September 2010 Archives

For anyone who is sad that they missed the Stirchley Community Market yesterday, or enjoyed it and would like more,

<> on Saturday October 2nd
<> at All Saints Church Hall, Kings Heath
<> from 1pm to 5 pm you can visit Edible Birmingham

"A celebration of locally grown and produced food" ,
organised by Birmingham Friends of the Earth.

In addition to locally grown produce for sale there will be a Swap Shop for fruit, veg, jams, chutneys etc.

For people with apple trees there will be an apple press to turn your surplus apples into juice

There will be film and video shorts (about food of course!), a series of workshops and refreshments: home-made soups, tea, coffee and cakes (locally sourced where possible).

If you don't have food to swap this year, find out from local people who can advise and support you, how next year could be very different.

You may have visited the new Stirchley Community Market already, and bought good quality, locally produced food and crafts on the fourth Tuesday of the month in July and August.

Starting on September 28th, there will be a stall at the market selling fruit and veg from local home and allotment growers. If you have any surplus produce that you would like to sell please contact stirchleycommunitymarket @ yahoo.co.uk.

The arrangement is on a sale or return basis, or if you wish you can stay at the stall and swap fruit and veg with fellow gardeners, as well as meet like-minded people.

For people like me, who have nothing to swap or sell but would like to buy locally grown fruit and veg, this is a date for our diaries.

The market will be held from 4 pm until about 6.30 pm outside Stirchley United Working Men's Club, B30 2PP.

This market was planned just for summer months but the good news is that it will move indoors for the winter, see yesterday's article in the Birmingham Mail.

Check out the list of stallholders, which include bread baked at the Loaf Community Bakery in Cotteridge, and a bike clinic, where you can get help with bike repairs from the Birmingham Bike Foundry.

It is a small market which is well worth a visit.

Old Home Superhomes, organised by the Sustainable Energy Academy, are "a network of exemplar, old dwellings which have undergone an energy-efficiency retrofit." The aim is "to create a network of homes that are local and publicly accessible, within 15 minutes, to nearly everyone in the country." The houses have to demonstrate that their energy saving retrofit has reduced their heating needs by at least 60%.

The SEA Website lists the 63 Superhomes and their Open Days.

John Newson's house in Alder Road, Birmingham 12 is
open this Sunday - September 19th - from 11.00 to 16.00.
This is a small terraced house with limited on street parking, so booking is essential: john @ bham12.orangehome.co.uk.

Two weeks ago 39 Hawthorne Road in Kings Norton was accepted as the fourth Old Home Superhome in Birmingham, and the first to be based on a house with cavity walls.

Harriet Martin writes:

Like the other three Birmingham homes, ours has solar thermal panels. We have not heated our water since the panels were installed in early July (though we have occasionally waited for a sunny day before bathing).

It's now mid September and the autumn chill is moving in. At 11pm last night it was 8^oC outside; at 8 am this morning it was 6^oC outside and outside it hasn't gone above 16^oC all day. Inside temperatures ranged between 19^o and 20^oC last night and between 18^o and 19^oC this morning. By 5pm this afternoon house temperatures were between 19^o and 21^oC. We have not heated our house since we moved in three months ago.

In addition to our body heat and heat from cooking, our house has been warmed by sunlight coming through our windows and piling up in our unheated conservatory. When we do need to supplement these sources of warmth, there is a smokeless wood burner waiting patiently in the living room and a massive wood pile at the bottom of the garden. Yes, there is also gas central heating, but we hope we will rarely need to use it.

Insulation is the key to our frugal heating needs.

Floor insulation: We put blocks of Celotex insulation 60mm thick between the joists under the suspended wooden floors.

Wall insulation: We filled the cavity walls, but also lined them with 60mm Gyproc Thermoline Super insulation bonded onto plasterboard. We added to the loft insulation, piling it 300mm thick around the edges of the loft. In the centre of the loft, where we needed some storage, we coated the old floored area with 60mm Celotex blocks and covered it with a new boarded area. We replaced the old loft hatch with a new, insulated hatch, and designed a system to lower a slab of Celotex over the hatch for further insulation

Window insulation: We replaced the old single glazing with A rated double glazed units. We plan to hang heavy curtains over all of the windows and doors before winter.

Front door: Our new front door has argon filled double glazed units and insulation slabs are built into the door below the window. The letter box now opens into the garage, eliminating that cold spot in our front entrance.

Extension: In the 1960's a flat roofed glazed extension was added to the living room. It probably accounted for 10% of the old house's heat loss.
We knocked this down, filled the old opening with A rated patio doors and replaced (and enlarged) the old extension with a large (unheated) conservatory running across the back of the house. Like the windows, the conservatory is made of A rated double glazed units. The greenhouse effect warms the conservatory in the day. As needed windows and doors open into the kitchen, dining area and living room, transferring heat to the house.

Further energy saving improvements: We plan to install ten solar photo voltaic panels (solar PV) to generate electricity on a pergola in our garden at the end of October. Over a year they should generate just about what we use in a year (1,800kWh, about 5kWh a day).

GET INSPIRED: If you would like to make energy efficiency improvements in your home, but are not sure where to start, then the SEA can help. Contact details here.

