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Latest news on green building and sustainable development
The NBS Green Construction website will soon be incorporated into theNBS.com as a specialist sustainability area, and the RSS feed will become a separate entity, called GreenPost, hosted at Blogspot.com.
16 - 31 January 2008
Periodicals
News
Green code raises carbon
Developers are exploiting a loophole in the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH) that could lead to thousands of houses emitting more carbon than under the present Building Regulations. According to figures from the Good Homes Alliance (GHA), the Building Regulations statement that homes heated entirely by electric means have a lower threshold of carbon emissions than homes heated by other means, has now been incorporated into the CfSH through the requirement that homes make a certain carbon saving over the Building Regulations to meet levels three and four. The GHA says that this means an electrically heated home can be classified as level three despite the fact that its carbon emissions are greater than required by the basic Building Regulations.
Building. 25 January (Pg. 22)
EH to push energy cuts on old homes
English Heritage has teamed up with energy company E.ON to embark on a three-year research project to discover how best to tackle emissions from the 20% of British homes built before 1919.
A website, to be launched soon, will assist users seeking energy efficiency and climate change mitigation methods tailored to their house type and location, while another project, dubbed Hearth and Home, will monitor a Victorian terrace in real time, measuring the effects of energy-saving measures.
Building Design. 25 January (Pg. 5)
Aylesbury vale eco town could fund Oxford rail link
Plans to use part of the profit from building an eco-town in Buckinghamshire to help pay for a rail link between Oxford and Milton Keynes are being discussed. If the plans go ahead, the development of a 5,000-home eco-town in the Aylesbury Vale, north of Winslow, could contribute about £15m towards the £150m East-West rail link, which would run through the town.
Building. 18 January (Pg. 22)
Eco town bidders must notify councils or face disqualification
Communities department officials have written to all prospective eco-town developers telling them that they must notify relevant councils about their proposals if they want to win a place on one of the government’s 10 preferred sites. This follows the department’s announcement before Christmas that it would consult a long list of councils about proposals in private, before ministers decide on a public shortlist of 10, during February.
Building. 18 January (Pg. 22)
Call for zero carbon offices
The UK Green Building Council says a target date of 2020 should be set for all new commercial buildings to be zero carbon. The call has been made in a report,Carbon reductions in new non-domestic buildings, commissioned by the government, aiming to ascertain whether similar targets to those in the Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH) are appropriate for the non-domestic sector.
The report makes several recommendations for further work to achieve zero carbon non-domestic buildings. See ‘Recent Publications’ for further information on the report.
Building Services Journal. January 2008 (Pg. 8)
New climate science website
Designers will be able to access detailed information predicting wind speed, air temperatures and rainfall under the impact of climate change from a government website to be launched later this year.Climate science from the Met Office will be made available to designers and academics and includes five reports to be published under the umbrella of the UK 21st Century Climate Change Scenarios (UKCIP08).
TheClimate of the UK and recent trends, the first of the five reports, contains information about key climate variables from 1961 to 2006. See ‘Recent Publications’ for further information.
Building Services Journal. January 2008 (Pg. 9)
Periodicals
Articles
Blown away
An island nation with vast expanses of coastline to install energy generation measures, the UK is one of the richest nations in Europe as far as renewables are concerned. Unfortunately, only 2% of our energy currently comes from renewable sources.
The recent announcement by the European Union (EU) that 15% of total UK energy demand must come from renewable sources by 2020 represents a massive challenge. Despite electricity only representing 18.7% of total UK energy use, it will be this energy sector that becomes the focus of efforts to meet the targets. Wind power is the fastest growing and most popular renewable energy source in the UK; however, to reach the 2020 target, renewable electricity capacity will need to increase tenfold to account for up to 50% of total electricity demand.
This article looks at the possible implications of building 10,000 wind turbines, in order to meet the EU renewable energy targets.
