05.04.11 Low/Zero Carbon Housing & Community Windfarm

One figure that has been repeated a couple of times is that 80% of the house stock in 2050 has already been built, therefore a large retrofit of the housing stock will be required for the UK to meet it's targets for carbon reduction. Most of the renewable technologies are still in their infancy, would it be impractical to wait until we have mastered these technologies before retrofitting and even building new homes? It that even an option? Are the carbon reduction targets actually in danger of forcing us down a path including technology which will be redundant in 20 years time. Also from my own experience how difficult it can be to introduce new technologies and products into a workplace that already has built up a relationship with manufacturers i.e insulation producers such as kingspan who provide a lot of support especially with calculating u-values and SAP calculations.

Greenhouse not making full use of the space heating potential (although it does grow bananas!)

Strawbale house with slightly over-engineered timber - proper workmanship required to ensure dampness doesn't penetrate the structure, ideal for prefabrication.

Barrel houses created with disused mash tonnes from distilleries - I'm sure I could still smell the whisky.

'Temporary' home in the spirit of the planning laws creating a very peaceful living space - I was curious about so many junctions causing thermal bridging problems though.

There were a few points in which I found the low/zero carbon homes unsettling - there seems to be a bit of overlap when it comes to electricity production (solar panels installed when the electricity is already coming from the windfarm) and also the scale of the buildings, particularly the new sanddune development. I felt a bit dishearted by the amount of steelwork used in the new buildings - something that comes hand in hand with large scale housing where huge spans are required. The owner also seemed to have his heart set on mechanical vent with heat recovery, even though the building is not quite up to passiv haus standard making it seem irrelivant. It seems to go against the grain of the rest of the eco-village and the original community. Although there is a lot to be said for the UK's health and safety overload, there seems to be a lack of good environmental practice when it comes to site maintenance - in particular the filling for the Poroton blocks, which has been left scattered around the site, floating in a couple of puddles of water.

Talking about renewable energy seems to have an added dimension following a talk yesterday evening by George Monbiot. Although his views were largely on energy generation on a macro scale, after visiting one of the wind turbines here it gives you more of idea of the scale of the installation and their impact as well as the sense of achievement that the community rightly has about them. Only main issue seems to be the maintainance, something that will hopefully be resolved over time as novice engineers become more experience, as well as multiply. Duncan, the engineer showing us round commented on how the engine starting sounds exactly like a tube leaving an underground stop.

To end the day I took my first shift in the KP (kitchen party), a chance to participate with the cleaning of the kitchen after one of the many lovely meals here. It was pretty tiring, especially after a long day but also left me with a small sense of worth that I was contributing, even if it was in a tiny way. I also met the couple living in the barrel house I viewed earlier - they seemed very happy, and apparently I'm my sense of smell is letting me down and there is no odour of whisky not so ever...