RefurbN16

Author: Jamie

  • UK Emissions down 10% in 2009

    The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released provisional data on UK CO2 emissions for 2009 along with a discussion of the results.

    The numbers and are in million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) and are broken down by source, which means that they do not allocate electricity consumption to the end user.

    The figure for the residential sector is therefore just for emissions from burning fossil fuels in the home for space heating, hot water and cooking. We’ll have to wait until this time next year to see the end user emissions data (just published for 2008).

    The results from the biggest sectors are quite striking to say the least:

    Energy Supply: 186.2MtCO2 (-11.3%)
    Business: 72.4MtCO2 (-15.3%)
    Transport: 121.8MtCO2 (-6.5%)
    Residential: 76.7MtCO2 (-5.0%)
    Industrial Process: 11.1MtCO2 (-19.0%)
    Total: 480.9MtCO2 (-9.7%)

    The impact of the recession is clear to see in all areas.

    Emissions from electricity generation dropped by 13% to 150.5MtCO2 as demand dropped and coal generation was replaced by nuclear generation coming back on stream after extensive downtime for maintenance.

    The 5% reduction in emissions from heating our homes is good to see. This was in spite of the winter of 2008 seeing mean temperatures of 4.9°C, considerably warmer than the winter of 2009 which saw mean temperatures of 3.2°C.

    The question is how do we continue this downward trajectory in emissions as the economy starts to recover?

  • Track Your Carbon Footprint with The Carbon Account

    In a post on measuring electricity consumption I wrote back in December, I briefly touched on a fantastic website called The Carbon Account and thought I’d go into a bit more detail about it because it’s really very good.

    This is a dead easy to use carbon monitoring website that allows you to track your carbon emissions from gas and electricity consumption in the home along with car and flight emissions.

    It displays your carbon footprint for the last year in a neat little chart to which you can add notes to flag up changes that you have made to your home or lifestyle or any times when your house was unoccupied. Unfortunately it only shows your carbon footprint for the last year (it would be great if the developers could fix this at some point).

    There is even a social networking element to it so you can see how your friends’ energy consumption has changed and congratulate them on the steps they’re taking to reduce their emissions.

    You don’t even need to do any conversions of your gas meter readings into kWh (something I’ll touch on soon) as it does it all for you. All you need to do is input the actual meter readings. It literally takes two minutes to take your electricity and gas readings and add them to the website.

    When you first get an account, it asks you a few questions about your home and make a stab at what your annual carbon footprint might be and gives you a flat graph which doesn’t vary over the year.

    As it takes a while to build up a profile of meter readings, I would suggest digging up any old bills you have lying around and adding the readings from them. Just do the “actual” or “customer” readings because the estimated readings are usually dodgy. If you don’t have your old bills, see if you can get your energy supplier to send you your past meter readings or check out their website as they may have a section where you can download your old bills.

    Then take a gas and electricity meter reading on a regular basis, ideally each week, so that you can see how your energy consumption changes. You can even set up an email reminder to give you an e-nudge every week.

    Bear in mind that the outside air temperature is a big driver of your heating demands so it’s quite possible that you might do some energy efficiency work and you don’t see the drop you were expecting to – it might just be that it’s been cold outside. You will still have made a saving because your energy bill would have been considerably higher than if you hadn’t done that measure.

    Taking weekly readings is a good thing because it allows you to do some calculations which remove these temperature effects, another topic that I will cover in the future.

    There’s plenty of information about how it works on the Carbon Account website, along with the calculation methodology. One thing to note is that if you’re getting funny results for your gas meter, it might be because it measures in 100s of cubic feet. Check out the info about this here.

    So set up a Carbon Account right now and start monitoring. If you don’t know what your carbon emissions are, you won’t know how far you’ve cut them!

  • SuperHomes Spring Openings

    The Sustainable Energy Academy was formed with the aim of promoting education and action to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and communities.

    They have come up with a network of older, hard to treat homes which have had a full retrofit of energy efficiency and low carbon measures, called Old Home SuperHome. Their bold and laudable aim is “to create a network of homes that are local and publicly accessible, within 15 minutes, to nearly everyone in the country”.

    This is a very good idea – we need everyone to be able to see and experience the technologies and solutions that are going to enable an 80% or more cut in CO2 emissions, and to see that people all around them are taking those steps right now.

    To help this along, the Sustainable Energy Academy have organised a day of openings coming on the 28th March, when homes around the country will be open for you to visit for free. There are still places free at three homes in London and one in each of Peterchurch, Bristol and Birmingham.

    The Sustainable Energy Academy promotes education and action to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and communities.

