Maintenance Matters
Rhyd-y-car Terrace in St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life For those, who have not been to St Fagans in Cardiff, it is worth the trip. Great place and an ideal way to start to understand how buildings have changed over …
Tag: energy efficiency
What is the Whole House Approach?
A house is a structure embracing complex systems, embodied history and knowledge, not to mention humans! We tend to think of houses as being simple structures that provide shelter, security and a place to call home. However, they are in …
Should Wales become the Self Build Capital of the UK?
We are used to seeing groups of similar houses in new developments We all know that the House Builders are not really there to provide us with great homes. They are there to create profit for their shareholders and to …
Should Wales become the Self Build Capital of the UK? Read more »
Love a real fire?
Image from Burley Stoves Wood burning stoves are gaining in popularity. Good thing too. However, you need to know more than just that you want to have a carbon neutral energy source. Efficiency. The efficiencies of wood stoves vary tremendously. …
New Solid Wall Insulation Guide
Bristol City Council came to the Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (the STBA) to address the issues associated with the Solid Wall Insulation (SWI) works that they were doing. The video and associated tools (that can be found at https://warmupbristol.co.uk/content/planning-guidance-your-home) have been …
Home Report Video from Profiad Ni
Thought that this might be of interest as it shows the types of advice given when we do a Home Inspection Report. The winners of the Profiad Ni competition had visits from us for around 2 – 3 hours each …
Forget Energy Efficiency think Health!
Readers of this blog will know my views on lots of the energy driven ‘improvements’ that we are blindly doing in the UK at the moment. We are making so many mistakes due to the fact that we are using …
Passive House Retrofit
From Bere Architects Passiv Haus is an excellent German energy standard for building new homes. It is a system that relies on making houses really airtight and insulating. Insolation then provides much of the heat energy for the house. Fresh …
Ventilation vs Energy Efficiency
Ventilation does not mean uncontrolled draughts! Ventilation is key for all buildings, after all we do need a bit of the fresh air stuff to stay alive! However for older buildings it is even more important. Solid walled buildings should …
Definition of Economic
There was a great presentation at a Wales Zero / Low Carbon Hub meeting this year and it mentioned the original definition for Economic. It comes from the Latin Oeconomicus and means management of the household. This is obviously quite …