Dantherm Air Handling Blog

Plans for green makeover of 7m homes

Plans to cut carbon emissions from British households were revealed yesterday at the launch of a government consultation on heat and energy efficiency.

More than 7m homes are expected to benefit from the plans, which include mass energy audits. Experts will visit every home in the country over the next two decades in an effort to make all the buildings in Britain carbon neutral. The audits  will be part of the biggest overhaul of the housing stock since switching to gas central heating forty years ago.

"The Great British Refurb" will fit every home in need of insulation in the roof or walls by 2015. By 2030 every home will be offered a "whole house" green refurbishment, including fitting renewable heat technologies like ground source heat pumps and solar panels.

Launching a consultation on the scheme, Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said teams of energy advisers would go around "house by house, street by street" to advise people how to improve their homes.

Loans would then be made available to pay for the new technologies, that can cost thousands of pounds.

For the full story click here.

Carbon Challenge site mothballed
According to Building Magazine, a 650-home flagship zero-carbon development on government land has been put on hold because of the worsening recession.

The Bickershaw Colliery scheme near Wigan was to have been the third of the Carbon Challenge sites promoted by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to pilot zero-carbon building.However, the government withdrew its tender notice for private partners last week. The HCA says the scheme is now under review and may ultimately have to go ahead without initially meeting the zero-carbon standard.

The 18.3ha site was opened to developer bidding through a competitive dialogue process by regional quango the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) for the HCA in March last year. But the NWDA emailed developers on 3 February to say the project was not going ahead.

The Carbon Challenge was designed to get developers to meet level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes – equivalent to zero carbon – in advance of a 2016 legal requirement.

EU Parliament backs new renewables goal

Discussions regarding Europe's future energy policy this week saw MEPs backing proposals for new EU targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% before 2050. The meetings of the full EU Parliament in Strasbourg also saw support for a 60% renewable energy target.

As Europe continues to re-shape its energy policy following the EU Commission's Second Strategic Energy Review, the MEPs called for climate change to be the priority for EU spending, rather than energy security, which is the Commission's current priority.

Source: New Energy Focus

RIBA launches Future Trends survey

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has commissioned a significant survey to monitor the employment and business trends affecting the architectural profession throughout the period of economic downturn.

Launched as part of a suite of recession-focused initiatives, the RIBA Futures Survey will be completed monthly by a sample representing a cross-section of members. The survey is focused on areas that members may face potential difficulties in including workload, staff levels and work in specific sectors. Monthly results will be independently analysed in order to identify the employment and business trends affecting the profession, and to help identify implications for the profession and inform further RIBA activities.

To participate in the RIBA Future Trends survey, contact: 020 7307 3749 or go to the RIBA site here. 

2009 Building Services Engineering Football World Cup
And finally….here’s one we just couldn’t resist! Yes, it’s time to register for the Building Services Engineering Football World Cup!

Taking place 18 - 21st June in Liverpool, this annual international Football tournament for Building Services Engineering & Built Environment professionals is open to all associated businesses and employees operating and working within the building services engineering/built environment sectors. The tournament will support ‘Everyman' Prostate Cancer Charity with £100.00 from each team registration donated to Everyman.

For further information and to register your team visit the event website here. 

New HVCA Guide to Profitability

The Heating and Ventilation Contractors’ Association has published the first in a series of Better Business Guides designed to provide its members with the expert advice and guidance they need to continue to operate profitably in a recession.

The guide is the first in a series to be published over the next few weeks and offers general advice on facing up to recession and outlines a range of business services that are available to all Association members at preferential rates.

Later guides will provide in-depth advice on core commercial and contractual, human resources and training funding issues, as well as a reminder of the broad range of services available from other parts of the HVCA Group.

HVCA President Gareth Vaughan says: “Whatever the long-term prospects for the UK economy as a whole, it is now clear that significant challenges lie just around the corner – and that, for all too many firms in the sector, survival will become the over-riding priority.”

Get more info on the guide here.

