RefurbN16

Author: Jamie

  • London Transition: A Year In Review

    Chris at London Transition has posted a lovely review highlighting some of the things that have been going on in London this year. It makes me very happy to see all of these exciting projects springing up – inspiring stuff for sure:

    For many 2010 started with a sense that the best remedy for global, instituional paralysis is local, grass roots action, and the year has seen much new interest in Transition-style approaches in the capital both, in official Transition Towns initiatives and in like minded Low Carbon Communities and Climate Action Networks. Many new groups were formed, there was continued growth in the size and ambition of activities and and many firsts.

    Read on….

    I couldn’t agree more. If there’s one thing that’s really hit home in the last year, it’s that real change  is only going to happen from the bottom up.

    It’s been a busy and very fun year at Transition Town Stoke Newington with three new projects launched in the form of Hackney Harvest, the Stokey branch of the Hackney Bike Workshop and Inclusive Transition as well as RefurbN16 continuing to bumble along quite nicely.

    We’re always on the look out for fresh ideas for projects and enthusiastic people to get stuck in to make them happen so get in contact if you want to lend a hand. Or even better, come along to the Hackney Bike Workshop party this Saturday for a proper celebration.

    Onwards and upwards for 2011!

  • Seeking Homeowners in Hackney Interested in Installing Solar Photovoltaics

    We’re looking into the potential of gathering together groups of Hackney households wishing to install solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs.

    The Feed in Tariff, which launched last year, offers a guaranteed payment of 41p for each unit of electricity generated by a home solar photovoltaic installation for a period of 25 years, which has greatly improved the economics of buying solar PV.

    A typical 2kW installation would earn around £800 per year in saved electricity and revenue from the feed in tariff, paying for itself in around 8 to 10 years. The annual CO2 saving would be nearly 1 tonne, equivalent to about 20% of the carbon emissions due to gas and electricity consumption in a typical Hackney home.

    By getting together as a group we can negotiate a better deal with an installer, reducing the up-front costs and getting you a better return.  If you have been thinking about investing in solar electricity generation then this is a very good opportunity to get a good deal, so please drop us a line if you want to find out more.

  • Cutting Electricity Consumption has Bigger Impact on CO2 Emissions than Previously Thought

    Some interesting research was published over the summer (and reported in the Independent) which suggests that the impact of electricity savings on carbon emissions is a lot larger than previously thought.

    It’s a little bit technical, but I’ll try and summarise it as clearly as I can – if you have any questions please post in the comments below.

    This paper looks at the UK electricity grid’s carbon emissions factors over an 8 year period. An emissions factor is used to calculate the emissions generated by consuming a quantity of energy. It’s a very simple calculation:

    Energy (kWh) x Carbon Factor (kgCO2/kWh) = CO2 Emissions (kgCO2)

    By way of example, the average house consumes about 3,900kWh of electricity each year and the UK average electricity carbon factor is 0.543kgCO2/kWh so the CO2 emissions generated by electricity consumption in the average UK home amounts to 2,100kg or 2.1 tonnes of CO2.

    In the above calculation I used the Average Emissions Factor which is published by Defra and is calculated by adding up all of the emissions generated by all of our power stations and dividing by the total amount of electricity generated (less 7% to take into account the losses which you get when you distribute the electricity through the national grid).

    However there is another emissions factor which is the Marginal Emissions Factor. This is a measure of the emissions which are generated in response to a change in demand on the electricity grid and it’s this factor which was calculated to be about 60% higher than previously assumed and 30% higher than the average emissions factor.

    In an electricity supply system, supply has to be precisely matched to demand so there is always a group of electricity generators and power stations which are being tweaked up and down or switched on and off in order to match the variations in demand over the course of a day.

    If the grid wasn’t monitored 24/7 and supply wasn’t adjusted to match demand, it would lead to instabilities. If there’s too little supply it can lead to black outs and if there is too much supply it can lead to generators tripping and shutting down. A measure of this balance between supply and demand is the grid frequency which you can see live here.

    There are three main types of generators in an electricity supply network – base load, peaking and load following. A base load generator is one that churns away at a constant rate for hours or days at a time, a peaking plant will be switched on just for the peak periods to cover the higher electricity demand, and a load following plant is quickly adjusted up and down to follow short term fluctuations in demand.

