“I believe that we have to solve the problems of reducing the carbon footprint of our homes in all sorts of innovative ways not only technical, but also personal, organisational and monetory.”

Greg Condliffe

Newbeck Cottage, Flower Lane, Amesbury is no ordinary house!  It is jammed full of innovative ideas for reducing its carbon footprint.  Architect Greg Condliffe, of Harnham, Salisbury was nominated by South Wiltshire Agenda 21 in this year’s Regen South West Green Energy Awards. Greg was runner-up in the housing category and was the only award winner from Wiltshire.

 Regen SW is the sustainable energy agency for South West England, funded by the SW Regional Development Agency.  Its mission is to speed up the transition to a low-carbon economy by unlocking sustainable-energy business opportunities, accelerating the uptake of the region’s renewable-energy resources and championing effective energy-demand-reduction initiatives in the region.  

Greg, who owns the firm Concrete Ideas, likes a challenge.  If he comes up against a problem he will find a solution even if this is unconventional and has never been tried before.  He also values the skills of his builders and uses their experience and ideas to enhance his own.  His philosophy is affordable sustainability, which will not cost the earth, can be easily replicated and retrofitted into existing buildings.

 Newbeck Cottage is a small, new home in a conservation area, built using lime mortar (making it recyclable).  It incorporates a range of carbon neutral technologies including:

• a novel rainwater harvesting system using a series of water-butts linked by a simple pond pump to a storage tank in the roof
• solar panels, which not only supply the hot water, but also enhance the under-floor heating system
• an air-heat recovery system supplying continuous fresh air, warmed in winter and cooled in summer, so removing the need for ventilation and consequent draughts
• insulation to the highest standards, including that made from recycled plastic bottles

All the plant is stored in the attic, making use of this waste space, and the controls are cleverly hidden behind a mirror in the bedroom.

“What’s the point of solar if we are going to have summers like this?” 

Think again!  Believe it or not we have had enough sun to turn off our boiler for much of the summer. Read on to find out more about your solar options.

 Solar Water Heating – Exploding the myths

Solar water heating seems to be one of those peculiar things that most people seem to have heard about but few know very much about it, except that they think it costs thousands of pounds, and only works in summer. Having said that there are those who know of someone else who has had it for years and will say that it works very well. It is true that solar water heating has been around for years – it is as we say a ‘mature’ technology, just like bricks and cement are for building.

This means that the focus of manufacturers is on the production of equipment rather than on its development. Some solar systems have been installed for 20 – 30 years and have been saving energy all that time. Systems installed today will probably go on working for 30 years or more with little or no maintenance.

Solar Water Heating – how does it work?

A Conventional Solar Thermal System

Solar collectors, either the glass tube or flat plate variety, are fixed to a roof which receives a reasonable amount of sunshine. Roofs facing SE or SW are still suitable. If you have a thatched cottage the collectors can be mounted on frames on the ground. A new hot water cylinder with a second ‘solar coil’ is usually required. Connecting pipes and a pump are installed which are well insulated. Most systems have a separate circuit with anti-freeze fluid in the collectors. The heated fluid is pumped round the circuit and the heat is transferred to the cool water at the bottom of the cylinder. A boiler is still required to provide back-up energy when there is insufficient sunshine.

 Solar Water Heating – how much energy does it capture?

 A good solar system will capture anything between 50 and 70 % of the energy required to heat your water averaged across the year. During hot spells in summer people find that they can switch off their boilers as the solar system provides all their hot water. Solar collectors work by absorbing either direct sunshine or diffuse radiation on overcast days. They work on clear days in winter if the sun is shining. On cold cloudy days there is little solar energy available to be collected. Beware of any companies who appear to claim to offer more, either that they are more effective or don’t need sunshine to work!

 Solar Water Heating – which collectors are best?

Some people say that the evacuated glass tube collectors are best because they are more efficient [which they are but only slightly]. Others prefer the flat plates. The fact is that there are advantages and disadvantages to all collectors. Evacuated glass tubes are permeable to various gasses and over time they become less effective. Flat plates collectors may go green with age more than the tubes. Certainly the manufacturer’s guarantee period for flat plate collectors is at least twice that of the evacuated tube collectors.

 Solar Water Heating – how much do systems cost?

 A typical system which has two collectors and a new twin-coil cylinder and is suitable for the average house should cost in the region of £3,000 – £4,000 depending on the access requirements to the roof, and how long the job actually takes. A good installation should take between 2 and 3 days, otherwise the quality of work may be inadequate.

 Solar Water Heating – Can it also heat my house?

Solar collectors capture energy from the sun. There is much less sun power in winter when you want energy input into the central heating. However, in spring and autumn and on bright days in winter solar energy can make an appreciable contribution to the heating of a house,- particularly if that house is well insulated and if the house is fitted with under floor heating. If you are considering a new house, or a reasonable extension to your existing house plan into the design a THERMAL STORE. A thermal store can take in heat energy from solar collectors, a wood burning stove or wood pellet boiler, or ground source heat pump, and distribute it around the heating system. The lower temperature required for under floor heating makes this a very attractive combination with solar energy.