    We are currently spearheading Old Home SuperHome – a network of exemplar, old dwellings which have undergone an energy-efficiency retrofit. We aim to create a network of homes that are local and publicly accessible, within 15 minutes, to nearly everyone in the country.

  • Energy Saving Trust Technical Publications

    The Energy Saving Trust has a lot of information on the website but in conversations I’ve had with a variety of people, it can be a bit tricky to find.

    The main landing pages are the consumer pages, containing very top level overviews of the measures and the savings which can be achieved.

    For those of you wanting something a little more in depth, check out the Housing Professionals section. There are a load of useful tools there (including an interesting new build embodied carbon tool and a boiler sizing wizard), but of most interest is the publications database.

    There are some excellent publications in there covering everything for both new build and existing homes, from insulation to microgeneration, and lots in between.

    I’ll go into a bit more detail on the more useful publications soon, but in the meantime, have a browse around to see what takes your fancy.

  • Curtains and Radiators

    This topic came up tonight: what do you do with a curtain hanging over a radiator? And why are radiators sited under windows anyway?

    Back in the day, radiators were located under windows for a counterintuitive, but valid reason, although it has more to do with comfort than energy efficiency.

    Imagine a room with single glazing and a radiator on the opposite wall. The air beside the window will be cooled and will sink as it becomes denser. At the opposite end of the room the air is warmed by the radiator and will therefore rise.

    These two effects combine to circulate the air around the room, but this circulation will draw cold air from the window down into the centre of the room where you are sitting.

    Stick the radiator under the window and it will warm the air beside the window, causing it to rise into the room. At the other end of the room it will descend, but it should be at a warmer, more comfortable temperature. It’s worth noting that with double glazing, this isn’t really a problem and you can locate your radiator wherever is most convenient.

    So radiators are usually found under windows which have curtains which, more often than not, hang down below the top of the radiator.

    Having them hang in front of the radiator is a big no no. All that lovely heat will rise up behind the curtain, right against the single glazing and will be trapped there before leaking out to warm the outside air.

    Tucking them behind the radiator can also be counterproductive. Radiators work best when they have a free and unobstructed flow of air around them, helping to set up the convection* currents that circulate warm air around the room. For this reason you definitely want to avoid radiator shelves and radiator cabinets.

    If you take a look at a typical radiator, you’ll see there are the thick bits through which the hot water flows, and thinner fins that transfer the heat to the air. It’s these fins that you need to keep clear and unobstructed, and tucking a curtain around them will reduce their effectiveness.

    So what’s the solution? Cut the curtains so that they hang a bit above the radiator and then find some way of holding them flush against the wall. Hooks? Velcro? Elastic? Whatever works best. Just make sure that as little hot air as possible escapes behind the curtain and as much air as possible can flow around the radiators.

    By holding the curtain flush against the wall, you will not only prevent warm air from rising behind the curtain, but you’ll also trap a layer of air there. Air is a fantastic insulator, as long as it is kept still, so if you can keep the air between the curtain and window  as motionless as possible, you’re on to a winner.

    * radiators are really badly named – they’re convectors, not radiators; but radiators they shall be known as for ever and ever…

  • Ecobuild 2010 in London

    Next week sees Ecobuild, the “biggest event in the world for sustainable design, construction and the built environment”, coming to Earls Court in West London.

    There will be around 850 exhibitors present covering both new build and refurbishment, residential and commercial properties.

    This should be a great opportunity to get up close and personal to the materials and technologies which will be used in refurbishing your home.

    The event runs from Tuesday 2nd March to Thursday 4th March. Tickets are free but you need to register.

  • Fridge Freezer Temperature

    I picked up a bunch of thermometers this week for TTSN people to check their freezer and fridge temperature. These thermometers are cheap as chips (and apparently reasonably accurate – thanks WRAP) and could save you a tidy little sum if you’ve been overchilling your food. I’ve just popped one in the freezer compartment and it seems to be reading -19 degrees. According to Iceland (and they should know)…

    Star rating Location Temperature Storage
    * Ice box -6 degrees 1 week
    ** Ice box -12 degrees 1 month
    *** Ice box -18 degrees 3 months
    **** Freezer -18 degrees Long term

    So apparently I can store frozen food long term but I don’t really need the freezer compartment as I buy all my food fresh, in small quantities, and eat it straight away. But I can’t turn the freezer part off and leave the fridge part on.

    So what about switching the whole thing off? In winter I could get a cool box and stick it in a shady spot out on the balcony – you don’t want your food (or indeed beer) to be frozen and thawed as would have happened quite a lot this year so a cool box should provide a bit of a buffer.  In summer I think I’d need to switch it back on, but if I could switch it off for half the year…? It seems some are already trying it.

