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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

PLEASE NOTE: A download link for Volume 1 will be sent to you by email and Volume 2 will be sent to you by post as a book.

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  1.  
    A new report was published by the Policy Exchange last month with the title "Too hot to handle?"
    It's an in depth report on decarbonising heating in the residential housing sector, which is seen by them as further behind targets then power supply and transport.
    Their biggest point is better insulation of the existing housing stock as cheapest and best option to achieve the 2050 standard of 80% reductions combined with greening the gas supply and other measures.
    A very interesting report calling for a comprehensive policy for retrofitting the existing housing stock in the UK.
    https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/too-hot-to-handle/
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeOct 14th 2016
     
    Posted By: chippyclausTheir biggest point is better insulation of the existing housing stock
    I wouldn't say 'biggest' - it seems well buried. Unless you're primed to look for that, what average readers (e.g. politicians and DECC policy makers) will take away is variants on decarbonising the existing fuel-burning status quo.

    And even when you sift insulation out of it, there's nothing to raise the bar on same, no mention of airtighting, nor Passive House Inst's Enerphit standard for refurb of existing buildings. No awareness of other Europeans' (e.g. Ireland's, and devolved Wales, Scotland's) adoption of very much higher standards (English Bldg Regs incrementally tweaked seems sufficient) and nothing on poor enforcement.

    'Too Hot to Handle' - so let's not.
  2.  
    So what would enforcing rigidly the current regs achieve - small increment or significantly improvements, or would it be trivial next to the 2015 goal?
  3.  
    sure Fostertom, the report doesn't go as far as proposing Passivhaus standards, but argues for a longer term efficiency improvement policy:
    'There is still significant potential to roll out loft and cavity wall insulation
    and heating controls, which are cheap and relatively straightforward to install.
    Although in order to make significant savings, it will be necessary also to pursue
    more extensive efficiency measures such as solid wall insulation in older
    properties, which involves significant cost and disruption to the home. Overall,
    we suggest that the early prioritisation of energy efficiency improvement should
    be a more central part of the Government’s approach to decarbonising heat, as
    this is beneficial regardless of which heat technologies we use in the future.'
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeOct 14th 2016
     
    Exactly - talk about a pulled punch!
    • CommentAuthorgravelld
    • CommentTimeOct 16th 2016
     
    I wish they'd stop calling it solid wall insulation.
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