 Solar Water Heating – a Final Word

 Beware of being “sold to” by unscrupulous companies,- there are a lot out there. Shop locally,- always get a quote and take time to think it over. You are making a big commitment. NEVER sign anything when someone visits you.

Pam and Andrew

Eighteen potential sites have been identified, with volunteer Site Champions undertaking to investigate their potential, establish ownership, and make an initial approach to the landowner, to gauge interest.

The future of wind in Wiltshire / Photo: Rachel Ross

The group has made good progress since it was started last year by Jack Mason of Trowbridge, attracting local supporters of wind energy from backgrounds ranging from flood defence, archaeology, IT, energy efficiency, aviation technology and education.

So far it has carried out a mapping exercise of the county, establishing sites of highest wind speed and height above sea level, and eliminating areas which might prove controversial such as near airfields or MOD land, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and archaeological sites.

Eighteen potential sites have been identified, with volunteer Site Champions undertaking to investigate their potential, establish ownership, and make an initial approach to the landowner, to gauge interest.

Contacts have also been established with existing wind farm operators, renewable energy supply companies and community energy organisations, to obtain advice and support.

For more information on wind power and the group’s activities, see our website at http://www.wiltshirewind.org.uk/
or email us: info@wiltshirewind.org.uk

Rachel Ross

The scale of the waste finally became obvious to me after cheap domestic energy monitors appeared on the market.

Wasting energy / Photo: Simon Banton

For the techies reading this, there’s a Linux DNS and mailserver, a music server, a couple of Windows boxes for checking website designs work in Internet Explorer, the list goes on…

None of these are of a particularly high specification, being largely salvaged, low-end old machines that aren’t called upon for demanding tasks and don’t need to be blisteringly fast. However, although not everything is always switched on and in use, these machines have been quietly consuming between 60-110W – the same as keeping a traditional lightbulb on day in, day out.

The scale of the waste finally became obvious to me after cheap domestic energy monitors appeared on the market. These are simple devices which are simply inserted between the piece of machinery you want to monitor and the plug socket at the wall. Something like 40% of my daily electricity consumption was being spent on keeping this lot going!

Thankfully the performance of computers has increased so much in the last few years that it’s become feasible to create ‘virtual machines’ (VMs) in software. Each VM can replace an individual physical computer, and since many VMs may be run on a single computer, the potential energy (and cost) benefits are clear.

I chose to use a product called VMWare, as there is a free version available. Have a Google for “hardware virtualisation” to explore the subject if you’re interested.

Two months down the line, all of the beige boxes that used to sit around consuming power have been decommissioned, and I have a single £400 laptop that runs a collection of virtual machines instead. Plus I have a lot more room.

The added bonuses, aside from cutting my home energy consumption from 550W (base load) down to a far more reasonable 350W, are that the laptop which hosts these virtual machines has a built in battery backup for the odd occasions when the electricity grid fails, and it’s designed from the outset to be a low-power, more energy efficient device than a regular desktop computer.

It’s going to take a surprisingly short time to repay the investment in time and money that this project has taken – the energy (base load) reduction is about 5 KWh – or units – per day and at current prices that’s saving me approximately £17 a month.

So if you’re the sort of techie person like me who’s gradually built up an extensive home network over time, without really thinking about the impact, I hope this tale encourages you to see whether you can use the same kind of approach to get your electricity consumption back under control.

Even if you are not a heavy computer user, do consider conducting an experiment on your home energy consumption with easily available domestic energy monitors.

Simon Banton

The next meeting of the Wiltshire Community Wind Energy Group will be on:

Date: Thursday 17 July, 7-9pm
Place: United Reformed Church, Fisherton Street, Salisbury.

Further details at:

http://www.wiltshirewind.org.uk/news.htm

This will be an important meeting as we aim to build on the one held in May. If you would like details of the May meeting please look at the news section of the website where there are some brief notes and the ‘powerpoint’ presentation.

Please come along and bring a friend!

Date: Wednesday 11 June 2008
Venue: Hinton Hall, Tisbury at 7.30pm

Admission FREE but donations towards costs welcome.

Travel
Trains from Salisbury to Tisbury run every half hour at this time with a journey time of only 15 minutes.

Salisbury: 18.53 arrive Tisbury 19.06
Salisbury: 19.23 arrive Tisbury 19.36

Tisbury: 21.52 arrive Salisbury 22.08
Tisbury: 22.59 arrive Salisbury 23.13

A sketch map of Tisbury showing Hinton Hall off Church Road.

Their first meeting will be on: Tuesday 27 May 2008 at 7pm
Bridge House, Stallard Street, Trowbridge BA14 9AE

Download Wiltshire Community Wind Energy

Contact info@wiltshirewind.org.uk

Other information at http://www.wiltshirewind.org.uk