News Grapevine Artical April 2008.
Article published in the April Issue 2008
Time for action - building your home with sustainability in mind.
Julian Mustoe, Director MG Coral Developments.
It seems that climate change has started to happen. James Lovelock, the author of the Gaia hypothesis back in the 60’s - a revolutionary theory that the Earth is a self-regulating super-organism and should be treated as such – thinks that we may have already reached a tipping point. Lovelock’s theory was initially ridiculed by many scientists as new age nonsense, however, today that theory forms the basis of almost all climate science.
His latest book, The Revenge of Gaia, predicts that by 2020 extreme weather will be the norm, causing global devastation; that by 2040 much of Europe will be Saharan; and parts of London will be underwater. The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report deploys less dramatic language - but its calculations aren't a million miles away from his.
As with most people, my panic about climate change is equalled only by my confusion over what I ought to do about it. In last month’s Grapevine, I told you a little about SIP Panel homes, which I live in and build. These are about as environmentally friendly a home as you can get. But there are other innovations in the home that can help as well. We here in Cyprus are in an almost unique position. Many of us are building our own homes from scratch, so it is important to try where possible to use the latest technology to help us through any coming environmental storm.
The BRE Group (Building Research Establishment) are making efforts to come up with new technology that will help us all achieve “the zero carbon emission home”. The BRE Innovation Park in Watford features six full-scale real-life houses planned in the context of the Government’s new Code for Sustainable Homes and a school that addresses the ‘zero carbon challenge’. Smart technologies are installed in all the buildings, creating a whole intelligent buildings community. Kingspan Tek, who produce the SIP Panels that we use in construction, have built their own net-zero carbon home there. With impressive levels of efficiency in terms of the construction method, energy use and CO2 emissions, this is a high performance sustainable home which aims to achieve the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6.
The 93.3m2, two and a half storey, two-bedroom house has been designed in line with Lifetime Homes and Scheme Development Standards (LDS) and every building material and component used has been specified for its ability to optimise the house design's overall sustainability credentials.
The materials used include highly insulated, airtight building fabric which has been designed to provide generous daylight levels and includes effective solar control, together with integrated building services based around a platform of renewable and sustainable technologies. These include water efficiency techniques, renewable energy technologies, passive cooling and ventilation, as well as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR).
This all sounds very technical, but the simple fact of the matter is that the technology exists – if we will only look for it. Some of the ideas contained in The Lighthouse are as simple as orienting your home to make use of the sun’s warmth in winter for heating. We have built a house for a chap who researched the idea really well. He has positioned windows and doors so that breezes fly through the house, cooling it in the summer. He has no heating, but allows as much heat from the summer sun into the house as possible in the winter months. Because his home is a SIP Panel home, and is super insulated, this heat remains in the home for days at a time. Throughout the winter, the temperature in his home has not dropped below 18 degrees celsius. No heating, no emissions, no cost.
There are many options, including easily available water treatment and storage systems – very useful in the current situation. There are even subsidies for these ideas – you can even get a subsidy for installing the right windows! These are not just for new homes, but are available if you fit them to your current house – every little bit helps.
My point is that sustainable living is achievable – and you can even save money doing it. Let’s not close our eyes to the possibilities, but instead look to the future with hope rather than fear.
Finally a last word from James Lovelock. "There have been seven disasters since humans came on the earth, very similar to the one that's just about to happen. I think these events keep separating the wheat from the chaff. And eventually we'll have a human on the planet that really does understand it and can live with it properly. That's the source of my optimism."