March 2011 Archives

39 Hawthorne Rd
Bournville B30 1EQ

Open house with 50 minute tours:
Friday 1st April 2pm - 6pm
Saturday 2nd April 10am - 4pm
Sunday 3rd April 1pm - 5pm

Book to visit online at
www.sustainable-energyacademy.org.uk/superhomes/
or phone 0121 475-2088

Read on to see how Chris and Harriet reduced their energy use by 85% and saved 6,300 kg CO₂

Chris and Harriet Martin purchased their 3 bedroom, 1932 semi-detached house in 2009 and immediately set about ways in which they could improve its energy efficiency. They were motivated to do so by a "deepening concern for the effects of our profligate energy use on the environment".

As active Cotteridge Quakers, they had been involved in renovating their meeting house, reducing its energy use by 90%. This success, combined with a desire to downsize, gave the Martins the motivation, knowledge and skills to find a new project to work on, and so they took up the challenge of 39 Hawthorne Road. By acting as an exemplar house, they hope to "empower others by sharing the experiences and understanding gained in the process"

Insulation is the key to energy saving. The cavity walls are filled with polystyrene balls. Additionally they are lined internally with 55mm of Thermoline insulation board bonded to plasterboard. In consequence the walls' U value (and heat loss) dropped 89% from 1.7 to 0.2.

The loft contains an unheated storage room which has 160mm of thick foam blocks (U value 0.2) fitted beneath it. The remaining area has solid insulation blocks underneath the loft floor (U value 0.2), Where there is no flooring, the old insulation was topped up to 400mm with fibreglass (U value 0.1). Under the downstairs wooden floors foam blocks were inserted between the floor joists (reducing the floor U value 95% to 0.2). The central heating pipes were positioned just below the floor joists so that any excess heat comes up through the floor.

The pre-existing windows were wooden framed with single pane glass and were extremely draughty. By replacing them with A rated double glazed argon filled UPVC windows, the U value has dropped from 5 down to 1.2, reducing window heat loss by 75 %.

In addition, the unheated conservatory which replaced an old extension benefits from passive solar heating and collects any heat lost from the house. The floor's dark brown floor quarry tiles maximise absorption of solar heat. Over the winter temperatures inside vs. in conservatory vs. outside were in the ratio 6:3:1 (e.g., 18C inside, 9C in conservatory, 3C outside). Its A rated double glazed units considerably reduced heat loss.

Finally, the front door was replaced, reducing the U value (and thus heat loss) by 64% from 3.6 to 1.3.

Renewable energy systems are incorporated right through the Martin's house. Solar thermal panels (Worcester Bosch Greenskies) are in place on the back roof. The house is on the Bournville Village Trust which does not allow solar panels if visible from the road. In consequence the panels on the back roof face west, not south, reducing their efficiency by 5% (according to the Encraft SAP 2009 Solar Thermal Calculator).

On a sunny summer day the panels can heat the 180 litre water cylinder to 53°C. Our Wickes eco bath saves 40% and the Mira eco shower-head saves 64% on our hot water usage.

In order to make space for solar PV panels, the Martins constructed a south facing pergola at the bottom of the garden. 10 PV panels are fixed to its roof with an output of 1800kWh per year - an output that matches their annual use. What they don't use is fed back into the national grid. They receive a Feed-In Tariff of 41.3p for every kWh generated, whether they use it or not.

The pre-development boiler dated from the 1960s would have been at best 68% efficient. The back of the boiler protruded into the unheated utility room covered only with a sheet of asbestos, resulting in considerable heat from the house. The new boiler is a Worcester Bosch Greenskies boiler with over 90% efficiency. All the radiators are fitted with thermostatic radiator valves meaning each room can be controlled separately. The thermostat is set to 18C; the house is occupied all day. Bedrooms have radiators, but are set low and normally unheated in winter.

In addition, a smokeless wood burner has been installed in the living room. It is specifically designed from smokeless zones and burns at 80% efficiency. It is a vast improvement on its predecessor, an open fire burning at 30% efficiency which was legally only able to burn a smokeless fossil fuel. With a fire smouldering all day the wood burner seems to generate about 10 kWh a day (about 25% of gas usage on a cold day).

Further to insulation and renewable energy systems, the Martins have made use of several energy saving appliances.

The whole house makes use of energy saving lighting. A Megaman candle bulb greets visitors in the hallways, with 18W energy saving lamps in the study, low energy bulbs in the living room, 5W LED bulbs in the kitchen (using just 10% of the old halogen bulbs energy consumption). There are Megaman spot light in the dining room and a 20W LED spot light for the patio and garden.

Their white goods all have very high efficiency ratings, with an A+ rated washing machine, dishwasher and fridge, plus an A rated freezer. Low flush toilets and water butts in the garden (like the eco bath, toilets and shower mentioned earlier) have helped reduce our water use to c. 100 litres daily each (66% below UK average). Clothes are line dried, in wet weather in a drying area under the pergola. A key factor of becoming energy efficient is to cut wastage, and introducing such everyday measures as these makes a significant contribution.

Energy use from 1st July 2010, when the Martins moved in, up to mid February 2011 suggests they will save 85% of the energy used in a similar (but un-insulated) house with no solar panels. They are on course to pay for all their year's heating with their old age heating allowance.

Today marks the start of a new Birmingham Friends of the Earth (BFOE) campaign to cut black bin bag waste.

I passionately support all efforts to reduce waste - starting by carefully considering what we really "need" to buy - but I had thought that Birmingham City Council's achievements in reducing landfill by producing "Energy from Waste" at Tyseley were good. I thought that the items that I put in my black bag had some use through producing useful energy. I'm sorry to realise that I was naive - read John Newson's article "Up in Smoke".

Please read about the campaign and take action at three levels.

