Roof Insulation

You put a hat on your head and keep your body heat in. Thermal insulation in your roof will do the same for your house.

If you do not have insulation in your roof, up to 30% of your heat could escape, costing you money and contributing to atmospheric pollution and global warming.

If you have already insulated your roof, you may want to replace it or add another layer to improve its performance and bring it up to current Building Regulations Standards. (more…)

What if you knew where your cotton socks came from?

Or knew about the person who picked your coffee beans?

What if you knew how fresh green beans come to sit on the supermarket shelf all year round…? Would you stop buying them? Or would you in fact start buying them?
(more…)

Ever since William Morris founded the Society for Protection of Buildings in 1877, architects and engineers have worked to conserve our built heritage where it is possible and feasible. Over time, conservation has become embedded in government policy and influences work done by bodies such as the National Trust and other specialist organisations including church bodies and preservation trusts. Archaeologists, ecologists and historians are also consulted in order to produce Conservation Plans.

What Must be Saved?…  The decision to save a building is not always easy. For example, current planning policy in Northern Ireland dictates that any rural building which appears to possess characteristics typical of vernacular architecture must be preserved. As a structural engineer, I am frequently called upon to report on whether old buildings can be retained as dwellings. In some cases the stone walls are ready to collapse, and in one old house, I found trees growing out from the wall cores. Over time, many old dwellings were abandoned and re-used to shelter livestock, leading to pollution and deterioration of the building fabric. Generally, if an old dwelling has remained weather-tight throughout its life, it stands a better than average chance as a conservation project. The question of whether to retain, replace or rebuild is a complex one, even for simple structures.
More will be found on this and similar subjects later in GreenMe blogs and at www.landmarkdesigns.org.uk

I am setting out to write this blog when I am hungry.  So inevitably it is going to be about good.  And even before I start to write I have decided what supper is going to be tonight! Staring from it’s lonely perch on my kitchen worktop is a slightly stale ciabatta loaf.

There was a time when dishes made from slightly stale bread was thrifty.  Now it’s fashionable!

However, in order to follow this fashion trend your bread needs to be of a certain quality that avoids the mass produced bleached variety.

What I’m talking about is a traditional well made loaf that has that baked in the over feel to it!

Stale is such a harsh word. It eludes to the offending bread no longer being edible.

Let me make my case, by sharing this mouthwatering fashionable but more importantly eco concious meal idea with you.

Panzanella

This tuscan salad (do not be put off by the word salad – this is really substantial) is a real treat which I usually leave for Friday night treat!  Really good chill out food.

I originally got this recipe from a now treasured pressie – one of my favourite cookbooks ; Something for the Weekend by Simon Rimmer

Ingredients

1kg/2lb 2oz fresh plum tomatoes (do not try this salad without good tomatoes – we are still in good tomato season until the end of September)
2 red peppers, skinned, seeds removed
2 yellow peppers, skinned, seeds removed
1 small red chilli, seeds removed, chopped
100g/3½oz capers, rinsed and drained
12 large green olives
1 ciabatta loaf (preferably stale)
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
5 garlic cloves, crushed
250ml/9fl oz extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
handful fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped, to garnish

Method

1. Skin the tomatoes by cutting a shallow cross into the bottom of each, then plunge them into boiling water for about 30 seconds.
2. Carefully transfer the tomatoes into a bowl of iced water. The skins should then peel off easily.
3. Cut each tomato into quarters, scoop out the seeds and place into a sieve over a bowl.
4. Press the seeds and pulp through the sieve to release the juice into a bowl. Put the tomato quarters into a separate bowl.
5. Cut each of the skinned red and yellow peppers into eight pieces and add to the tomato quarters.
6. Add the chilli, capers and olives.
7. Tear the ciabatta into large chunks and place into a separate bowl.
8. Add the vinegar, garlic and oil to the sieved tomato juice. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper and whisk well to combine.
9. Pour the tomato juice mixture over the ciabatta pieces and leave to soak for an hour.
10. Add the tomato quarters and peppers mixture to the soaked ciabatta and garnish with the basil leaves.
11. Serve in a large salad bowl and enjoy with friends and family!

And on that note, I must now sign off and tuck in!!

Solar water heating is the most cost effective form of clean renewable energy that a householder can get.  If you are thinking about becoming “greener” and investing in a solar system, then this guide will help you.

