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Central heating Emitters tend to be of two types – traditional radiators and underfloor heating. It’s a bit of a toss-up as to which is better. They have their respective advantages and drawbacks. Underfloor a pleasanter heat because it is better distributed no wall space taken up by radiators possibly more efficient because of lower [...] Although not self built, the two passivhauses at Ebbw Vale may be very relevant to many self builders. Built in 2010 as show houses mainly for the attention of housing associations, they are attractive and innovative while being relatively modest. The 3 bed Larch House is clad with a locally sourced larch rain screen and [...]
straw board Straw board is made from waste straw with usually about 2% MDI adhesive binder. In the past the reputation of straw board has suffered mainly due to people trying to skimp on the thickness, a bit like with hardboard. It can make for very economical internal surface linings with good thermal and [...]
novolit magnesite / woodwool board There are various types of cement/wood wool board combinations with Heraklith (which uses a magnesite cement) being one of the better known makes in the UK. Although the cement component is a cause of embodied energy, there are several ‘green’ advantages which count in its favour high timber content [...] The Tree House in Clapham, London is a recently completed and very elegant example of a self built detached house. It has, on occasion, been open to the public as part of the London Open House programme. Situated on a small urban plot of land dominated by a large sycamore tree it has taken [...]
the front of the house with double storey sun space One of the first UK examples of a super low energy Passivhaus has recently been completed at Denby Dale in south Yorkshire. It is interesting in several respects The walls have a stone outer skin, (on the insistence of the planners) 300mm of wall [...] Aberfeldy, October 2009 This is a timber frame house of 76 sq,m. built in 2001. In terms of heating it benefits from its double storey living area facing south and the limited amount of glazing to the north. There is 200mm cellulose insulation in the roof, 150mm in the floor and 145mm in the [...] October ’09 Home of Alexander and Vinny Burnett, Kashentroch is an elegant and spacious open plan timber frame house in a beautiful setting close to the Dee. The original part of the house (with the pitched roof on the right of the picture), built about 5 years ago, has recently had an addition of [...] ECOS, (formerly known as the Somerset Trust for Sustainable Development) is a charity which has been behind several green house building initiatives. Although not self-build, their houses are excellent examples of what is possible and are open to viewing on certain occasions. At present there are two schemes which are complete or nearing completion and [...]
this clay plaster wall at the Denby Dale passivhaus was applied in 4 coats. It has hemp reinforcement wall and ceiling linings There have been several fairly recent developments in dry lining boards for internal walls. Traditional plasterboard is being challenged by other variations of gypsum based boards and also by clay based [...] May 2011 design see also Vapour barriers Green roof design can affect several aspects of the building: Having generous roof overhangs can significantly reduce the amount of maintenance to woodwork such as doors, windows and cladding Careful sourcing roofing materials is important as a way of reducing the embodied energy and minimising manufacturing pollution The [...] 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 [...] Hedgehog Self Build Co-op, Hogs Edge, Brighton august 2009 Started in the late 1990s this development of ten timber frame houses is based on the Walter Segal approach to construction. They incorporate high levels of Warmcell insulation and benefit from south facing solar gain. The living roofs are of Sedum. It may [...] A very interesting terrace of three houses, on a curved road junction, has recently been completed in this Somerset village. Some of the main features of the design are: Very high insulation levels provided by insulating concrete forms (ICF) with added exterior face insulation Structural insulated panel (SIP) roofs Eco-slab ground floors and upper [...] Walter Segal self build This is made up of 3 adjoining houses which were built by three families, starting in 1993. They were constructed according to the Walter Segal self build approach to construction and incorporated a number of ecological principles: High insulation values. Most of the external surfaces have 200mm of insulation, some [...] Assuming that the question of designing in enough insulation has been dealt with the question is about what kind of materials to use. Here the issues are - resistance to moisture compressive strength if needed is it self supporting? is it easy to fit? must it be fire resistant? must it also be acoustic [...] Self build eco houses in the Field of Dreams, Findhorn Foundation Over the last decade or so the green building movement in the UK has gone from being fringe to mainstream. Architects, builders and suppliers are falling over each other to declare their green credentials Self builders have something of a tradition of trying [...]
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 [...]
The five earth sheltered houses. Image by WindandSun who provided the PV installation The Hockerton Housing Project is the UK’s first (and almost only) earth sheltered housing development. It is a remarkable place, not only because of the five houses which are built into the side of a hill and are almost zero energy [...] October 2010 Eco-house design is a fairly recent development which started getting off the ground in the UK during the mid 1990s. more +/-» Although you will probably end up using an architect or designer for your final plans there is no substitute for being clear about what you want. Especially with eco-house design, you [...] October 2009 The Findhorn Foundation near Fores in the North East of Scotland has a couple of interesting areas of eco-housing and a whole approach to living lightly on the earth including 750kW of electrical energy from 4 wind turbines recently installed for Findhorn Wind Park Ltd which is the trading arm of Findhorn Foundation. [...] There are many purposes a window can serve and several of these have important ecological considerations: Letting light in Collecting solar heat Providing a view Acting as a door The visual character of a house Windows may have associated drawbacks to consider: They may let in too much light at certain times Too much [...]
Khan made this beautiful doorway in the attic of her house Good external doors are quite hard to source in the UK because we have had a poor tradition of insulating and draft proofing them. This is why eco-house builders often use the imported Scandinavian and German ones which are available here. There are [...] New buildings As a building material, locally sourced (or possibly newly quarried), reclaimed stone may be a viable option but suffers from the drawback that stone itself has virtually no insulating value. This can obviously be overcome by including sufficient insulation within the rest of the wall construction but it does tend to lead [...] It is very cheap and easy to build in wall insulation at the beginning compared with the complicated job of adding more later. It is only a few decades ago that insulation was not bothered with at all (cavity walls only had cavities to stop driving rain getting through the wall – they give practically [...] January 2010 Building Regulations deal with whether the building is built properly and is safe and energy efficient etc. more+/-» They are not to be confused with Planning Consent (which is to do with the size, location and appearance of a house). The building inspectors are either employed by the local council [...] The green credentials for brick walls vary, with three main factors: the embodied energy depends on what sort of bricks are used the environmental policy of the manufacturer the effect on the wall design The embodied energy of bricks can vary from 0.7 MJ/Kg for Limestone bricks to 8.2 MJ/Kg for facing bricks. This [...] Cob building, which uses earth, generally subsoil, mixed with straw and water and possibly clay and sand to construct walls is one of the most sustainable ways of building in terms of materials and embodied energy. At the end of the building's life the materials are easily biodegradable. Cob is extremely cheap and can be [...] Rammed earth is an age-old method of building walls by packing moist subsoil into formwork and then compacting it, either by machine or manually. The formwork is then struck and lifted to form the next layer. In terms of embodied energy (0.45 MJ/Kg) and using sustainable materials the method is superb since the materials can [...] autumn 2009
from left to right – individual houses, the communal village green area, bungalows, the terrace of houses and, (bright red), the flats above the workshops and community centre CLICK ABOVE FOR 3D PANORAMIC IMAGE WITH DRAG AND ZOOM This is one of the most interesting recent examples of group self-build in the [...] The main green aspects of a well designed hot water system are: As much of the heat as possible should be from a renewable source such as solar or be reclaimed heat Heat from boilers should be produced as efficiently as possible. Hot water storage should be very well insulated. Although cylinders usually come with [...] |
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