New Civil Engineer. 31 January (Pg.14-15)
The climate crunch
Last summers floods were the most costly natural disaster in the UK; four years worth of claims were logged by insurance companies during this relatively short period. Before last summer, insurance modeling had suggested that the costs of a severe inland flood would be less than the £3 billion cost of the summer 2007 floods.
While the summer floods were without question an extreme event, there is the possibility that such events may not be classed as extreme in the future. In the light of recent flooding, this article asks, “Who should be responsible for managing flood risk as climate change pushes the issue further up the political agenda?"
New Civil Engineer. 31 January (Pg. 24-25)
The secret life of buildings
We hear an awful lot about architects’ low-energy designs, but information about how they actually work when built is very rare. This article follows the Simons Group, which has designed and built itself a low-energy headquarters on the edge of Lincoln, and carefully monitored its performance afterwards. The article focuses on procurement, design aspirations, comfort, energy use and what could be done differently next time.
Building. 18 January (Pg. 42-46)
Job satisfaction
The Environment Agency’s (EA) award-winning, naturally ventilated office was purpose-built by developer HR Wallingford. The original brief for project was to design an open-plan office building of a high architectural standard that demonstrates best environmental practice using natural ventilation and achieves a BREEAM excellent rating. The 2500m2 building also had to demonstrate the use of renewable energy technologies and incorporate sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS).
The EA got its BREEAM excellent rating for its office. This article follows up on this by looking at a study on how the occupants rate it, which shows the project to be in keeping with its green image.
Building Services Journal. January 2008 (Pg. 26-31)
Sunny outlook
BSJ readers will be familiar with Richard Quincey’s property, from reports in 2005 and 2007; it is essentially a biomass/solar/electric eco-home with advanced mechanical ventilation heat recovery.
In October 2006 a 2.1kWp (kilowatt peak) photovoltaic grid-connected array was installed, taking advantage of the 50% grant available at the time through the government’s Low Carbon Buildings Programme. The PV system was installed by Greenearth Energy.
In this current article Richard Quincey reviews how his photovoltaic array has been performing, two years on from completion of his low-energy home, in Devon.
Building Services Journal. January 2008 (Pg. 50-51)
Making water work
Average water usage per capita is now estimated to be at least 150 litres a day and the loading on water supply and drainage infrastructures will increase still further with future population increases. Drinking and cooking account for less than 20% of average domestic water use; more than a third of the total is used for toilet flushing.
In many types of building, rainwater from the roof area can be collected and, after filtration, used for toilet flushing, cleaning, washing machines and outdoor use saving, in many cases, a third of the water demand. Davis Langdon Mott Green Wall looks at the potential for greywater and rainwater reuse.
Building Services Journal. January 2008 (Pg. 54-56)
This is ground control
Property developers reviewing ways of meeting the 10% renewables planning criteria frequently consider ground source heat pump systems. Benefits include load capacity, long-term cost savings, space savings, noise reduction and planning advantages.
Geothermal systems fall broadly into open loop and closed loop categories. Open loop is inherently more risky and while they are a good renewables option the risks must be carefully managed. Open loop systems are therefore the focus of this article.
Building Services Journal. January 2008 (Pg. 58-60)
Recent Publications
Carbon reductions in new non-domestic buildings
This report investigates the opportunities for achieving zero carbon in new non domestic buildings. Following on from the targets set out in the Code for Sustainable Homes to achieve radical emissions reductions in new homes; the report aims to add to the understanding of whether similar targets in the commercial sector can be set and achieved and in what timescale.
Carbon reductions in new non-domestic buildings. DCLG, 2008.
Climate of the UK and recent trends
When considering how climate change is going to affect the UK, it’s useful to understand the risks that current climate already poses to individuals, landscapes, organisations and the economy, before moving on to explore future climate risks. This report provides a valuable source of information to support this first step.
This is the first in a series of reports under the umbrella of the UK 21st Century Climate Change Scenarios (UKCIP08).
Climate of the UK and recent trends. UKCIP, 2008.