1. Modern solar systems work with heat exchange; the household water does not flow through the panels, but a heat exchange fluid is pumped through them. This ensures long panel life.
2. The heat exchange fluid has anti-freeze properties. Modern systems should not use car anti freeze, but a special food safe polypropylene glycol, which is harmless.
3. The great advantage that solar heat has over renewable electricity is that heat, unlike electricity can be safely and conveniently stored. This means that you should get your installer to fit the largest hot water tank that you can, compatible with the area of panels that you can afford.
4. Sizing – Most solar panels are made in two square metre sizes (around twenty two square feet) and best performance is when you have around 50 litres of stored hot water for every square metre of panel.
5. It is very difficult to predict the financial savings that a solar hot water system will bring; payback or return on your investment depends upon (a) future energy prices (b) the amount of hot water your household uses (c) your lifestyle and (d) any future carbon taxes that may be imposed. There are indirect savings because your fossil fuel water heating system will be subject to less wear and tear and should last longer. There is no payback on fossil fuel.
6. Solar panels can look great on a roof, especially when they are roof integrated.
7. Germany installed over two million square metres of thermal solar panels each year; much of the German solar is used for heating support, but unfortunately hardly any Irish installations also provide central heating support.
8. The Carbon dioxide savings depend upon the fuel that is displaced. Displacing electrical water heating with solar will usually save about a tonne of carbon dioxide each year.
9. Most Irish solar systems can provide the whole of the average household’s hot water for up to six months of the year, and will contribute some solar energy at other times when the backup is also being used.
10. Good solar systems come with good guarantees. It is important to buy a system that is trouble free and reliable too.

Guide to Wall Insulation

Up to half of the heat loss from a house occurs through the walls. This can be reduced by two-thirds by insulating the walls.

Most houses built before about 1980 have no wall insulation. Many (though not all) houses built during the 1980s have some wall insulation. Houses built since the 1991 Building Regulations came into effect are required to have wall insulation.

Insulation may be placed on the outside, in the cavity or on the inside of a wall, without altering the overall insulation properties.

When considering wall insulation, first you should find out whether your house has cavity walls or solid walls. A  building contractor, BER Assessor or architect will be able to tell you if you have cavity walls in your new or older house.

Cavity wall insulation

The walls of many houses consist of two ‘leaves’ of brick or concrete block with a cavity or space between them to resist rain penetration.

In older houses insulation can be injected into this cavity through holes drilled through the outer leaf, by means of a blowing or pumping machine.

Since the work is done from outside, it cause minimum disturbances inside. The drilled holes, which are typically about 25mm (1 inch) in diameter and spaced a metre or so apart, are then filled to match the wall appearance as closely as possible. The job typically takes less than a day.

In relation to the pumping of your walls with a bonded bead system you would noticeably improve the overall thermal properties of your house and in turn reduce your energy bills for the winter months.

Suitability of Cavity Insulation

It is important before deciding to insulate existing cavity walls that you check their suitability for cavity insulation. This assessment will take account of the degree of exposure of the house to wind-driven rain and the construction details and condition of the walls. Any ventilation openings in the wall will also be checked to ensure that these will not be blocked by the insulation.

There are a number of issues you should be aware when filling your wall’s cavity:

If there were any frost or structural damage to any of the house’s external walls pumping of beads into the cavity would not be advised.

The width of the cavity between your external wall leaf and the installed aero-board should be at least 50mm.
 

If there is any problem with dampness in the internal leaf it would not be recommended to add the beads to the cavity as they would only increase the path for water to travel into the wall.

If the wall suffers from rain penetration at times, this problem must be remedied first.

In some cases, the walls may be found to be unsuitable for cavity insulation or may require some remedial work beforehand.

Savings

The cost of cavity wall insulation depends on a number of factors, including the width of the cavity, but it is typically in the region of €5 to €7 per square metre. For a typical semi-detached house, this gives a total cost of about €550-€700. With annual fuel savings of €200 to €320, the payback period will be in the region of 4 to 7 years.

You may be able to negotiate a lower price if you can persuade some of your neighbours to have their walls insulated at the same time.

Imagine a city that is completely green – not just ecologically sound and sustainable, but literally, visibly, green as far as the eye can see?  This fantasy is becoming a reality around the world.   The movement known as vegitecture, or vegetated architecture, is taking off,  and is not just beautiful, but is also an environmentally friendly way to literally add life to a city.
The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris has an 8,600 square foot vertical garden featuring more than 170 different plant species.  The walls use a combination of sunshades, solar panels, and ventilation to catch water, making them self-sustaining ecosystems. The benefits aren’t just aesthetic — the walls reduce noise and provide natural cooling for the surrounding buildings because they soak up noise and heat, whereas concrete just reflects those things. Architects imagine people one day being able to grow and harvest food from vertical gardens.

One of the main leaders in the field is Ken Yeang, a Malaysian-born architect and writer who first designed the Tropical Skyscraper in 1992.  Examples of his visionary work can be viewed here. The technology required to create and sustain a vertical garden is rather complex, but considering it can reintroduce biodiversity to urban areas and even cut down on air conditioning and air purification costs, maybe Ireland’s urban planners could start including vertical gardens to their designs – we certainly have enough rain to water them!

From: The Rubbish Diet

We’re talking rubbish, here, folks!

In particular, how to make yoghurt plastic tubs disappear with a little ‘pixie dust’ — about which, more in a minute.

