Old House Eco Handbook

Each time I write a book I say to myself “never again”. This is all very well but when a good idea comes along it’s hard to resist. Towards the end of 2010 I watched as the ink dried on my signature at the bottom of a contract for “a book provisionally entitled ‘The Old…

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Centred on solar

The solar PV (photovoltaic) industry has had a bumpy ride of late and more than one installer has told me that “domestic solar has fallen off a cliff”. Even so, at the recent launch of the BRE National Solar Centre in St Austell, Cornwall, Greg Barker, Energy and Climate Change Minister, tempered the difficulties of the past…

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Think before buying

Yesterday a double glazing salesman arrive at my door at the very moment the phone rang with a call from a solar panel saleswoman. Such annoyances are rarely quite so simultaneous but they are regular. This is one of the reasons I’m pleased to hear that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has written to…

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Wolfgang Feist and Passivhaus

Amongst the hubbub of Ecobuild this year I spent an enjoyable hour or so interviewing Wolfgang Feist, the founder of the Passivhaus Institut, for Show House magazine. You can read the resulting article here but, earlier in the day, I’d wandered round the German stands and gathered the thoughts of exhibitors from the birthplace of Passivhaus.…

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Testing zero carbon

Greenwatt Way, in Slough, Berkshire, is more than a zero carbon Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6 development. It’s a live testbed for, amongst other things, five different types of energy generation. This means it has an energy centre on a scale very different from what I had expected of a ten home scheme made up…

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Eco essay

One of the magazines I write for is Show House and this month it’s published EcoHouse, a supplement sponsored by what house.co.uk. Although aimed at housebuilders, the eco essay I’ve written for EcoHouse will resonate with many who are considering the issues associated with ‘green’ housing and communities so, with permission, I’ve posted it here.

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Solar confusion

Do you know the difference between solar thermal and solar photovoltaic panels? Having just written a piece on solar photovoltaics, I’ve realised that many people who oughts to know better simply don’t have a clue. At best they understand that these systems are something to do with renewable energy. This is particularly worrying because on…

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