Old meets new in an eco house

Few people can afford to spend £800,000 on a house, even one that's going to start paying for itself with the electricity it generates. Architect Richard Hawkes did, and the result is stunning. The timberal roofing is a modern take on an old technique, and will be planted for added insulation. Heat will be stored during the day to be released when it cools, a simple idea made more efficient with new materials.

Few of the technologies Hawkes uses could be affordable to the average housebuilder, but the principles can be adapted for the lower end of the market.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

TH!NK electric suburb to city car

Norwegians will do anything if you tell them they can't.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: Electric Car

I don't think climate change deniers understand economics either

Because the folks at Stop the ACLU have a habit of deleting my comments when I take their arguments apart with logic, here's the reply to this post. It's a simplistic argument, but they're simple people.

And next year the cap will be 49ppm, so you'll either have to waste more money so you can waste money. Or you could exhibit common sense and cut your pollution by cutting energy use, which a good businessman should have been doing anyway. Efficiency savings affect your bottom line, even without a cap and trade. So if you're not looking into them then you should rebrand Teach Enterprises as Company Pointlessly Wasting Money.

I don't understand your reasoning. You moan about government interference and the government taking your money when most governments are giving away money that you could use to become independent of them. Take the governmentgrant and invest in energy efficiency and microgeneration. Do it well enough to produce more electricity than you need and energy companies are becoming obliged to buy it back off you. Your paying less tax on the energy you use and the energy companies have less money and lobbying power. If you still don't want to admit that you're doing it for your children and a better environment just pretend you're doing it to be selfish. Whatever.

The polar bear cartoon is cutesy, it's good to see you've embraced recycling by repeating the Very Cold Winter meme endlessly. However, Australia is in the midst of the worst heatwave in at least 70 years. You haven't mentioned this. I guess you only want to point out the weather anomalies that seem to support your argument.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Some interesting links on climate change

Behemoth of the blogosphere BoingBoing has a guest blogger on board this week who has posted a collection of climate change denial posts. Cory Doctorow has come back with a bunch of posts about the science of the subject. For instance-

The Discovery of Global Warming - a history, a hyperlinked text because there were/are so many pieces of research going on concurrently and independently that an attempt at a linear history of the subject wouldn't work.

What we've learned in 2008- discoveries in the field of climate change last year.

Climate Change Economics. This looks like heavy going, but it's all about the economics around cutting green house emissions and discussion of different incentives to do so.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Barrages or lagoons for the River Severn?

I'm not a fan of the proposed Severn Barrage. It's typical government grandiose thinking which will take longer to come online, cost more and be less useful than the alternatives. The main alternative is a series of artificial lagoons on the river, which won't interfere with shipping, have little or no effect on wildlife and provide power for a wider span of the day.

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The Solar Fridge

An English student has designed a solar fridge for use in Africa and elsewhere where power supplies are unreliable or nonexistent. It uses evaporation to keep its inner chamber at around 6 celsius and can be fashioned from scavenged materials.

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Getting extra energy from natural gas

A company called 2OC is planning to install mini turbines in natural gas pipelines to generate electricity. The gas is at too high a pressure when it comes out of the ground for safe distribution so sites known as letdown stations are used to release the pressure. The turbines would be installed in these stations and could generate as much as one coal or nuclear power station.

2OC admits that this is an expensive way to generate electrity. But it is making use of energy that would otherwise be wasted. The letdown process also has a cooling effect- as the gas expands its temperature drops drastically- and the company are looking at ways to use this such as cooling data centres.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Turning off the lights

The phased withdrawal of incandescent bulbs continues, with 100 Watt and 75 Watt ones no longer being restocked by shops. The complaining classes, as usual, manage to find fault with something that will make them better off.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

New York's LED street lights

New York's next generation of street lights will use lower energy LED clusters inspred by car headlights.

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Run your car on coffee

Coffee beans have a high (11-20%) oil content, which can be extracted from the coffee grounds to create biodiesel. Global java production is nowhere near high enough to power everyone, but it could create up to 340 million gallons a year, according to a study- from stuff that has previously been considered waste or compost. People are going to carry on finding clever ways to use stuff rather than sending it to the dump, and that can only be a good thing.

Technorati tag: Biodiesel

A letter from John Leech MP

This is the first response to my enquiry about microgeneration grants, actually an email-

Dear Mr Pattinson,

Thank you for your email. I am happy to chase the issue up for you, but if you are interested in investing in renewable energy yourself, you may also like to refer to the grants section of the Energy Saving Trust's website (http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/proxy/view/full/2019/grantsandofferssearch) where you can find details of grants that you may be able to apply for to help with the cost of any such home improvements.

