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Construction Ecoretrofit Gadgets Shabbihaus retrofit Ventilation & fresh air

My Shabbihaus eco retrofit project part 3 ventilation & bathroom

The other work I did at this time was in the bathroom, not really energy efficient specifically but we re-used the bath, just changing the handles. The sink was reclaimed from another site and we re-used wood from elsewhere in the house. I also looked at improving the ventilation and added a larger inline fan in a kitchen cupboard. This was set to overrun by 20 minutes and helped reduce humidity in the house, more on that in a bit.

After this point we had a new kitchen and bathroom so the opportunities for add on work were limited. Over the next few years the family got a bit bigger and problems with humidity began to increase in the bedrooms. Then, earlier this year the housing association who own the freehold for the property finally got their act together and decided they would replace the windows. I wanted new wooden ones but the majority won out and we got cheaper plastic ones. They seemed to think this would stop condensation but I realised that this will just condense elsewhere if we don’t remove it. I am also concerned about air quality as we are quite near the centre of town and pollution levels are high. So I did some investigation and formulated a plan to coincide with the window works that would deal with humidity and provide plenty of fresh, clean air in the flat.

I initially looked at mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, these systems are either too big or too noisy to install in a small flat and the filters don’t cover as many pollutants as I would like, a NOx filter is even bigger so even less likely to happen. I was still keen on using a bigger fan to ensure extraction from a central bathroom with a fairly long (3m) duct to the outside. Through some work I am doing with the GLA I came across the Aereco system which has a single fan and then extracts in the bathroom and the kitchen.

Aereco fan in ceiling
Boxed in behind an access panel

This extraction draws air in from the other drier rooms in the flat, I put a small vent in each door to allow the air to come through even when the doors are shut. Each room has a humidity controlled trickle vent on one window, this opens wider as the humidity in the room increases to allow more fresh air in. As there is quite a lot of traffic round us I also chose acoustic trickle vents which are larger. They work well but I probably wouldn’t bother if I did it again, I miss the sirens.

So I am drawing in dry air from outside, this might be a bit colder but heating dry air is a lot easier than heating wet air so there shouldn’t be an increase in costs. The fan runs all the time at a low speed so again uses very little energy, probably less than £20 a year. It’s also much quieter than my previous fan, I can’t actually hear it in the kitchen where it is located, the bathroom has a small noise because the intake is so close to the fan but still nothing compared to a normal bathroom fan.

So the ventilation has been in for a few months now and it does already feel fresher. The true test will be this winter but towels in the bathroom are drier and the summer heat is a little less stifling with the air flow through the rooms. When we installed we got the following extraction rates for the system. This meant at best we would achieve 14.8 l/s, which is above the minimum rates in Part F, but below what Vince from Aereco thinks the performance of the system should be.

After some investigation we changed the louvred grill on the outside to a better one and there was a massive increase of 12+pa at each extract grille. I’ve shown the rates below at 45pa. You can see that there is a performance increase of 2l/s just by changing the Louvre Grille outside.

Finally Vince provided me with the minimum extract rate for the grille as well. This is where our system can provide energy savings as when there is no moisture detected, it can drop to a very low extract rate, way below minimum regulations – Shown here at 4.8l/s.

So we are now halfway through winter and it is all looking good, no condensation that we have found and the towels in the bathroom are drying overnight. Cooking smells are also gone very quickly from the flat and no new mould is growing on the silicon round the bath. In the summer it was a little bit fresher overnight as well, no maintenance needed except washing the covers for the extract grill. No noticeable difference in our electricity use, when we turned the fridge, router etc off the energy usage was so low our monitor registered at 0p per hour.

The only drawback so far is that the plants are drying out, we never used to have to water the plants in the bathroom and now we have killed one of them and only just rescued the other!

Showing the snake plant that used to take moisture from the air
Air cleaning snake plants
Categories
Gadgets Money saving Shabbihaus retrofit sustainability Using less energy

My Shabbihaus eco retrofit project part 2 Boiler replacement

This came about through problems with the old boiler rather than careful planning. Firstly I replaced the thermostat with a Smart controller, this was about 5 years ago and the choice was limited but I got an Owl controller which allowed us to control the heating with a smart phone.

This allowed us to monitor electricity use as well as program the boiler simply online and turn it off for holidays etc. The controller was easy to fit as you replace the existing thermostat and use the same wiring. Once this was done the heating started coming on only when the temperature in the house fell below the required temperature we set. The previous controller turned on the heating when it was programmed to, regardless of the internal temperature and waited for the thermostat to turn it off again. This fine control and ease of use saved us 10% on our gas bills straight away.

