fuel | Selfbuild Central

Retrofit

‘Under the Sun’, a Victorian terrace house in Birmingham is an outstanding example of bringing a fairly typical old building up to PassivhausSee more on the Passivhaus standard. The PassivHaus Institute has pioneered a standard for low energy buildings. It includes very low energy usage and ways of achieving this. The word is derived [...]

Approved Documents (England)

The approved documents are ‘standard’ ways of getting Building RegulationsThese are the legal regulations which govern how a house is constructed. (not to be confused with Planning Permission which is about whether you are allowed to build the house at all or what it might look like) see Building Regulations) approval. If you follow the [...]

Part L and SAP (England)

The Building Regulations, part L, is the section which covers energy conservation for new buildings (with part L1A covering new buildings and part L1B covering existing ones)

At present there is a period of transition which is well explained in an NHBCThe National House-Building Council describes itself as being “the leading warranty and insurance provider [...]

Bandodle house

October 2009

On the Hill of Bandodle, Aberdeenshire, stands a beautiful timber frame house designed by architect Genevieve Jones for her family. Incorporating high levels of insulation (in the form of 350mm of shoddy obtained from Elgin woolen mill) and mainly locally sourced materials, Larch, Douglas fir and Caithness slate, the house also has [...]

Earth Heart

Earth Heart is a community of 22 people in 8 homes based on a large converted farm in Derbyshire set up in 1998 around home education. Although not initially concerned with eco-build, they have embraced the concept thoroughly during their upgrading of an old farm house and several outbuildings into dwellings.

There [...]

Energy Harvesting

There are several methods of harvesting energy for a house but non of them are as important as providing excellent levels of insulation, air tightness and energy efficient appliances in the first place. Witness to this fact is the design of the PassivhausSee more on the Passivhaus standard. The PassivHaus Institute has pioneered a [...]

Choice of Fuel

Always the best fuel is the least fuel and this is down to insulation. Enough insulation and you don’t need a central heating system. This is the basis of the PassivhausSee more on the Passivhaus standard. The PassivHaus Institute has pioneered a standard for low energy buildings. It includes very low energy usage and [...]

Straw Bales

Boilers are available for burning straw for domestic heating and constitute an almost carbon neutral source of heat as the carbon is recycled annually. Various sizes of bales can be used and are usually batch loaded by tractor. There is nearly always a hot water storage accumulatorusually a large water tank used to store [...]

Oil & LPG

It is difficult to make any sort of case for using oil or LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) as a heating fuel. If you are not on mains gas then probably the best green option is to go for wood burning (logs, pellets or chip) or possibly straw bale if you have sufficient storage space and [...]

Gas

snap by Stig Nygaard

Of the fossil fuels, natural gas is considerably better than either oil or coal. This is because natural gas, CH4, is partly hydrogen which burns to form water rather than carbon dioxide. It produces about 70% of the CO2Carbon dioxide is a gas which is given off when carbon based [...]