Green Building Forum - Eating your own dog food?

Eating your own dog food?

Tuna — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:42:13 +0000

The Americans coined this phrase to mean using your own products rather than just foisting them on other people. I'm interested to see how much this applies to people on this forum. How many people here:

1. Live in a building that was designed from the outset to be 'green'. Let's blur the green definition to mean that the house has some design element or feature that is unusual or uncommon in standard domestic builds for the area in order to reduce energy consumption or environmental impact. for example, significantly exceeding building regs for insulation, or using solar heating for hot water.

2. Are in the process of building 'green' homes for themselves or clients.

3. Are attempting to specify a 'green' design with the realistic intention of building at some time in the future.

4. Supply 'green' technology or consultation to clients who are actively using them to produce homes?

5. Have retro-fitted green technology to their current home in order to make it more energy efficient?

Eating your own dog food?

Paul in Montreal — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:55:26 +0000

I'll take a stab.

(1) Yes
(2) Not applicable
(3) Not applicable
(4) Not applicable
(5) Yes
In detail:

(1)

High standard of air tightness < 1.5ACH@50Pa (i.e. about 3 times better than Part L)
GSHP with desuperheater for DHW preheat
Long timetime materials
Fits in with the neighbourhood vernacular
Annual energy consumption 57.3kWh per square meter (4500 heating degree days)

(5)

Reduced air leakage from 12.7ACH@50Pa to 6.4ACH@50Pa
Removed inefficient oil heating
GSHP with desuperheater for DHW preheat
Natural gas DHW for protection against power outages
Renovation of roof with longtime time materials (copper flashing and slate)
Renovation of bulged wall with appropriate materials (lime mortar etc.)
Pre and post-renovation energy audit with blower door tests
- Pre-renovation one of the lowest rated properties in the area
- Post-renovation energy usage less than a current R2000 house - 84.8 kWh per square meter (4100 heating degree days, 350 cooling degree days)
- Energy consumption reduced from 80000kwh per year to 21674kwh per year (19450 electric, ~2200 gas)

Paul in Montreal

Eating your own dog food?

skywalker — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:47:05 +0000

1. No
2. No
3. In my dreams
4. No
5. In progress

S.

Eating your own dog food?

Chris Wardle — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:34:17 +0000

1. No - currently renting a stone cottage with oil fired central heating (boiler is under powered, one rad doesn't get hot and I'm having to run it 24/7 at the moment or it feels like you're outside), little loft insulation (and none anywhere else) and no ventilation other than by opening the uPVC windows (which have no trickle vents). On the plus side, it is in a very nice village and I'm sure it will be lovely in the summer...

2. No

3. Yes - will be doing a eco-build or a refurb as soon as the property market bottoms out. In the meantime, studying part time at CAT for MSc in energy and environmental studies.

4. No

5. No - but would be more than happy to do so if the landlady would cough up for the materials.

Eating your own dog food?

tony — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:12:39 +0000

1. Naw

2. Yep

3. Yep, hopefully next year on own land.

4. Whenever possible

5. Some

Eating your own dog food?

Bluemoon — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:19:17 +0000

I have done all that is feasible to my late-18thC semi-detached stone cottage with 20thC extensions. As soon as the housing sector settles down, will be starting on a well-insulated Scandinavian loghouse, with as many green features as I can get into it.

Eating your own dog food?

stephendv — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:44:39 +0000

1. Not yet (renting)
2. Yes, in the planning stages, have acquired rural land in Spain
3. Yes, our architects are young and aware of green design although they've not really had any experience building a green home. It's a learning experience for both of us. The meetings usually involve me bringing them some new ideas (often from this forum!) of "this is how it's done in the northern Europe, how can it be done here?", and them going away and finding a solution which is understood by the local industry.
4. N/A
5. N/A

Eating your own dog food?

Niggle — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 15:43:34 +0000

Tuna
I hope you will draw some revealing conclusions to these responses, though we probably agree the surveyed are rather self-selecting.

1. No 1919 extravagant solid construction
2. Extending with 'Greener' technology
3. Yes, hence growing use of GB Forum, construction second-half 2008, Planners Permitting. Project dubbed DOMUS, latin scholars will recognise the word, but to me it means Designed On Maximum U-value Standards
4. Well, I proselytise the facts and UK's poor record whenever I can, but have no professional status
5.Yes, in order to gain experience for future plan

Eating your own dog food?

Nick Parsons — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:42:09 +0000

1. No

2. If a highly-spec'd/insulated Segal-style T/F 'garden room' will count, Yes.

3. No

4. Yes. It's what I do for a living, if only it would provide enough of one!!

5. No

Eating your own dog food?

Jeff Norton (NZ) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:18:01 +0000

1. Yes (but just sold it)
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. No

Eating your own dog food?

Mike George — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 07:27:01 +0000

1. No
2. If renovation work counts - Yes
3. No
4. Consultation
5. Yes

Eating your own dog food?

howdytom — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 11:08:17 +0000

1. no
2. yes
3. yes
4. sort of (as a local trying to convert anyone to use less )
5. yes

tom

Eating your own dog food?

Tuna — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:51:23 +0000

I had hoped people would elucidate a little, just to give some of their background, but the replies so far are interesting.