    So when you turn on your washing machine or switch on your lights when you get home, somewhere a generator has to work a little bit harder to deliver that electricity to your home. If enough people turn on their washing machine at the same time then a whole new generator might have to be switched on and this is the marginal supply that the Marginal Emissions Factor refers to.

    These marginal generators that respond to fluctuations in demand are in general less efficient and dirtier than the base load and peaking generators and this means that they have higher emissions.

    So if you want to cut your carbon emissions easily and cheaply, really hit those electricity saving behavioural measures hard (I’ve written about standby and fridge freezer temperatures so far but there are many more to come) and make sure your lighting is as efficient as possible.

    Also if you can manage it without annoying your neighbours, try and defer as much electricity consumption, especially energy intensive actions like running the washing machine, to the night time as both the average and marginal emission factors are lower at night than during the day.

  • Arcola Green Sundays 10:10:10 Global Day of Doing in Dalston

    Doesn’t that just trip off the tongue?

    Mark Sunday 10th October in your diaries for a global day of climate action and in Dalston Arcola Green Sundays are organising a day of ‘entertainment and inspiration for the ecologically curious’.

    Events kick off at the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden from 1.30pm and continue at the new Arcola site on Ashwin Street from 4.30.

    Activities including a Give & Take event organised by Forest Recycling Project, bike MOTs, delicious food (including locally picked fruit courtesy of Hackney Harvest), a screening of No Impact Man, live music, Carbon Conversations and lots more! We’ll be there offering home energy advice including draught proofing tips as well.

    Click here or check out the flyer for more info and hope to see you there!

    [ipaper id=37958224 key=key-jbih3yuomqnpu29u790 width=590 height=850]

  • Energy Company Boiler Installation Rip-Off

    The Guardian is today reporting that the energy suppliers are ripping people off when it comes to replacement boilers.

    After a freedom of information request the data from the boiler scrappage scheme was released covering nearly 120,000 boiler installations. The scrappage scheme ran in the first half of the year, offering a £400 subsidy for the replacement of G rated boilers with A rated condensing boilers.

    These figures showed that on average energy suppliers were charging a third more than local independent installers. As the average cost of a boiler is around £2,300 this means that the energy suppliers are charging about £800 more than independent installers. But across England the discrepancy varies considerably. In the West Midlands the energy suppliers have been charging a staggering £3,600 on average compared with the £2,250 charged by local installers – 60% more.

    The article doesn’t say as much but chief amongst them will doubtless be British Gas, the largest installer of boilers in the country, as there has long been anecdotal evidence that British Gas were overcharging their customers.

    It is also worth pointing out that the energy suppliers were charging these exorbitant prices under a taxpayer-supported incentive scheme – no doubt this was a handy boost to their £585m  profits in the first half of 2010, 98% higher than the same period in 2009.

    My advice is to stay well clear of energy suppliers when replacing your boiler. Ask friends for recommendations of local installers and obtain multiple quotes.

    A fully installed replacement boiler should cost around the £2,200 to £2,500 mark. Go for an A rated condensing boiler and in order to maximise the savings you should make sure the installer flushes the heating system to remove any gunk and restore the efficiency of the radiators. An inhibitor which prevents build up of deposits in the heating system should also be added and a full set of heating controls is required with all boiler replacements.

    Check out the other posts on boilers for more information.

  • Field Trial Shows Heat Pumps are Underperforming

    Heat pumps are  a clever piece of microgeneration technology that have the potential to play a big part in cutting CO2 in our homes.

    They work in much the same way as a fridge with energy being extracted from one place and dumped into another. In the case of a fridge, heat is extracted from the compartment and dumped out of the coils into the air in your kitchen. In the case of a heat pump, heat is extracted from the ground, air or even water (in a few cases) and then dumped into your home via oversized radiators or underfloor heating.

    Exactly like a fridge, heat pumps need electricity to operate so CO2 emissions are generated at the power station, but the clever bit is that for each unit of electricity they consume, in excess of 3 units of heat can be delivered to your home.

    In theory.

    Unfortunately in the real world it appears that performance can be a long way from the optimum: the Energy Saving Trust has just published the results of the first year of heat pump trials and it doesn’t look very good.

    The trials monitored 83 installations of ground and air source heat pumps around the UK over a period  of 12 months.  The trials looked at the system coefficient of performance, system efficiency, installation practices, user behaviour and heating patterns and the economics of the technology.

