Archive for the ‘Solar Panels’ Category

Greenest Building in the World

September 1, 2011

Just read an interesting article on Smart Planet titled “Greenest building in world uses no water or electricity”

It’s a pretty cool building – looks like it’s offices and residential apartments. It has solar panels all over it that provide the electricity for the building and also to power the ground source heat pump (GSHP) that is underneath. All the water that falls on the building is collected and filtered to be used inside.

I must admit, that reading it I felt like we’re not far off with our house. All of the water that falls on our roof is collected into a 5000 litre tank and is routed to the toilets, washing machine and outside taps. We’re not drinking it because I didn’t find a domestic solution that gave me comfort that it would be safe. I’m hoping to get solar panels installed which should provide enough electricity to power the GSHP and contribute to our electricity generally.

You can read the article here: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/video-greenest-building-in-world-uses-no-water-or-electricity/841

Posted in Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), House Blog, Rainwater Harvesting, Solar Panels | Leave a Comment »

Green China

July 7, 2010

Despite popular belief in the UK, China is starting to invest heavily in Green Technologies, understanding that they need to value their environment if they are to remain a sustainable global powerhouse.

For example, in a new suburb of Turpan, electricity will be generated by PV power, heating and cooling will be provided by ground source heat pumps, coupled with natural ventilation and natural light in the buildings.

Addressing climate change and developing a low carbon economy have been included into China’s economic and social development plan. Hu Jintao, President of People’s Republic of China, promised at the United Nations Climate Change Summit that China will be reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 2020. Furthermore, Zhou Shengxian, Minister of Environmental Protection, said “China sets environmental protection as the basic national policy and takes sustainable development as a national strategy so that environmental protection can be transformed”.

Encouraging stuff indeed, let’s hope there’s plenty of action to back it up…

Posted in Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), Solar Panels | 1 Comment »

Builder’s references

July 5, 2010

My wife and I spent a good part of Sunday visiting 2 couples who’d had similar work done to their houses nearby. They were both very generous with their time and were very open about their experiences. It was a very worthwhile process and we’re starting to feel much less like we’re going in blind. They both recommended their builders very highly which is fantastic – it gives us confidence that we’re going to be choosing between good guys.

In both cases, the families had installed hot water solar panels on the roof, and in this hot weather it’s providing more than enough hot water for their houses. It’s just such a shame that we don’t have south-facing roof space. I suppose we could put them on the ground???

Posted in House Blog, Solar Panels | Leave a Comment »

EU renewables targets

July 2, 2010

Sweden achieved a 44 percent score for energy production from renewables in 2008, the highest in the EU, according to the Swedish Energy Agency. Biomass, hydro power and wind account for the majority of its clean energy supply. The UK, by comparison achieved 2.3% from renewables (5.5% from green technology, whatever the difference is). Sweden’s target for 2020 is 50% compared with the UK’s 15%. Given our coastline, wind and financial resources (do we still have these???), you’d think the UK could do better.

Posted in Green Blogs, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), Solar Panels, Wind Turbines | Leave a Comment »

Solar Panel Grants – will Lib-Con Goverment support this?

May 27, 2010

I’ve not heard much about their plans, but I sure hope the new government introduce loads of incentives for people to purchase their green technologies. It’ll support green industries, creating much needed jobs and help reduce our CO2 emissions. Don’t let us down Clegg and Cameron – give us solar panel grants. Give us Ground Source Heat Pump grants. We might even like you then!

Posted in Green Blogs, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Solar Panels | 2 Comments »

Eco House Example

March 5, 2010

In the Guardian magazine there’s an interesting article “A little power house” which describes a home in Denmark that creates more energy than it uses. That’s fantastic, and something that I like to think we’ll be able to achieve in time. It has twice as many windows as a typical house of its size, each of which are triple-glazed with super-insulated frames. These large windows provide 50% of the home’s warmth in the Winter. This is encouraging – we have lots of large south-facing windows in our designs for the extension. Better look into prices of triple glazing… It also has lights that turn off when no motion is sensed, and computerised display showing how much energy and hot water the house is producing and consuming. They reckon the 5,500kW the solar cells produce a year is nearly double the family’s requirements. And the ventilation system takes heat from the stale air to warm fresh filtered air which is fed into the house. A few more ideas in here to add to the list…

Posted in Green Blogs, Solar Panels | Leave a Comment »

Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)

February 5, 2010

A friend’s dad is building a eco friendly house in Farnborough. He has the advantage of doing it from scratch and so he’s got the place extremely well insulated (first rule of eco house building it seems). Anyway, he introduced me to the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme that the government is proposing. Due to launch in April 2011 this guarantees you healthy returns on any investment into renewable heat sources like Ground Source Heat Pumps. Let’s hope the upcoming general election doesn’t result in any changes – this is a great opportunity for the UK to make major in-roads to its CO2 emissions targets.

Posted in Green Blogs, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Solar Panels, Wind Turbines | 3 Comments »

Eco versus aesthetics

December 5, 2009

We’ve got a bit of a dilemma. Whilst not listed, the building is in a conservation area, so we need to be careful about what we do. We’re keen that it remains sympathetic to the environment anyway of course, but we also want it to be as eco friendly as possible. Solar panels on the roofs probably won’t fit! We’re thinking about a separate array of panels on the ground, or possibly on the garage roof. I’ve been looking for solar tiles  – they’re coming on but the companies that supply them are very few and very far between. I think a couple of years will be enough for the market demand to see these come to fruition.

Posted in Green Blogs, House Blog, Solar Panels | Leave a Comment »

My House

November 24, 2009

The house I bought is dilapidated and is in a conservation area, and an “Area of Outstanding National Beauty” in South Oxfordshire. It is of red brick construction and was built in the 1830s. The walls are solid brick (no cavity), the windows are single glazed and rotten. There is almost no insulation (though this is academic – there is no heating!). It is south-facing, though has limited south-facing roof area. There’s loads of garden with it.

This Old House - How Can I Reduce Its Impact on the Environment?

As I understand, the main opportunities for me are to install:

  • a Ground Source Heat Pump which will provide underfloor heating
  • photo-voltaic solar panels
  • hot water solar panels
  • rain-water harvesting
  • as good insulation as possible
  • double glazing

Posted in Green Blogs, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), House Blog, Solar Panels, Wind Turbines | Leave a Comment »

How Green Can We Go?

October 3, 2009

I’ve started my research into green solutions that we can put in place. I know we’ve not bought it yet but can’t help but get excited and do a bit of dreaming. PV cells, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), insulating like crazy… Exciting times…

Posted in Green Blogs, Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP), Solar Panels | 2 Comments »

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