Would You Pay More For An Eco Home?

Developers are in for a bit of a rough ride if they are to meet government standards for sustainable homes.

The Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), which aims for all new homes to be zero-carbon by 2016, is currently not mandatory, but the Government is reviewing the option to make it so from April 2008.

This must surely be good news for the environment: stopping the ice caps from melting is, after all, the very point of the zero carbon agenda.

But new research from Savills wonders whether developers will be able to deliver the CO2 targets, and, more to the point, whether Joe Bloggs buying a new home will be willing to foot the bill.

Build Vs Buy

First off, says Savills, developers have been subject to rising costs thanks to heavy competition for land.

Even without the CSH being made compulsory, quantity surveyors estimate that new building regulations relating to "sustainable communities" policies and other green measures could add 5.5 per cent to build costs each year.

Using the Savills long-run average of 4.6 per cent capital appreciation in house prices, it's easy to see that there will be a shortfall between property prices and building costs.

What Buyers Want
Which leads on to the next question: will buyers be prepared to pay more for a completely kitted out carbon no-go home?

Savills found that homeowners are certainly eco-savvy, but not necessarily keen on the eco-medicine being prescribed by the Government. In a nut-shell: they're all for it if it saves them money, but less enthusiastic if they have to pay more..

As the report notes: "The importance that occupiers attach to various green features seems to be largely related to saving money rather than saving the planet."

Energy saving features were rated as important by 74 per cent, low running costs by 77 per cent and good thermal insulation by 84 per cent.

But when it came down to whether buyers would pay more for these green enhancements the figures melted away like ... well, like icebergs on the fringes of Antarctica.

Energy saving features were the biggest draw, as around 25 per cent of buyers conceded they would part with more cash for these.

The Cost of Going Green

Clearly, developers are facing something of a dilemma if they are to invest in carbon-neutral housebuilding that will carry overheads that cannot be passed onto the buyer.

While lower levels of sustainable living have been estimated by English Partnerships to average between £3,000 and £6,000 per dwelling, the holy grail of carbon-free homes, level 6, could pile on a potential £26,000 to £36,000 to building costs.

The Government is waiving stamp duty on zero-carbon homes up to £500,000 starting from October to help offset building costs. But things will be far tighter at the top end where the stamp duty exemption will be capped at £15,000.

So there's a lot of horse-trading to be done between the Government, the developers and homeowners on who will shoulder the costs. The alternative is that the specs for truly zero-carbon homes are downgraded – watch this space.

full article

Wave power

What is wave power?

It is energy captured from the power of waves to create electricity.

How does it work?

Wave power can be captured in many ways, including anchored offshore devices pitching back and forth or up and down over the waves or fixed onshore installations using the waves to drive air through a turbine.

What are the challenges facing wave power?

It can be difficult to convert a slow, oscillating, choppy wave motion into electricity. There are also issues about too much energy being available during storms. This and the corrosiveness of saltwater challenge engineers.

Where is the best place for wave power in Britain?

West of Scotland and Cornwall have the best potential.

Will wave power work in shallow water?

Waves lose their energy in shallow water due to friction with the sea floor, so devices are best placed where the shore drops steeply.

How much of our energy needs could wave power meet?

The technology has only been available for a few decades, yet we could meet almost 10% of our energy needs from wave power, at a cost similar to current prices. An assessment can be found in CAT's Zero Carbon Britain project and at the British Wind Energy Association .

Are we anywhere near that percentage?

The main issue now is getting the devices developed, tested and in place. Wave energy was first researched after the energy crisis of the early 1970s. A new impetus, due to the need for renewable alternatives to fossil fuels, has prompted the development of many new devices.

What was the earliest wave energy project?

One of the earliest projects was the "Edinburgh Duck", conceived by Prof Stephen Salter in the early 70s. It is a deepwater device, designed to match the orbital motion of the waves. This is in theory the most efficient way to capture wave energy.

What happened to the Duck?

The Duck principle has been taken up by a new project. The Pelamis (sea snake) has a similar design, and has undergone extensive testing since the prototype launch in early 2004. The 750kW device could power about 500 households, at a competitive tariff.

Has the sea snake been installed?

Two 750kW prototypes have been set up off Islay, in the Hebrides. Each device will generate more than 2.5m kW of electricity a year. The developers are now building the first ever wave farm, off Portugal.

Will the sea snake be installed at this new Cornish Wave Hub?

Yes, there are plans for seven.

Are other hubs/wind farms planned in Britain?

A 3MW wave farm is planned off Orkney in 2008. Scottish Power wants to build a further four sea snakes at the Orkney site..

Are there any wave power stations in operation?

A Tapchan (short for Tapered Channel) built on a small island near Bergen, Norway, in 1985 was for many years the largest wave power station in operation, producing enough for a small, 40-home community.

Is the government putting more money into wave power?

Yes. A £50m Marine Energy Fund administered by the Carbon Trust was set up a few years ago to help businesses develop wave power
full article

How this 12inch miracle tube could halve heating bills

Amazing British invention creates MORE energy than you put into it - and could soon be warming your home
It sounds too good to be true - not to mention the fact that it violates almost every known law of physics.

