthwhile cause I thought I'd let you all know. So, help them achieve this years target, recycle those old cards and save our ancient woodlands.

Solar Power - Part 1

We have all heard of Solar power, but what is it, how does it work, and why use it?

Solar is defined as; derived from or related to the sun or utilizing the energies of the sun. Therefore, anything that manages to harness the power of the sun may be called Solar Power.

The 3 Main Types of Solar Power

There are 3 main types of solar energy systems:

1. Solar Water Heating.
2. Solar Cells (Photovoltaic).
3. Solar Concentrator Systems.

The first two types are commonly used for household and general business installations, whereas the last (Solar Concentrator Systems) is for large industrial, or solar energy farms and solar power station applications. A brief explanation of each:

1. Solar Water Heating.

Solar water heating in its simplist form is a flat coated metal panel, insulated underneath and with pipes containing water lying on the surface. As the panel heats from the sun, so does the water held in the pipes. The water is circulated over the panels, and back into the buildings hot water system.

A more advanced (and therefore more expensive) system uses very well insulated evacuated glass tubes. The collector plate is held within the tubes vaccum, and so heat loss is virtually eliminated due to the vaccum and insulation.

In the UK, it is estimated that you can save about 50% of all water heating bills. Both of these types of panel are suitable for home use, and are also available in the UK. This type of system is also great for underfloor heating, general water heating, or even to heat a swimming pool, which is something to consider.


2. Solar Cells

Usually referred to as Photovoltaic cells/panels (PV), which are composed of specially formulated cells that produce an electric current when light falls upon them. These are the same technology that a solar powered calculator uses for power, only on a larger scale.

The majority of pv solar panels are silicon based, although other materials have or are being used, especially as research and development in this area progresses. Recently scientists have discovered how to acheive similar results using a type of plastic composite which is also able to use the infra-red spectrum, previously not within the ability of existing panels, and thereby making them even more efficient than many current designs.

All of this development means that the overall cost of an installation is rapidly decreasing, especially as demand increases allowing photovoltaic panels to be used for far more projects, including domestic use.


3. Solar Concentrator Systems

Concentrator systems are generally commercial installations or for large solar electrical generators.

This site is primarily concerned with houses and domestic systems, so for anyone interested in what these are, and how they work can follow this link to read all about Concentrating Solar Power.


The UK recieves a vast amount of radiation from the sun over the course of a year, this means that even somewhere as weather challenged as the UK is able to benefit enormously from using either type of solar energy system stated above.

Next ... part 2 - domestic installations, diagrams, selling or storing your excess power.

CAT Courses 2006

The Center for Alternative Technology (CAT) now have their 2006 course list online. Several of the courses also lead to recognised qualifications such as City & Guilds for example.

The courses cover alternative energy, materials, system installation, green home building, sustainability and more. Some of the courses on offer include:

• Heating with Wood Fuels
• Energy Awareness
• Make your own Biodiesel
• The Urban Eco Home
• The Whole House - Ecological building from new
• Wind Power
• Timber Frame Self Build
• Solar Domestic Water Heating
• Install and Test Domestic Photovoltaic Systems
• Water Treatment, Conservation and Recycling

Courses are charged for on a scale depending on your income or personal circumstances (e.g. a student). Accomodation is provided, although you will have to provide your own safety colthes - further details are available on the website on what you will need to bring you may also enquire via their course office. Telephone: 01654 705981.

If you are just interested, are in the industry and wish to brush up or expand your skills, or perhaps are thinking of implimeting your own alternative energy system, or about to embark on a green self-build, then these courses will be of interest to you.