Baxi are talking up their new micro-CHP boiler:

“The combined heat and power (CHP) unit generates 1kW of electricity per hour using a Free Piston Stirling Engine. Any extra electricity needed can be supplemented from the National Grid. In addition, any electricity generated by the unit that is surplus to requirement may be sold back to the National Grid.” 

It would be nice to see some published figures from their test houses where they have been in use for 12 months or so. Available early 2009.

The UK house building regulations have been such a disappointment for so many years when it comes to energy efficiency. They have been written with that classic British trait of pandering to the lowest common denominator so as to make house building as cheap as possible. We purchasers then have the ‘choice’ (should that be expense?) to improve things should we have the financial resources and inclination.

The trouble with this approach is that we just rob Peter to pay Paul, and that happens twice. Because the general state of the housing stock in the UK is desperately poor in terms of its energy efficiency, we consume vast amounts of energy heating these spaces, energy that is getting more expensive by the day. Not only that, but there will be the (inflated) costs of improving the energy efficiency of the old stock. Now I don’t have any figures to hand, but if someone can point me to good sources of information I’d be very grateful.

passivehouse.co.uk – Home: “A passive house is a building in which a comfortable interior climate can be maintained without active heating and cooling systems (Adamson 1987 and Feist 1988). The house heats and cools itself, hence ‘passive’. “

It seems to me that we should be mandating much higher energy efficiencies. If you build to the levels that Stephen & Oksana Cartwight are using in their house in Wales (link above), then essentially nature is taking care of keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer and you can devote your attention to reducing your electricity consumption as much as possible. I feel it is perverse to look for cleaner ways of generating electricity without reducing consumption as far as we can first.

There will be those who take against mandated standards because they wish to preserve ‘choice’ or they would rather the house building industry policed itself. I feel this would be a mistake for the following reasons. The financial pressures on builders to maximise profitability would exert such a pressure on house design that standards would rise at the pace of the slowest mass market builder. Secondly, economies of scale need to be there to make this work. If everyone had to build to ‘passive’ standards then we are all, builders and buyers, in the same boat. Builders would have a ‘level playing field’, to abuse a metaphor, and material costs would be spread across a much larger number of houses reducing the unit cost. I’m sure there would be opportunities here for UK businesses in the supply side of all of this too.

Finally, energy generation. We urgently need to move to a situation where micro-power generation is a reality. It should be mandatory for all new builds and readily available to retrofit to existing (improved) housing stock. There really does need to be some courage, imagination and initiative shown by our politicians, otherwise we are all going to have a pretty expensive and bleak future.

The 0718 Cambridge to London figures in this report at 85% over capacity.

BBC NEWS | England | Rail services ‘88% over capacity’:
Rail passengers often have to stand on their daily commute
Some train routes in England and Wales are running at almost double capacity, according to new research.”

The Digital House is the result of two and a half years work by architects Bell Travers Willson who hope to encourage traditional house builders to adopt new technologies to speed up house building and also give more flexibility in design. Using CAD/CAM techniques scaled up from electronics and furniture manufacturer, the house is designed in 3D on a computer. Each constructional element is then cut from timber using a CNC router. The elements are then assembled into solid box sections which are filled with insulating material before being assembled on site into the finished structure. This process is extremely flexible and means that each house can be customised to suit, rather than the formula house building we commonly see at the moment. There is an increasing interest in these forms of house building to provide the number of dwelling proposed for the Thames Gateway and also the East of England, as all the construction can be done in a dry factory with a higher level of quality control, before shipping pre-fabricated sections to site for final assembly.

If you are quick you can see an example at the The Architectural Foundation’s Yard Gallery in London – only there until the 20th March. More info from Bell Travers Willson Architects and FACIT.

Dobbs Weir Caravan Park is to close in preparation for redevelopment for the 2012 Olympics. The white-water canoe slalom course is to be built nearby and the caravan site is to be incorporated into the new scheme. Not surprisingly this hasn’t gone down well with the people who have caravans on the site. More by following the links below:

Caravan Park to shut because of Olympics

Canoe England presentation to Broxbourne Council

Peter Lilly and Anne Main secured a Westminster Hall debate on the Hertfordshire Housing Targets that took place on the 30th Jan 2007. There were a number of Hertfordshire MP’s who took part and Megg Munn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Women and Equality), Department for Communities and Local Government) put the Government’s case.

There is a full transcript on TheyWorkForYou.com – follow the link below:

30 Jan 2007: Westminster Hall debates (TheyWorkForYou.com): “Hertfordshire Housing Target”

Here’s the opening of the press release, follow the link for the full text.

St Albans District Council – Press Room – News Releases – Full News Release: “Council objects to housing plans for district

Wed 07 Mar 2007

Strong objections to proposals to build thousands to homes on Green Belt land in and around the district are this week being finalised by St Albans City and District Council.

The council will be submitting its official response to Government’s Proposed Changes to the draft East of England Plan, setting out its objections to many of the changes, by the deadline of Friday 9th March.

The council will also be joining with councils across Hertfordshire to protest directly to Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, that the correct procedures were not followed in proposing major changes at a very late stage in the preparation of the plan.”

Hertfordshire has many pressures on it as one of the counties next to London. This blog is an attempt to bring together news on travel, transport, planning and the environment in the county, and to try and weave a more coherent picture from it all.