    The coefficient of performance represents the number of units of heat that you get out to the number of units of electricity you put in over the course of a year. So the higher the number, the better the performance and the bigger the reduction in carbon emissions and operating costs. The study also looked at the system efficiency which considers the energy required to deliver all of the heat and hot water that you need and this is the important figure for the householder.

    What the study found found was that typical system efficiencies for ground source heat pumps were around 2.3 to 2.5, with a maximum of over 3; for air source heat pumps it was slightly lower at 2.2 on average, again with a maximum efficiency in excess of 3.

    The problem was that there was a big range in efficiencies and this was mostly due to poor system design and/or a poor understanding on the part of the householder of how to use the system most efficiently.

    Heat pumps put out a fairly low temperature heat and therefore need large radiators or ideally underfloor heating. They’re also quite complex and work very differently to conventional heating systems so the home owner needs to learn how to set it correctly (something that should be clearly explained by the manufacturer or installer).

    In other countries, especially in Scandinavia, heat pumps are very popular and perform well. In Scandinavia they have more low carbon electricity than they can shake a stick at so electric heat pumps make a lot of sense. Their homes are also very efficient and so have a low heat demand (even though it’s so darned cold for a lot of the year).

    As the industry matures in this country the performance of heat pumps should improve, but if you are thinking about opting for one, all I can say is be careful and read up on the subject before taking the plunge.

    As it is, heat pumps should only really be considered for homes that are off the gas network at this time as you get a bigger CO2 and financial saving by switching from oil or electricity, so they’re not currently suitable for homes in Stoke Newington. As our electricity supplies decarbonise, then we can start looking at homes that are on the gas network.

    You can read the report here. It’s a good little report with a clear explanation of how the technology works and an overview of the monitoring study and results.

  • Updated Greenhouse Gas Emissions Factors Published

    Here’s one for those who like to calculate their own carbon footprint. Defra has just published this year’s update to the Annex to the Company Reporting Guidelines.

    This annex contains factors which allow you to work out the emissions generated when you consume a quantity of fuel or electricity, travel a distance or ship a quantity of freight (amongst many other things), and are the best numbers out there for carbn footprinting purposes. These factors form the basis of the UK’s carbon footprint calculators.

    It’s a very simple calculation:

    Energy (kWh) x Carbon Factor (kgCO2/kWh) = CO2 Emissions (kgCO2)

    By way of example, the average house consumes about 3,900kWh of electricity each year and the UK average electricity carbon factor is 0.541kgCO2/kWh so the CO2 emissions generated by electricity consumption in the average UK homes amount to 2,100kgCO2 or 2.1 tonnes of CO2. But the above calculation just looks at the CO2 generated and does’t tell the whole story.

    Last year, emissions of the two other main greenhouse gases, methane and NOx which are released when fuels are burnt, were included for the first time. The new addition this year are the indirect emissions associated with the extraction, transport and refining of fuels (sometimes referred to as upstream emissions). These emission are an important addition to the data.

    The upshot of all this is that the total climate change impact of electricity consumption is 14% higher than the impact of just the CO2 emitted, while the total emissions for petrol and diesel are 18% and 20% greater than that of the CO2 alone.

    In the accounting of greenhouse gas emissions, these indirect emissions are attributed to industry, not ourselves and as a result, making substantial cuts in our energy consumption can lead to significant carbon emission reductions in other sectors and even other countries too.

  • 9carrots – Incentivising Local Businesses to Cut Carbon

    A little off topic I know (only very slightly), but I think that 9carrots is a brilliant idea and well worth putting out there.

    Transition Network has a quick run down:

    If you are interested in working with your local businesses, and haven’t heard of 9carrots, it’s worth your consideration. It’s a simple enough idea whereby local shopkeepers can add themselves to a map, and when customers visit and mention the map, the shopkeeper puts 10% of the takings aside for energy efficiency measures (more on their ‘how it works page‘).

    I’ve always found that making changes to my lifestyle in order to reduce my carbon emissions requires a bit of a nudge, especially if I need to invest money in order to achieve this, and I suspect that businesses have a similar problem with this behavioural inertia.