The monitor really helped us concentrate on electricity use around the house and focus on reductions, however it also coincided with having kids and being at home a lot more so our usage actually went up for each successive year, as shown below. Now they are a bit bigger we are out more and using the meter to concentrate their minds too and starting to take our usage down again:

The boiler was an old Worcester and only about 64% efficient. A fault developed with it so it started heating up radiators whenever we used the hot water so we decided to get rid of it. I did plenty of research and luckily enough this coincided with Ecobuild so I was able to go round stalls there to look at a good range of boilers and ask silly questions. Efficiency of most boilers is well over 90% so my main concerns were how it would fit in my kitchen and reliability. I eventually settled on an Intergas boiler, not quite so common in the UK but it came with a 10 year guarantee and has very few moving parts and good reliability.


Very pleased with the boiler and five years later there have been no problems. We are warmer, the shower works better and our gas bills went down.

Very pleased with the boiler and five years later there have been no problems. We are warmer, the shower works better and our gas bills went down.

We also got TRVs installed on all the radiators.

Categories
Ecology Ecoretrofit Encouraging wildlife and nature Gadgets Gifts Green roofs Money saving Using less energy Using less water

Dreaming of a green Christmas?

I am certainly dreaming of one, I enjoy Christmas as much as anyone but I do worry about the waste that goes on at this time of year. Presents are great but sometimes there are rather more than anyone needs, especially in a big family. Like many families we have instituted a one present per adult rule and this has certainly cut down on unnecessary pairs of slippers etc. However cute little nieces still need a present each and we still need to get a few presents for those close to us.

So now we have reduced what can we do to re-use and recycle the presents, along with getting some nice eco friendly presents for everyone. I have tried to find a few things that can help with this.

Eco friendly Christmas paraphenalia

Recycled Christmas crackersAs well as recycling your Christmas wrapping paper make sure yours is made from recycled paper, while your at it get some recycled crackers too. You can make your own Christmas decorations quite easily or buy ones made from recycled materials and all good lights these days use LEDs, saving you energy and reducing fire risk. I have listed a selection in the products section of the website that you can buy online.

Green toys for kids

To be honest kids toys are pretty amazing these days and you aren’t going to distract them entirely from computer games and plastic Kids rocket ship toyfun but there are lots of interesting alternatives out there that you can at least supplement them with. Every kid loves to climb in boxes and a cardboard rocket ship could be even better, a wooden racing car is a much healthier alternative to a plastic one for a small child, and with fewer chemicals. Kids also love creatures and creepy crawlies so a pond dipping kit or a bug jar could make them happy. More details of these eco friendly toys here. Thinking further ahead you could get a bat box and an id book and see what bats you can attract when they come out of hibernation.

Gadgets for grown ups

Home energy monitor and heating control
Owl Intuition E energy monitor

Everyone likes a gadget at any time of the year and Christmas usually brings lots along so why not get a few that help reduce energy use rather than increase it. I have been going on for a while about my Owl monitor and heating control and I still really love it. You can impress people by showing them your houses energy use on your phone and impress yourself by turning the heating on when you are on the bus home.

I recently started looking at products in B&Q as well as NHBS and Nigel’s Eco Store and they have just started to stock Lightwave products. These link up not just to the heating and electricity but also all the sockets and light switches in the house so you can create a real smart home and control the lights and all the appliances from a remote, your pc or your home. They sound great, if you buy some let me know how you get on.

How about saving water? A water pebble makes a cool little gift, put it in your shower and it helps you reduce water usage as well as looking funky. If too much water is a problem for you at times, why not get a green roof to soak some of it up?

If you have a wood burning stove you really must get an eco fan to go with it. These sit on top of the stove and circulate warm air around the house. They are made of two types of metal so it rotates when it gets hot.

I hope these gifts have wetted your appetite for a green Christmas, I have my eye open for some more and will add them in when I find some good ones.

Updates

Eco friendly gifts for her

Some choices for the women in your life, mum, sister, wife or partner. I have tried to pick a range of items that any woman would be pleased to receive. Love the rainbow turbine t shirt stylish with with an eco message as well.organic eco friendly t shirt

Eco friendly gifts for him

Some choices for the men in your life, dad, brother, husband or partner. I have tried to pick a range of items that any man would be pleased to receive. Cufflinks and skin care may seem a bit dull but these are a cut above your average and the skin care is certainly not a generic body shop I don’t know what to buy you box.

Alex