For our own situation, here are our answers

1. No - we moved from a 1930's town house (single brick wall and draughty, but double glazed and efficiently heated), to a caravan on site whilst we complete our planning application for our new home

2. Yes - our plans centre around solar gain, natural and reclaimed materials where possible and we hope to include modern heating technologies to provide a healthy environment.

3. No, we're further along than that (see 2.)

4. No, we're consumers rather than suppliers

5. Yes, if you count heating a caravan with bio-diesel!

Eating your own dog food?

waveydavey — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:55:32 +0000

1. Live in a building that was designed from the outset to be 'green'. Let's blur the green definition to mean that the house has some design element or feature that is unusual or uncommon in standard domestic builds for the area in order to reduce energy consumption or environmental impact. for example, significantly exceeding building regs for insulation, or using solar heating for hot water.

2. Are in the process of building 'green' homes for themselves or clients.

3. Are attempting to specify a 'green' design with the realistic intention of building at some time in the future.

4. Supply 'green' technology or consultation to clients who are actively using them to produce homes?

5. Have retro-fitted green technology to their current home in order to make it more energy efficient?

1. No, just in the process of selling our council house then move to the sticks in the new year hopefully.

2. Also in the process of putting together plans for straw bale house.

3. Same as no2 i supppose, but also try to install PV, solar wtr htg, renewable materials as much as possible and even make my own compressed bricks for part of the build.

4. Im an electrician encouraging my clients to use less energy, it is very difficult trying to change the mindset of people today........more education is needed.

5.Yes.....insulation, timeclocks, low energy lamps, energy efficient appliances.

Eating your own dog food?

Tuna — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:25:34 +0000

I have to say I'm disappointed at the response so far.

Does this mean the majority of members of the forum have no direct link with green building, or are people just not interested in sharing their experience?

Eating your own dog food?

Bowman — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:47:33 +0000

1. Yes (last self build over insulated etc but nothing to radical)
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. No, unless you include the compost heap I built for my parents
5. Yes

2,3,5 Currently planning a Green refurb to live in our selves

Eating your own dog food?

Jeff B — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:58:12 +0000

Tuna - I am relatively new to this forum so I am probably not qualified as it were to comment on the type of folk who use it. I may be wrong but my feeling is that there are a small number of experts who regularly post here who could respond to your questionnaire, but the majority would have to answer "not applicable" to numbers 1 to 4 and yes to number 5 only. May be that is why there is not a bigger response?

Certainly that is my situation. I would love to be able to live in or design/build a purpose made green building but it just ain't gonna happen due to my personal circumstances! Meanwhile I am simply insulating/draughtproofing like crazy with a view to replacing our inefficient oil fired boiler in due course with solar panels, an air source heat pump, thermal store and possibly a back up heat source (type yet to be decided).

Jeff B.

Eating your own dog food?

nigel — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:20:01 +0000

1. Yes built 15 years ago. High insulation, sedum roof, heat recovery, triple glazed, solar DHW.
2. Yes Green office building, BREEAM excellent rating. PV(8Kw peak), solar dhw, biomass, heat recovery, rain water recycling, automated lighting, energy monitoring system.
3. Yes as above.
4. No.
5.yes

Eating your own dog food?

ted — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 17:56:39 +0000

1. No, no and yes. (We have 3 buildings and the latest was designed to be green in the use phase.)
2. No.
3. No.
4. Yes, well perhaps 'producing homes' is a bit of a stretch. As an electrician I try to steer customers to greener ways.
5. Limited to CFLs in the main house but yes for our holiday accommodation. Plus a wind turbine.

Eating your own dog food?

James Norton — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:04:21 +0000

'Yes' for all but '1.'

J

Eating your own dog food?

SimonH — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:04:11 +0000

1. No. I just moved into in a 1960's Eco disaster.

2. No. But I plan to do a Green extension in 18 months time.

3. No, see 2.

4. No, but as I'm still learning but plan to start an energy advice business in the near future. I'm currently
trying to establish a nationally recognised qualification / training programme for the basics of energy efficiency.

5. Yep. Added a programmable room stat & I've only been in 5 weeks ;-) Waiting on survey for cavity insualtion quote. Added 95% Low energy lighting. The rest will have to wait until we start on the structural work : Air tightness, external insualtion, increased loft insulation with boarding over, replace heating system with (small) high efficiency gas combi, underfloor heating and either a thermal store or Mains pressure tank (to free up loft space). Still trying to decide whether to fit solar h/w or wait a bit longer for prices to come down. Alternatveily - I have a Chinese contact who can supply a complete system for Â£300@factory gate price!? Maybe worth a punt. PV is out until they start shippping nanosolar cells in the UK @ 1/10 current price? Would go for a heat pump, but my plan is to not need much heating , so the cost of installion seems too high.

I think a lot of people on the forum are not building from scratch but like me, looking for how to retrofit stuff to existing houses. I purposley chose an 1960's house to work with as I see the existing housing stock as the biggest problem in tackling climate change - so bringing one up to higher than modern standards as an example will hopefully inspire others to follow. Once I've finished this one, I'll have a go at something really old to see what can be done there.

Eating your own dog food?

TheDoctor — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 10:26:03 +0000

i am partially retro-fitting green to an existing old property, and have the intention in the future (5 years or so) to build, from scratch, a passive house.

energy free and completely green are not the same thing, and getting the balance of total energy efficiency with a totally green pallette of materials will be the challenge / compromise.

I am holding back on the mega-spending on the current project to ensure that i can afford the next one, as and when i get the right site.