1) Personal action: reduce food waste and dispose of your remaining food waste using a green cone or Bokashi;

2) Local action: contact your local councillor to ask for better recycling services;

3) National action: take part in the FoE campaign

Please spread the word about your successes in "Comments" on this page.

Be part of the solution!

When I last wrote a Moseley update it was good news about Tesco and still no news about St Mary's. This time the position has changed.

The GOOD NEWS is that St. Mary's Moseley has permission to install photovoltaic panels! After nearly three years of planning, preparation and campaigning. SusMo and St. Mary's have been sent a report by Judge Martin Cardinal, Chancellor of the Diocese of Birmingham, detailing his approval of the project, and his reasons for believing this is the right thing to do in the present climate.

St. Mary's and SusMo are now busy seeking a replacement for the match funding to the British Gas Green Streets award, as the previous agreement has expired due to the excessively long period taken to gain permission for the installation.

The Tesco update is BAD NEWS: the "minded to refuse" decision of the Birmingham Planning Committee on February 10th turned into "approve" on March 3rd. There were all sorts of questionable activities both before and after the first meeting - see the articles about the Meteor Ford site on the Moseley Forum website.

SAVE MOSELEY VILLAGE campaigners and our MP, Roger Godsiff, are investigating the possibilities of a challenge to the approval.

Returning to the Good News, St. Mary's will not be the first Birmingham church to generate electricity with a solar roof.

The Balsall Heath Church Centre, which hosted the Energy Retrofit Seminar yesterday - 9th March - has just started to generate electricity with panels of FlexLight Solar Laminates. It is a modern church centre, and the panels are well camouflaged on the roof, so permission was granted without the long and arduous campaign that SusMo experienced.

I have been holding back from blogging, as every day for the last two weeks I have thought: we MUST hear news about the Chancellor's decision about the solar PV panels on the roof of St Mary's Church today - but I've given up.

So I'm giving publicity to an event in Balsall Heath on Wednesday instead - which I warmly recommend - if you wish to attend, please contact Elizabeth.Smith@encraft.co.uk, who sent the invitation to me. The project should be of interest to all "lighterfootprints" readers, even if you can't get to the event.

"We are pleased to invite you to a retrofit open day on 9th March 2011, Balsall Heath, Birmingham. The exhibition and seminars will take place at Balsall Heath Church Centre, 100 Mary Street, Balsall Heath, Birmingham B12 9JU.

Programme:
House tours: take approximately 45 minutes, 10 delegates per time slot.
AM: 9.30, 10.15, 11.00
PM: 2.10, 2.55
When booking please state a preference for time for the house tour and we will endeavour to accommodate your requests.

Seminar and Exhibition:
11.50 Phil Beardmore - Balsall Heath Housing Cooperative
12.10 Dave Allport - Project Manager for Birmingham Energy Savers
12.30 Buffet lunch
1.00 Helen Brown -The practicalities of delivering 80% carbon reduction in social housing - Encraft's experience - Encraft

The exhibition will run from 10.15 - 3.45 and will feature suppliers and contractors used for the project.

Background on the project:
Balsall Heath Co-operative and Encraft have been working together to retrofit a terraced house on Tindal Street, as part of the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) funded Retrofit for the Future project. The project is one of eighty-seven social housing projects around the UK to benefit from government funding to demonstrate whole house solutions for refurbishment that deliver deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and energy usage.

Understanding and implementing best practice retrofitting is key to meeting the government's CO₂ reduction target of 80% by 2050 and to reduce fuel poverty. The results of the projects will be shared to help show how the UK's current housing stock could be made more energy efficient.

The building chosen for the project is an early 20th Century, 4 bed mid-terraced house typical of the type found in many parts of the West Midlands. The building embodies many of the challenges associated with 'hard-to-treat' buildings, with solid walls, no insulation and single glazing throughout.

The project has addressed three specific barriers to large scale low carbon housing retrofit

The technical "hard-to-treat" challenge
We deliberately chose an extremely hard to treat property, with a mix of historic solid walled fabric and more recent (but typical) un-insulated extensions and modifications; extremely limited space for onsite renewables, and occupied. This is nevertheless representative of a large number of pre-war social housing units in the West Midlands.

The skills challenge
Our project tackled the training and skills issue head on, working with local contractors willing to undergo training and act as pilots for larger scale skills programmes.
The capital and maintenance cost challenge
We addressed this challenge by focusing on technologies which are largely established so there is maximum potential for economies of scale in replication and scale up and minimum maintenance costs.

The technical details
The primary objective of the retrofit strategy is the reduction of heat-loss through the building fabric as far as possible by improving insulation levels and making it as airtight as possible while maintaining adequate ventilation levels. The aim has been PassivHaus or very near PassivHaus standards in the target u-values for the roof (0.12), floor (0.20), windows (0.9) and doors (1.2). The external back wall and kitchen extension have been externally clad to achieve a U value of 0.20. To maintain the front facade the front external wall has been dry lined (to a target U value of 0.25).

Space heating and hot water for the property is supplied using a new gas condensing combination boiler. The boiler efficiency has been maximised by fitting a passive flue gas heat recovery device that, under trials, has delivered impressive savings in gas consumption for DHW. A solar-thermal packaged system has been fitted to supply free domestic hot water in the summer. The solar systems works in conjunction with a combination boiler, and is simplified to make specification and installation as straightforward as possible and to minimise costs.

The heating system is controlled by a new innovative heating controller called a Wattbox. The Wattbox learns the behaviour patterns and temperature preferences of household occupants and uses this to control household heating. For secondary heating a modern wood burning stove has been installed in the rear living room.

Finally, low-energy lighting, A+ energy-efficient appliances and the latest water efficient products have been specified throughout.

For more information on this project visit www.inspirationbirmingham2020.com