MPs launch group to promote green homes
More than 50 MPs have joined an all-party parliamentary group formed to promote low-carbon housing
The APPG on sustainable housing was set up by two former housing ministers, Labour’s Nick Raynsford and the Tories’ David Curry, with the Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Lembit Opik. Standards body NHBC is providing the secretariat.

Nick Raynsford said the founders wanted to let people get the “best bang for their buck” when it came to refurbishing their homes: “We want to influence MPs and lords who play a critical role in shaping public opinion.”

Lewis Sidnick, NHBC public affairs manager, said the group was also set up in response to confusion about the Code for Sustainable Homes: “There was no dedicated platform for one of the most ambitious housing policies ever. MPs are concerned about the implications for constituents.”

The group will take a party of MPs to BRE’s Innovation Park near Watford to look at properties that meet the higher levels of the code, and to Hammarby Sjöstad, an eco-suburb of Stockholm. It will also conduct a survey asking people if they know what energy ratings their home would achieve. “The starting point will be to shock people to make them aware of how little knowledge there is,” said Nick Raynsford.

Source: Building Magazine

Carbon-Negative & Positive

Two stories caught our eye this week both dealing with the plus and minus (for some) of carbon reduction and energy saving. With no hint of irony the two stories ran concurrently.

First: The ground breaking of the UK’s first carbon-negative residential development. Situated in Leeds, the development of 172 homes, office space and amenities will sell back excess power to the national grid. See: Building Magazine

Secondly: The fears of developers that they are becoming energy suppliers. According to Building Magazine: ‘A survey reveals that a third of firms expect to become responsible for renewable energy generation. One-third of all developers say they will be expected to manage, design or build generators of renewable energy.

The survey found that 75% of respondents thought they would be involved in sustainable energy sources. And 34% say they will be directly involved in managing renewable energy, either in the form of a joint venture (14%), providing finance or investment (14%), or self-procuring (16%). Many indicated that all of these elements were likely to be a part of their involvement.’

Interesting. Perhaps the first concrete sign of things to come…. 

Cutting the Green Tape?
Meanwhile, an MP is attempting to cut the red tape for microgeneration by introducing a Bill to Parliament designed to promote small scale energy production and energy efficiency measures.
Introduced yesterday as a Private Members Bill by former Conservative environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth, the Green Energy [Definition and Promotion] Bill, aims to improve the planning process and make installing small-scale electricity and heat generation easier and more economically viable.

Source: New Energy Focus

   

One million new green jobs by 2015

According to UK Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, the UK will create more than a million new jobs in the environmental sector by 2015, helping to ease unemployment.

In his speech at the Jobs Summit in London this week, Lord Mandleson said that the environmental goods and services industry would be one of the major areas to provide new jobs as public sector recruitment slows down and the recession hits traditional growth areas such as retail and banking.

Mr Mandelson said Government's forthcoming proposals for a Low Carbon Industrial Strategy would include commitments to help the environmental sector expand and develop the right skills: "The global market for low carbon and environmental goods and services is currently worth about £3 trillion and it is projected to grow strongly over the next decade as both the developed and the emerging world makes the shift to low carbon or post-carbon."

Source: www.edie.net

Eco-Towns set for trouble in Europe
According to a new report on the Government eco-town strategy, the towns could be thrown out under European law. Up to ten of the controversial towns, which are designed to be environmentally-friendly, will get the go-ahead, but the report says the strategic environmental assessment, which is part of the planning process, fails to comply with European rules.

Author of the report, William Sheate, who is also an expert adviser to the European Commision, said this is because not enough alternatives were considered to the sites or how the eco-towns will be developed.

He also said many of the arguments are illogical including the Government's "zero-carbon" claims for eco-towns that exclude any consideration of the carbon dioxide produced by the expected increase in transport. Mr Sheate said the environmental assessment as it currently stands is "exceptionally poor".

Source: Telegraph

Construction & the retail sector
We’ve tried to steer away from posting on the unremitting gloom in the UK construction industry but if you do want a dose of outright doom today then the place to go is an article in Building Magazine showing just how much the retailer sector’s slump has affected their willingness to expand – and pay the building costs.