windows

Roof lights

Advantages

Roof windows may be useful for half a dozen reasons:

to let light into a room more +/-» to provide a view more +/-» for ventilation. Most proprietary roof windows such as Velux have built in ventilators. as a means of escape[for the purposes of part B of the Approved Documents] – Structural means [...]

Timber

January ’13

Advantages of timber

Constructing with FSCForest Stewardship Council (who accredit timber) timber (or another accreditation organisation such as PEFCProgramme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification. See their web site) is potentially one of the greenest ways of building for several reasons.

Timber itself captures and locks up CO² as it grows and keeps [...]

multiple glazing Types of sealed unit

As a minimum try to use sealed units with a spacing of 16 or 18mm. rather than 6mm. This is the optimum gap for heat insulation. However the frames need to have sufficient rebate for this. See window design. Use a filler of argon gas rather than air. [...]

Walls

The main types of walls

Regardless of the type of wall construction, all walls have certain functions to fulfil and certain challenges to contend with. From a green perspective, three of the most important aspects of walls are their insulation values, the embodied energythe total amount of energy it takes to make a material [...]

Window design

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 [...]

Building Regulations

February 2013

See the government web site on Building Regulations

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 Consentthe legal basis for being allowed to do some form of development such as building a house. (not to [...]