On Friday, I carried out an intermediate air pressure test on Daisy Bank Cottage near Kendal. The self-builder, Alex Burn of 4site has taken a pragmatic approach to his build – keeping the design as simple as possible and primarily using standard materials available through local builders merchants. The building is masonry construction and Alex has applied basic Passivhaus principles…

MEES – Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards – doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, but there has been an important publication in the last few days – The Private Rented Property Minimum Standard – landlord guidance documents. This provides the full detail of the requirements on private landlords from April 2018 Document available here: https://goo.gl/5ctVzK

Ofgem factsheet – Important changes to the Domestic RHI scheme Ofgem has published a new document within the last couple of days that concedes the implementation of the Heat Demand Limits (commonly called the RHI caps) may now be “spring/summer 2017” rather than “spring 2017”. This document outlines how the Domestic RHI is going to…

Using thermal imaging to identify defective cavity wall insulation Thermography is ideal for identifying issues with cavity wall insulation, whether they are from incomplete fill or deterioration. This image was taken on a recent thermal imaging survey of a property in Carlisle. The thermal image identifies an area which is losing heat at a greater rate,…

Building a masonry Passivhaus? How many airtightness tests would you do? I had a meeting yesterday regarding air tightness testing a Passivhaus dwelling that is about to start construction in the north of Cumbria and the subject of the number of airtightness tests came up. The client was under the impression that Green Building Store recommends 2…

Domestic RHI – introduction of ceilings on payments As the “Spring 2017” introduction of ceilings on the kWh for the renewable heating technologies nears, I have a couple of busy weeks ahead dashing all over the place to make sure installed systems have an accurate EPC – Central Lakes, Carlisle, Yorkshire Dales, Cockermouth, Workington and Kendal – and…

I was at Ecobuild yesterday. Not surprisingly, it’s smaller than recent years – but there was still lots of interesting things to see and hear. One of the things that could have the biggest impact on the gap between the design and energy performance of new buildings in use is a pilot for insurance for…

I’m looking forward to seeing the new Passivhaus components on the market at Ecobuild later this week.

Just a quick “Thank-you” to Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) for letting me use some material from projects as part of my recent lecture at the Centre for Alternative Technology to the MSc and Architecture Professional Diploma students. I used some information from community buildings in Cumbria I had assessed on their behalf – using thermography,…