Category: sustainability
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Green roof in South London
Last week I completed another green roof in Streatham. It is on the rear of a really interesting house, a 1930s semi that is getting a complete eco-makeover from the owner. He has insulated the walls inside and out with wood fibre and remade the roof in solar panels and that is just the start.…
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New green extension in Hackney
Just a quick update, we broke ground on a new extension last week. It’s mostly just digging at the moment but still exciting. I got to put up a sign outside the house: The project will develop over the next few weeks. The walls incorporate high levels of insulation and will be made using reclaimed…
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Biodiverse green roof in London
Last week I completed a ‘green’ green roof. Not only was it a green roof with plants increasing the amount of green space in central London but we also managed to use it to improve the energy efficiency of the house we were building it on. The customers were really interested in using a small…
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Creating an insulated breathing wall
As you may have noticed from my twitter feed I have been working on creating a breathing wall. This is for a wooden house built with cedar tiles on a timber frame. The house has cavity walls and then lath and plaster inside. I previously built a green roof on this house and we insulated…
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My modest grand design
You may have seen from my social media updates (twitter, facebook, linkedin and google plus) that I went to Grand designs live the other week. After my first visit to the Ideal Home Show I thought I should try this one too. Quite a strange selection of exhibitors. There were lots of the sort of stylish…
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Lime plastering course
I have spent the last couple of days on a lime plastering course in Bedford. I am learning this skill so I can deliver more retrofit services to the customers of www.ecoalex.com. One of the key ways to improve the energy performance of older houses is to add internal insulation to walls. There are lots…
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Electricity monitor and heating controls
I am having all sorts of fun today with new gadgets. I went to Ecobuild recently and talked to the good people at Owl about their electricity monitors. I have been meaning to get an electricity monitor for ages , especially as I regularly recommend them to other people. Anyway, I thought it was high…
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Sustainable India?
On my holidays at the moment having an amazing time in India. Thought I might try and write something about sustainability. So far I think the natural air conditioning is my favourite. This is from the Red fort in Agra. Nice carvings but the point too look at is the thick walls. These conceal a…
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Green roofs of Verona
In Italy at the moment taking a short break. We went to the opera at the roman amphitheatre in Verona last night. In the cheap seats you have to arrive an hour or two early to get a good position so we had quite a while to look around before the opera started. When you…
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CEEQUAL assessor
Just completed the CEEQUAL assessor course to upgrade to the new CEEQUAL version 5. The course was carried out online which was interesting, it was certainly more compelling than most online courses I have seen before. The new version 5 has a reduced number of sections from 12 to 9 and the layout of the…