In the meantime, I will chase up you enquiry with the Rt Hon Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and I will be in touch again once I receive a reply.

In the meantime, however, please feel free to contact me if you think I can be of any further assistance on this or any other matter.

Yours sincerely,

John Leech

The link to the Energy Savings Trust is useful, a quick search took me to www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk for renewables. It looks a lot like the last renewables grant scheme has been relaunched and I just missed it. Householders have until June 2010 to apply, so start working out what you need.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

A letter to my MP

Using the writetothem.com website I've sent an email to my local MP, John Leech-

Dear John Leech,

When the Government announced earlier this year that they wouild be investing several billion pounds in renewable energy there was a hint that there would be a new round of grants for home owners to buy solar panels and other energy saving/ generating technologies. However, I have not heard any more about these payments since.

Would it be possible for you to raise the issue with the relevant department or official and find more details of the proposed schemes? This may not seem like the appropriate time to be paying out such grants but I believe they would help stimulate the economy by giving money to an important sector of industry and saving homeowners money.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Pattinson

Hopefully the grants have started up and I just haven't seen the announcement. If not then I'll have to think of ways to get the issue raised more forcefully.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Britain leads the world in offshore wind power

With the latest batch of offshore wind turbines to come on line Britain has overtaken Denmark to become the world leader for offshore wind. However, we lag behind Europe in overall renewable energy generation and most of our turbines are built abroad.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Towards more efficient solar power

P Z Myers reports on research that could lead to near 100% efficient photovoltaic cells. It's still at an early stage and very small scale, but it sounds promising.

Technorati tag: Solar Power, EcoHouse

How to talk to a climate skeptic

I think I've linked to this useful collection of counter arguments to standard climate change denial before. But i find myself dropping links from it into occasional comments on some blogs that still use the tired old lines, so I thought I'd highlight it again.

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British Waterways gets into the energy business

British Waterways is looking at ways to install windmills and hydroelectric generators along the banks of the 2,200 miles of rivers and canals it oversees.

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Make way for the organic battery

Laccase, an enzyme produced by certain woodland fungi, has been shown to be a potential replacement for catalysts such as platinum in batteries and fuel cells. Deployment is a long way away, but if it happens it could see an end to energy intensive mining operations. Also interesting to note, Laccase breaks down lignin, one of the important steps in preparing cellulose materials for fermentation. So it could have an interim use in the production of ethanol from plant waste.

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The Journey to Forever

Journey to Forever is a pioneering expedition by a small, mobile NGO (Non-Government Organization) involved in environment and rural development work, starting from Hong Kong and travelling 40,000 kilometres through 26 countries in Asia and Africa to Cape Town, South Africa.

Our route will take us away from the cities and populated districts to remote and inaccessible areas (usually also the least developed and poorest areas), where we'll be studying and reporting on environmental conditions and working for local NGOs on rural development projects in local communities.

The focus will be on trees, soil and water, sustainable farming, sustainable technology, and family nutrition.

The aim is to help people fight poverty and hunger, and to help sustain the environment we all must share.

The solar still information was found in The Journey to Forever's online library, which I shall have to trawl through for other useful snippets.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Wanna become a solar powered good ole boy?

How to build a solar still to distill alcohol. This is a chapter from a book all about home production of ethanol to run your car, but I'm sure the Dukes would find a way to make moonshine with it. Obviously it works better the more sunshine you get, but I think it would work almost as well with winter sun as with summer, albeit for shorter periods. The active solar still described could have its pump powered by solar cells and theoretically run faster when there's more sunlight, solving the regulation problems.

I'm against the production of ethanol as it's currently envisioned by governments and corporations, because it's taking away chunks of food producing land. The mash for the first brew should come from sugar loaded waste, not from perfectly good food products. On a domestic level would it be possible to make, say, an apple peel (and other compostables) brew that would taste vile but be a good basis for distillation?

Update Onfurther investigation I've found that the book has chapters on fermenting various base materials including starchy sources such as potatoes and cellulose materials including cor stalks and paper.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse

Hulme has a new eco school

The Rolls Crescent Community Primary School in Hulme has had a £5million revamp to incorporate energy and water saving technologies. All new public buildings should be required to be net zero carbon, or better, before they're given the go ahead. It sounds like a lot to ask, but in the long run it'll save money and set a good example.

Technorati tag: EcoHouse