But British scientists claim they have invented a revolutionary device that seems to 'create' energy from virtually nothing.

Their so-called thermal energy cell could soon be fitted into ordinary homes, halving domestic heating bills and making a major contribution towards cutting carbon emissions.

Even the makers of the device are at a loss to explain exactly how it works - but sceptical independent scientists carried out their own tests and discovered that the 12in x 2in tube really does produce far more heat energy than the electrical energy put in.

The device seems to break the fundamental physical law that energy cannot be created from nothing - but researchers believe it taps into a previously unrecognised source of energy, stored at a sub-atomic level within the hydrogen atoms in water
The system - developed by scientists at a firm called Ecowatts in a nondescript laboratory on an industrial estate at Lancing, West Sussex - involves passing an electrical current through a mixture of water, potassium carbonate (otherwise known as potash) and a secret liquid catalyst, based on chrome.

This creates a reaction that releases an incredible amount of energy compared to that put in. If the reaction takes place in a unit surrounded by water, the liquid heats up, which could form the basis for a household heating system.

If the technology can be developed on a domestic scale, it means consumers will need much less energy for heating and hot water - creating smaller bills and fewer greenhouse gases.

Jim Lyons, of the University of York, independently evaluated the system. He said: 'Let's be honest, people are generally pretty sceptical about this kind of thing. Our team was happy to take on the evaluation, even if to prove it didn't work.

'But this is a very efficient replacement for the traditional immersion heater. We have examined this interesting technology and when we got the rig operating, we were getting 150 to 200 per cent more energy out than we put in, without trying too hard.

People are sceptical - but somehow it works



'We are still not clear about the science involved here, because the physics and chemistry are very different-to everything that has gone before. Our challenge now is to study the science and how it works.'

The device has taken ten years of painstaking work by a small team at Ecowatts' tiny red-brick laboratory, and bosses predict a household version of their device will be ready to go on sale within the next 18 months.

The project, which has cost the company £1.4million, has the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry, which is keen to help poorer families without traditional central heating or who cannot afford rocketing fuel bills.

Ecowatts says the device will cost between £1,500 and £2,000, in line with the price of traditional systems.

full article

Community will have green power

A country house in Devon which is part of the communal living movement will soon be powered by three forms of renewable energy. Beech Hill, a community of 14 residents near Crediton, has installed a 15 metre-tall wind turbine to generate electricity, four solar panels to heat water and a log-fuelled boiler to provide heating.

The new equipment means the community will no longer use oil-fuelled heating systems. It will provide all the heating and hot water and approximately a third of the electricity for the house, saving the annual emission of about 26 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Funding for the £90,600 energy project has been provided by £35,600 from the EDF Energy Green Fund, £7,000 from the Low Carbon Buildings Programme and the remainder by the Beech Hill Community, which has taken out a 25-year loan to get the project started.

The project builds on the work at the community where residents share a common belief in environmentally-conscious living. Residents grow their own fruit and vegetables, share regular communal meals, host a village composting site, car share, recycle waste, keep chickens and use a natural sewage treatment system.

Sue Chantrey, one of the project co-ordinators, said: “The focus at Beech Hill has always been ecological. We are always working towards being more sustainable so we have been talking about renewable energy for a long time. With climate change becoming such an issue it became more urgent and the grants made it possible. We felt it was now or never. We didn’t want to carry on using oil and we wanted to produce our own electricity.

“We have had fantastic showers since the solar panels were installed. When it’s all done the house will be warmer, as well. Only a very small part of the house was heated for the courses we run here. Others had no heating or just inefficient wood-burning stoves. The corridors were unheated and cold. Now we will have radiators everywhere powered by a log-fuelled boiler.

“Everyone can make a difference to the environment by taking small steps towards becoming more sustainable. You don’t have to put up a wind turbine to make a difference. For example, everyone can think about how much they travel and how they do it and they can conserve energy.”

EDF Energy has awarded £3million to nearly 170 renewable energy projects since the Green Fund was launched in 2001. Its purpose is to showcase renewable energy projects which produce power from the sun, wind, water and geothermal sources that reduce the greenhouse gases linked to global warming.

Awards of up to £30,000 are available for projects in England, Scotland and Wales and such funds have helped schools, charities, local authorities, churches, water mills and other non-profit organisations to generate clean, green energy in their own community.

Beneficiiaries have installed a wide range of technologies, including wind turbines and solar panels, along with less well-established technologies such as biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps and micro hydropower generators.

The awards are provided in partnership with customers who choose renewable energy for their home through its Green Tariff. This tariff gives consumers an active choice in driving demand for renewable energy as EDF Energy purchases renewable energy to the value of their consumption. Customers who join the tariff pay an extra 0.4p per unit of electricity they use, which is less than £15 a year for the average household. This money is matched pound for pound by EDF Energy to provide the grants awarded by the Green Fund.

Green Building Press

full article