    The beauty of this scheme is that the business gets that nudge and the double benefit of environmentally conscious customers (in many cases new customers I’d wager) plus the long term savings of the energy efficiency measure which is quite likely to pay for itself many times over.

    It’s good to see that there’s already a business in Stoke Newington, Lemon Monkey, signed up. I was aware of it but had never been in – now I will pay them a visit.

    Thumbs up to 9carrots, best of luck with the project.

  • Energy Efficient Lighting Pt 2 – Halogens

    The first post on lighting took a look at CFLs, the cheap and effective replacement for standard incandescent lamps*, but over the last couple of decades, many homeowners have opted for halogen lighting.

    Halogen lamps are incandescent i.e. electricity passes through a tungsten filament which heats up and emits light. They differ from the standard incandescent bulbs in that the filament is encased in a capsule full of halogen gas which reacts with the filament in a process called the halogen cycle.

    Halogen lamps have a higher efficacy than standard incandescent lamps, but you generally need quite a lot of halogens to light a room so you usually end up using a fair bit more electricity for the same effect. Now, with electricity prices high and rising, what can be done to reduce the electricity consumption from all those halogens?

    The cheapest option to cut electricity consumption from halogen lighting is to buy a batch of energy saving halogen lamps. These cost a bit more than the normal ones but use about 30% less electricity and they usually last a bit longer too.

    You can also buy halogen replacement CFLs. These are little compact fluorescent lamps that are folded up into a halogen-sized fitting. They’re not cheap (anywhere between £10 and £20 each for a good quality lamp) but they are a lot more efficient than the energy saving halogens and should last a lot longer.

    If you have your halogen lights on a dimmer system, be careful as CFLs often can’t handle this, and as with all CFLs you want to make sure that you get one with the kind of light output that you feel comfortable with. Check this post to see what to look for.

    Finally there is also the LED (light emitting diode) option.  LED lighting is much more efficient than incandescent lighting and LED lamps have much longer lifetimes (at least the quoted lifetimes are much longer, actual lifetimes remain to be seen).

    The main barrier to the widespread uptake of LED lighting now is cost. Good quality LED fittings are still eye wateringly expensive (around £20 to £40 each) but as they’re so efficient and as they should last tens of thousands of hours, they do pay for themselves many times over in energy savings and replacement costs over their lifetime.

    I’ll go into more detail on LED lamps in a future post, but briefly, the technology has moved on a lot in the last few years and you can now buy really good quality lamps.

    Prices will come down in the next few years so it might be worth holding off for a little while, but if you are going to be redoing the interior of your house and you currently have halogens, it’s probably a good time to consider this technology.

    Useful tip: if you are considering investing in these more expensive halogen replacement options, then the best tactic is to replace the bulbs that have the highest use first. By replacing these bulbs you will see the biggest drop in your electricity consumption and they will pay for themselves in the shortest time.

    * A lamp is what is more commonly referred to by people outside the industry as a bulb. What we normally call a lamp would be called a luminaire in the industry.

  • North London Eco House Weekend

    Here’s a great opportunity to see some examples of low carbon refurbishment of Victorian and Edwardian homes in North London.

    Norman Beddington and Antony Melville from VICTERI have managed to bring together 11 home owners in Camden, Islington, Haringey and Hackney and persuade them to open their doors to the public on the weekend of the 12th to the 13th June.

    These were typical North London homes that have been, or are in the process of being, completely refurbished using the best in eco-renovation practice and techniques and will show exactly what can be done to make big cuts in carbon emissions in homes that are the definition of “hard to treat“.

    You’ll be able to speak to the owners and get valuable insights into the joys, and the trials, of the low energy renovation process.

    Homes at all phases of refurbishment are represented, from planning through to completion and there are some real gems to be seen, including a home retrofitted to Passivhaus standards and others which make cuts in carbon emissions of 70% to 80%.

    Note that you’ll need a ticket to visit the houses, costing a very reasonable £10 and available here.

    Also to see some of the homes you need to reserve a slot in advance and some aren’t open all weekend, but if you plan things right, you’ll be able to see lots of interesting buildings.  Full information about the homes can be found on the VICTERI website.

    They’re spread around north London and probably the best way to see them will be to jump on a bike. You can plan your route here.

    I will do my best to visit as many as possible and will report back here.

    Camden, Islington, Haringey and Hackney, they exemplify the best in recent eco-renovation practice and techniques