Old Home Superhomes, organised by the Sustainable Energy Academy, are "a network of exemplar, old dwellings which have undergone an energy-efficiency retrofit." The aim is "to create a network of homes that are local and publicly accessible, within 15 minutes, to nearly everyone in the country." The houses have to demonstrate that their energy saving retrofit has reduced their heating needs by at least 60%.

The SEA Website lists the 63 Superhomes and their Open Days.

John Newson's house in Alder Road, Birmingham 12 is
open this Sunday - September 19th - from 11.00 to 16.00.
This is a small terraced house with limited on street parking, so booking is essential: john @ bham12.orangehome.co.uk.

Two weeks ago 39 Hawthorne Road in Kings Norton was accepted as the fourth Old Home Superhome in Birmingham, and the first to be based on a house with cavity walls.

Harriet Martin writes:

Like the other three Birmingham homes, ours has solar thermal panels. We have not heated our water since the panels were installed in early July (though we have occasionally waited for a sunny day before bathing).

It's now mid September and the autumn chill is moving in. At 11pm last night it was 8^oC outside; at 8 am this morning it was 6^oC outside and outside it hasn't gone above 16^oC all day. Inside temperatures ranged between 19^o and 20^oC last night and between 18^o and 19^oC this morning. By 5pm this afternoon house temperatures were between 19^o and 21^oC. We have not heated our house since we moved in three months ago.

In addition to our body heat and heat from cooking, our house has been warmed by sunlight coming through our windows and piling up in our unheated conservatory. When we do need to supplement these sources of warmth, there is a smokeless wood burner waiting patiently in the living room and a massive wood pile at the bottom of the garden. Yes, there is also gas central heating, but we hope we will rarely need to use it.

Insulation is the key to our frugal heating needs.

Floor insulation: We put blocks of Celotex insulation 60mm thick between the joists under the suspended wooden floors.

Wall insulation: We filled the cavity walls, but also lined them with 60mm Gyproc Thermoline Super insulation bonded onto plasterboard. We added to the loft insulation, piling it 300mm thick around the edges of the loft. In the centre of the loft, where we needed some storage, we coated the old floored area with 60mm Celotex blocks and covered it with a new boarded area. We replaced the old loft hatch with a new, insulated hatch, and designed a system to lower a slab of Celotex over the hatch for further insulation

Window insulation: We replaced the old single glazing with A rated double glazed units. We plan to hang heavy curtains over all of the windows and doors before winter.

Front door: Our new front door has argon filled double glazed units and insulation slabs are built into the door below the window. The letter box now opens into the garage, eliminating that cold spot in our front entrance.

Extension: In the 1960's a flat roofed glazed extension was added to the living room. It probably accounted for 10% of the old house's heat loss.
We knocked this down, filled the old opening with A rated patio doors and replaced (and enlarged) the old extension with a large (unheated) conservatory running across the back of the house. Like the windows, the conservatory is made of A rated double glazed units. The greenhouse effect warms the conservatory in the day. As needed windows and doors open into the kitchen, dining area and living room, transferring heat to the house.

Further energy saving improvements: We plan to install ten solar photo voltaic panels (solar PV) to generate electricity on a pergola in our garden at the end of October. Over a year they should generate just about what we use in a year (1,800kWh, about 5kWh a day).

GET INSPIRED: If you would like to make energy efficiency improvements in your home, but are not sure where to start, then the SEA can help. Contact details here.

I'm really happy to pass on the news that the Planning Inspectorate has granted planning permission for a photovoltaic array on St. Mary's Church, overturning the decision taken by the Birmingham City Council Planning Committee in February. This is a triumph for St. Mary's, sustainable living, and a triumph for the people of Moseley, who have strongly supported the project throughout.

There is still a final hurdle to jump as the project can only go ahead if also approved by the Birmingham Diocese. SusMo and St. Mary's hope that the decision of the Planning Inspectorate will have a positive effect on their decision.

For more information see the Moseley Forum website.

Another success this week was the first event in the "Working towards a Smarter Future" programme, where SusMo and Kings Heath Transition shared a stall at Millenium Point and Prince Charles stopped by for a chat.

The Birmingham Mail article has a photo of Charles talking to Tom Tierney (holding a plate of carrots) with Shabdam Bailey-Bond in the background, both part of the Kings Heath Transition Initiative.

The third success this week was publicity for SusMo in George Monbiot's blog on the Guardian website. He lists fifty "Green Heroes working for the right kind of environmental change" and this includes "Esther Boyd: Esther set up Sustainable Moseley, which seeks to make Moseley in Birmingham a greener and pleasanter place in which to live", with a link to the SusMo page on the Moseley Forum website.

Starting this week, in Birmingham, there is a programme of events to encourage participation in EcoTeams, for people who want to be greener at home, but don't want to go it alone.

The publicity states:

"EcoTeams brings people together to make small changes that make a difference: less rubbish, cheaper bills, and a healthier environment.

EcoTeam-Up events are fun, interactive and a great way to meet like-minded people and find out more about the issues that count."

To find out if there is an event close to you, check the Team Great Britain website.

Birmingham people should book a free place now and meet

on Wednesday - 8th September - 18.00 to 20.30

at the Think Tank, Birmingham Science Museum, Curzon Street, B4 7XG