eco Design Consultants S U M M E R  N E W S L E T T E R July  2009	www.ecodesignconsultants.co.uk Tel: 01908 698364
First 6 Months Eco design consultants are now 6 months old, and have a range of projects under our belt ranging from site wide energy strategy reports and code for sustainable homes assessments to feasibility studies for renovation of a small Museum.  Our workload is increasing and we are now a registered RIBA practice, an active member of AECB, and registered assessors with BREEAM.  For more information see our updated website: www.ecodesignconsultants.co.uk
Passive House We are excited at now being able to provide passive house design and calculation. At the end of May Alan completed a training course on PHPP, the passive house planning package. Passive Houses are: · Designed to have a heating load of less than 15 kWh/m^2yr.  · Use south facing windows to provide more heat than they lose. · The heating needed is so low it needs only one or two radiators, unless you just invite the neighbours round on a cold day! · Airtight, not letting all that heat out. · Have a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery unit that extracts heat from exhaust air to heat the fresh input air. · Well insulated - triple glazing (u<0.8), fabric U<0.15. · Well detailed, including being thermal bridge free. · Have good summer shading and ventilation, with open able windows. · Well proven with examples available throughout Europe. I am convinced that this is the way forward to providing sustainable homes and buildings in the UK.  It is however early days in the UK with the first UK scheme, Canolfan Hyddgen in Wales only just receiving certification. This was highlighted by attendance at the AECB’s annual conference where there was a lot of talk about Passive house or as the Germans call it Passivhaus.  The highlight was the keynote speaker Professor Wolfgang Feist, the founder himself of the Passivhaus Institute in Germany.
LEED Accredited Professionals I would like to congratulate Hetal for passing her LEED assessors exam with flying colours achieving a 90% pass. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) which is an international voluntary standard for rating the sustainability of buildings, and is used in over 69 countries.  It was set up by the Green Building Council in the US and is similar to BREEAM and the code for sustainable homes.  We are now able to offer this service, please call if you would like further details.
Eco Design Consultants in the Press Following a presentation Alan gave to the PIA (Product Innovation in Architecture) at the BRE Innovation Park, an article titled “Green house rules” appeared on page 10 of May’s edition of Building Products, see our website to see full article.  Alan will also feature in this month’s edition in the Specifiers’ Corner with his opinions on the need for Suppliers to prepare for Passive house. Retrofit for the future The need to address the renovation of existing stock, which is a vitally important aspect to reducing our carbon footprint has been highlighted with a government competition that invites proposals to design and install new high performance solutions to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of houses, by a minimum of 80%.  This is being funded to a tune of £10 million. Eco design consultants are in two consortiums and await the response to the bids on the 24^th July.
SEE what you are buying into.com We are one of the founding companies signed up to SEE what you are buying into.com, which is a revolutionary labelling scheme that identifies companies that are being open and honest.  To join a rigorous questionnaire is completed which examines our practices on Social, Environmental and Ethical (SEE) practices, our answers are then published so you can judge if you would like to work with us. The site is due to be launched in September but you can view our answers and see if you agree with us now at: http://www.seewhatyouarebuyinginto.com/profile/company/view/324/eco-design-consultants
Architect in the House We are participating in this year’s RIBA Architect in the house which provides homeowners a free 1 hour architectural consultation for a suggested donation of at least £40.00 to Shelter. The official scheme has closed for this year; however please contact us if you would like to take us up on this offer. For further details see: http://www.architectinthehouse.org.uk/index.php
Campaign to reduce VAT on renovation Lobby the Prime Minister to reduce VAT on renovation by signing Garvis Snook (ROK) on-line petition. The current anomaly places a 15% VAT on renovation rather than the zero % on new builds, this discouraging reuse of buildings and deters home owners insulating and improving their homes. Join the campaign: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/repairingbritain/ Is this newsletter going to the right person? If you have friends or colleagues you think would like to receive this and future newsletters please email subscribe with their name and e-mail address to: newsletter@ecodesignconsultants.co.uk If you do not wish to receive this newsletter in the future please email unsubscribe to newsletter@ecodesignconsultants.co.uk Alan Budden
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