The small bag  pictured here, weighing just 128 g, is  pretty impressive: it’s all the rubbish that one English family threw out in one week.  Admittedly, it took them time and effort to reduce their rubbish to this small amount  — not least, becoming familiar with all the different types of plastic that can (and can’t) be recycled.

The whole weight-reduction story is told in their blog, The Rubbish Diet — well worth reading for tips on how to get rid of rubbish.

That final bag of persistent rubbish, which could  only be binned, contains “the tops of [some] takeaway containers, a few ice lolly wrappers, a foil lined plastic blister pack and some yoghurt top lids as well as some scrunched up yellow tape”.

It was the yoghurt tops that caught my eye.

Because I’ve a very simple, and money-saving way to make those disappear.  It needs only some probiotic ‘pixie dust’ . . . and in a few hours you can turn milk into yoghurt (see the foolproof recipe here).

It’s dead easy — I do it while having breakfast — and best of all, it will even save you money: homemade yogurt is half the price of commercial stuff, and because it has fewer ingredients, it has fewer ‘food miles’ as well.

Plus, what could be nicer than always having a big bowl of fresh, organic probiotic yoghurt ready in the fridge.

And, if you like that, I have a 101 tips for saving time, money and resources in my new book, Drive like a Woman, Shop like a Man.

Eco-Living, Eco-Loving!  Would you like to live without a mortgage or an electricity bill? Last weekend’s Eco-Living Festival in Drumnsa, Co. Leitrim showed you how.  The event was hosted and organized by Permaculture Ireland; permaculture, according to Wikipedia, “is an approach to designing human settlements and perennial agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in the natural ecologies…The intent is that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals can design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society’s reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution.”  And the hosts of the event are living proof that the principles work – even in boggy “bad” Leitrim land.

Sian demonstrates mulching

Sian Cowman demonstrated the virtues (and taste!) of permaculture food: growing your own in a non-dig garden. Non-dig is great because it doesn’t disturb the crucial earthworms underneath and also, unlike in conventional farming, the precious topsoil doesn’t dry out and blow away.  Digging also releases CO2, and requires a lot of energy, human, animal, or machine.  In contrast, permaculture is all about mulch: take a 6-foot patch, and in September simply cut the grass and weeds in the area that you plan to plant, leave the cuttings in place, cover this with wet cardboard, cover that with straw and leave it sit until spring, when planting is easy and the soil is rich, and plants and herbs just love it.  There are far too many good ideas to mention here, but you can get more info at permacultureireland – it’s both the newest and the oldest way of living on the earth.

Permaculture shelter is embodied in Peter Cowman’s amazing is home: a 25 metre squared “econospace,” built by himself and friends for only €7,000, where he and his family live on their own wind-generated electricity.  No mortgage, no car, no connection to the grid: this family walk the green walk all the way to their outdoor bathtub, where they build a fire underneath and bathe under the stars! Check out Peter’s website for more information about courses and shelter-building.  Without a mortgage and a food bill, how would your life change?

Whatever the outcome of the UK government’s strategy for the various proposed eco-town projects (it will probably be late summer before the final shortlist is announced) the eco-town initiative has generated some good ideas that may become standard solutions for future buildings. The principal message (as we all know by now) is that lifestyle

European Initiatives …  Architects, engineers, planners and sustainability experts are looking progressively more to the eco-towns on the continent as models of what could be achieved in Ireland or the UK . Projects in Germany (Freiberg), Denmark (Copenhagen) and Sweden (Malmö and Hammarby Sjöstad – suburbs of Stockholm) all demonstrate how lifestyle changes lead to reduced environmental impact. Check out architecture week for Tango Housing in Malmö by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects.

Green Lifestyle … People have changed the way they travel and the way they live domestically and they have managed to cut their energy use and carbon footprint without affecting their quality of life. This has persuaded the British government to cite them as inspiration for the UK’s own eco-town initiative.  In Ireland and the UK, we use power stations, import our fuel from outside the country and then throw all the heat away. In Holland and Germany, they are not afraid of being accused of taking the sensible approach and try to keep their energy within the community. In Sweden, historical ownership is not allowed to impede rational measures for sustainable development. We have much to learn from these approaches.

In Europe, there is also a major difference in the approach to solving national issues such as the one of reducing carbon output from housing. There, the initiatives tend to be directed by local authorities, with much greater emphasis on collaboration between the private developers and the local authorities. Here, our local authorities mostly do not possess the resources or funding and developers are not given the same encouragement, back-up or indeed, incentives. The big house-building firms in Ireland and the UK  do not believe that large scale development using the Passivhaus standards is commercially viable here at present, and so use this as an argument for aiming towards lower standards than can actually be achieved. I would have thought that the main objective when designing an eco-town would be to achieve the best possible standards of energy efficiency.

Transition Towns Initiative …  For those of you not already aware of this movement, have a look at the question posed on the Transition Towns site  for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?”

Big question – but change will be achieved if enough people want it.