Ecosphere

When the eco house is completed, I think I'm going to get an ecosphere as the housewarming present. I used to have one of the small spheres and it lasted over two years despite neglect and a slight leak. An extra large sphere would make a great centre piece for a room. It could even be built into a glass topped table.

Green Christmas

Wired recommends eco-friendly presents for the environmentalist in your life.

Hack

Hacking your way off the electricity grid. This may work best in San Francisco, where they have far too much sunshine and state rebates, but even less successful attempts will save homeowners loads of cash.

via Enviropundit

Cost

With the rise in price of fossil fuels, green energy is becoming competitive, in Texas, of all places.

via Slashdot

photoelectrochemical

Photovoltaic cells are so passe, it's all about using sunlight to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen.

....a system on a home's garage roof that is 10 percent efficient could provide enough hydrogen for a fuel-cell car to drive 11,000 miles per year. "The market will have a niche in the home, as people will be able to install their own systems and run their vehicles using the hydrogen produced during daylight hours,"

Origami Home

The cardboard house. Made of 85% recycled materials and itself 100% recyclable, it can draw all its power from a 12 volt battery or small photovoltaic cell.

Cal Earth

The Cal Earth Institute's website has been Slashdotted and consequently exceeded its bandwidth limit, but it bears bookmarking here for future investigation.

Enviropundit

Another green building blog. When I sort oout a blogroll she'll go on it.

Round up

I thought I'd mine the main blog for stuff relevant to the Eco-House. So here's some old news-

English Nature suggests turfing roofs to re-green the country

The Guardian's ethical living experiment

An interactive guide to greener housing, and a related article.

Kingsmead Primary, a green school.

Bio-diesel. Jo and I both want veg oil powered Land Rovers.

The majority of house buyers would pay a bit more for energy efficiency.

Tidal energy turbines.

Act Local

"Councils are central to our efforts to tackle climate change. Everything from transport, house building to the energy efficiency of public buildings is affected by - and affects - the changing climate."

Margaret Beckett calls upon local councils to work with the Government on environmental issues.

Stadium of wind

There are proposals for the country's first urban wind farm to generate power for the new Manchester City ground.

Grow a city

Early attempts to use scientific theory to urban planning were, if not total disasters, definitely utilising the wrong sciences. Rather than the rigid sets of rules that gave us Milton Keynes, planners are now embracing Complexity Theory to help plan spaces around people.

Stirling Effort

Solar Stirling engines could produce electricity more efficiently than photovoltaic cells, particularly as their design allows for the generation of AC electricity rather than requiring conversion from DC. I can't imagine a domestic size machine, but you never know.

via Gizmodo

Biofuel

As mentioned before, biomass could be a sustainable source of fuel and a source of income for farmers. Howvere, the various departments within the government that are dealing with a European biofuel initiative are having problems communicating.

Prefab

The Housing Minister has called for more pre-fab homes to be built in the UK. No mention of energy saving features, but surely if mass production lowers unit cost then they can look at incorporating solar and other features.

Grand Designs

The Channel 4 wesite has a page listing the companies involved in builds on Grand Designs. This one is particularly useful, being about the underground house built in Cumbria.

A specific link, for later reference as the site is currently under construction, Sundog Energy- providers of solar panels based in Penrith.

Bare walls

Reusing rubbish, including adult magazines and soft drinks bottles, to build houses.

via Bent

Cyburbia

The Urban Planning Portal. Based at the University of Buffalo, and very US biased, but some issues are universal.

Fuel Poverty

Tangentially related to the Eco House, but evidence of why low energy buildings are important- As the top three gas and electricity suppliers raise their prices ever more people are sliding into fuel poverty.

Neighbourhood

Guardian columnist Leo Hickman has been writing a series of articles about his attempts to live an ethical life. In the last of the series he looks at ways to become more involved in the local community.

Hydro

The British Hydropower Association- "Protecting The Environment By Promoting The Use Of Water Power And The British HydroPower Industry"

Sun farm

It's possible to retro fit almost any building with solar panels. Take the example of Manchester's CIS tower- soon to have them on all 400 feet of its service tower.

CAT

the centre for alternative technology in wales - started in 1973 .... the year i was born!

Green starts at home

It's Energy Efficiency Week and, even if you're not building a dedicated Eco House, you can still save energy and money at home.

Green specification

Back when I was at uni sites like this only existed in my geeky imagination...
http://www.greenspec.co.uk/

(Don't) Think Big

This article laments the lack of lower cost low impact housing. It's specifically about the American market, but no doubt the problem applies elsewhere. No matter how much a development may save its tenants over the years they live there, somebody needs to put up the stake money.

Of the various solutions listed I'm particularly taken by the GreenForms idea of a modular building to be expanded as the owners can afford. More on the designer, Pliny Fisk, can be found here.

It's not rocket science

The first principles of eco design....
http://www.risingtide.org.uk/tyh/eco-prin/princip.html

Clear skies

The DTI funds Clearskies renewable energy grants, which cover solar, wind and water power sources and other systems such as ground source heat pumps.

The site also has a list of approved installers and products which seem comprehensive enough for most projects.

Solar attractive

For years the complaint about roof mounted photovoltaic panels has been that they're ugly and potentially damaging. But now several companies are bringing out panels that can be fitted as roof tiles. Wired reports on them.

Waste not.....

The Scottish Green Party is calling for the country to adopt a zero waste policy.

Biomass

The Government is setting up the Bio-Energy Infrastructure Scheme to encourage the production of biomass, crops grown specially for use as environmentally-friendly fuels.

The Eco House

Jo's designing an Eco House for Mum and Dad. I'm interested in the subject, and have been for a while. So now we have this blog, for swapping ideas back and forth and pointing to cool green stuff.

I'm going to start out by recommending some related books from Amazon-

The Passive Solar House: Using Solar Design to Heat and Cool Your Home

The Whole House Book: Ecological Building Design and Materials

Sewage Solutions: Answering the Call of Nature

I'm off to do some research and come back with a longer list.