    Of course you don’t want to save CO2 by cutting your fridge or freezer consumption if your food is going to spoil and be wasted.

    I’ve stuck my fridge freezer on a plug in electricity meter to see what it consumes over 24 hours on its current setting. I’ll then increase the temperature and see what the difference is – empirical science going on right here, just for you lucky people!

    1st Results – OK over the last 24 hours my fridge got through 0.4kWh, very roughly suggesting consumption of 145kWh and 80kgCO2 per year. But I checked the temperature in the freezer compartment at one point and it was down to -14. This was towards the end of its off cycle and I’m guessing the -19 reading was taken somewhere around the end of the on cycle. I’ve cranked the thermostat from “3” to “4” and we’ll see what happens (I’m not even sure if it’ll make it colder or warmer at this point).

    2nd Results –  Consumption over 24 hours at the “4” setting was 0.54kWh, a 35% increase. Next I switched it up to “5” and consumption increased to 0.71kWh, a 30% increase again. I’ve now turned it down to “2” and we’ll see how it goes.

  • Cheap Loft Insulation!

    Just saw a B&Q ad offering 3 rolls of loft insulation for £2.50, up to 18 rolls per customer allowed. This is a really good chance to top your loft insulation up if you haven’t already. Find your nearest store here. I doubt this offer will be around for long so be quick.

    This insulation is being subsidised by the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target programme which requires energy suppliers to fit energy efficiency measures in UK homes.

    Edit: Tim also pointed out this npower offer.

  • Landlord’s Energy Saving Allowance

    For those of us who rent there are much fewer options open to us when it comes to reducing our CO2 emissions in the home. The no cost and low cost measures are well within our grasp and they can make significant savings, but to make bigger cuts money needs to be invested.

    As a renter, there is little incentive to invest in energy efficiency measures as you may only be living there for another year or two, and your landlord may not be interested in improving the energy efficiency of the homes they own because they don’t pay the bills.

    To help break this Catch 22, there is a nice little incentive to tempt your landlord into making that investment: the Landlord’s Energy Saving Allowance (LESA).

    This is a tax deduction which allows a landlord to reduce their taxable income by the cost of certain energy efficiency measures up to a value of £1,500 per house per year.

    The measures covered by the LESA are:

    • Cavity wall insulation
    • Loft insulation
    • Solid wall insulation
    • Draught proofing
    • Hot water cylinder insulation
    • Floor insulation

    Other measures such as double glazing and boiler replacement may be entited to other tax deductions.

    If your landlord fits loft insulation, floor insulation and draught proofing in your home and it costs, say £1,000 in total, they can deduct £1,000 from their taxable income at the end of the tax year.  If they pay tax at 40%, the insulation will end up costing them £600 rather than £400, if they pay tax at 20%, the insulation will end up costing them £800.

    The LESA is open to both individual and corporate landlords (although it cannot be claimed if the let is under the Rent A Room Scheme or a holiday let) and will run until 1st April 2015.

    As energy prices continue to rise, renters will become increasingly interested in the energy efficiency of prospsective homes. Landlords now have to show an Energy Performance Certificate to potential new renters and by taking steps to fit insulation and other energy efficiency measures, the rating will improve making the home more attractive.

    The LESA coupled with the fact that a wide range of energy efficiency and microgeneration measures qualify for a reduced VAT rate of 5%, makes a strong financial incentive for landlords to improve the energy performance of the homes that they own. So get friendly with your landlord and try and persuade them to takes steps to improve your home.

    For more information see the DirectGov page.

  • Boilers Pt 3 – Boiler Brands

    Replacing your boiler is an expensive undertaking and it’s not hard to find stories of boilers dying in fairly short order.

    Like most things in life, you get what you paid for and boilers are no exception. Cheaper brands are likely to use cheaper components that are more prone to malfunctioning and can easily cost you more in the long run.

    But if you buy a good quality condensing boiler and it’s installed and maintained well, there’s no fundamental reason why it shouldn’t have a long life of delivering substantial energy savings. But which boiler brand is best?

    There aren’t any scientific comparisons, but the excellent consumer magazine Which? ran a survey (sub required but you can get a one month trial for £1) amongst 3,000 of their members who had purchased condensing boilers since 2005, rating customer satisfaction.

    The survey found the highest customer satisfaction came from Vaillant and Worcester Bosch customers. Runners up were Vokera, Potterton, Glow-worm and Baxi.

    The boiler scrappage scheme is currently underway, offering £400 for the replacement of a G-rated boiler with a new A-rated condensing boiler. You can find out if your boiler qualifies by checking here.