Wherever you are based in north Lancashire or Cumbria (Kendal, Penrith, Carlisle, Workington, Whitehaven or wherever!) please join me for a session on Mon 14 October at 7pm on what airtightness in buildings is and the easy way to achieve an air tightness pass for Building Regs. Just get in touch and I’ll send you…

MEES Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards I’ve outlined below some of the key points relating to the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) for dwellings: Timetable 1 April 2018 – It will be unlawful to grant new leases of residential or commercial property with an EPC rating below an ‘E’ 1 April 2020 – The regulation will…

Building Regs Part L1a places a penalty on those dwellings on a development that are not air tightness tested.There should be a figure of +2m3/hm2 @ 50Pa added to the air permeability test result achieved for that dwelling type (Part L1a paragraph 4.8), but I would question whether this always happens in practice…  

I spoke at a Carbon Co-op Info night in Manchester earlier this week. It was all based around Retrofit Performance and my presentation was called “10 things to think about that aren’t insulation”. Great turnout and lots of questions. Thanks for inviting me Carbon Co-op and thanks to Ecological Building Systems for sponsoring the event.

I had a great trip down to the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) last month to lecture to the MSc Architecture student and MSc Sustainability & Adaptation. I spent two days with the students covering the basics of thermal imaging and carrying out an air tightness testing practical – to demonstrate the benefits of air tightness testing existing buildings!

A few weeks ago, I tested the most amazing holiday accommodation – Riverside Terrace at Stepping Stones – it is between Ambleside and Rydal in the Central Lake District. The building (3 separate units) is part circular, beautifully designed and has the most amazing views – as well as stunning environmental credentials.  I would love to stay there!!!

If you are a private landlord and have older, solid-walled stock, you are probably concerned about being unable to rent F or G band properties on new tenancies from April 2018. Please bear in mind there has been a change to the software behind EPCs for existing buildings in Nov 2017, which has improved the…

I had great session with students from Kendal College this week – helping the Level 3 Carpentry & Joinery students understand the importance of air tightness and insulation in buildings, how to measure airtightness and how to fault find using a thermal imaging camera.