bemoreeco

While in London on Wednesday the Team at BeMoreEco decided to make a quick visit to Grand Designs Live at Excell in London. Are main aim was to have a look at the Eco buildings which were being showcased at the event.

We visited the future-build theatre by ECO2H2OUSE.  This eco house demonstrated the techologies being used in the building of a low/zero carbon home. In the UK today, an average new house which uses the technology involved will consume 77% less energy for space heating when compared with one built to standard building regulations.

The Eco House uses innovative low-energy technology that has been designed to meet the passive house energy standards and levels of air tightness. The Passive house standard is as follow;

    * Compact form & good insulation

    * Southern orientation & shade considerations

    * Energy-efficient window glazing & frames

    * Highly efficient heat recovery form exhaust air using and air to air heat exchanger

    * Energy-saving household appliances

    * Total energy demand for space heating and cooling of less than 15kWh/m2/yr

The second eco house we toured was the ‘EcoHub’. This cute mini dome-shaped eco pod offers the last word in super energy efficiency. Clad in sustainable wooden or recycled tyre tiles, this two-bedroom, double pod home uses mirco-renewable technology to achives a zero carbon rating. The people at EcoHub are committed to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint. We got on well with them as this is the same aim at we have at MoreEco.

The third eco house we were inspired by, was the landARK. If you have a scrap of land, maybe a back garden, a hillside, a coppice clearing, or maybe eveen a corner of somebody’s car park (plus a few weeks holiday) then this i agreat fun eco house to have. All you need is a rubber mallet, a tape measure, screwdrives, a powerdrive drill and enough peace to read the manual. Checlkout the pictures we have taken.

Finally, the last house we visited was the Cloud 9 stand. These timber eco homes are again made with sustainable timber and come with solar panels, heat recovery ventilation, large windows and open space plan. energy bills for these house are less than £400 per year.

We have uploaded pictures of the Grand Designs Live event taken from the trustworthy BeMoreEco iPhone to MoreEco Flickr account. The slide show is below.

The building’s owners have unveiled a $20 million project to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 metric tons during the next 15 years — equal to the annual emissions of 17,500 cars. It is hoped the plan will also save $4.4 million annually in energy costs.  The upgrades include replacing all of the skyscraper’s 6,500 windows with a type of insulated glass that reduces summer heat load and winter heat loss.  Extra insulation will be installed behind radiators to save heat. Other changes are planned for the building’s ventilation, chilled water and lighting systems.

Former President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg both attended the announcement on the Empire State Building’s 80th floor and said they hoped the environmental changes at the iconic skyscraper would serve as a model for buildings around the world. Mr Clinton, whose foundation is helping with the environmental upgrades, said the only way to get property owners worldwide to make over their buildings is by setting an attention-getting example.

“We have to prove it’s good economics, and we have to prove we know how to do it,” he said. “Every person on Earth who cares about this knows about the Empire State Building.”

Experts say retrofitting old buildings to be more environmentally friendly is an important step in reducing levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. In New York City, emissions generated by the operation of the more than 900,000 buildings citywide contribute 79 per cent of the city’s total.

Work already has begun on the Empire State Building, with the upgrades to the its systems expected to be completed by the end of 2010 — longer than it took to build the skyscraper, which opened in 1931 after a year and 45 days of work.

All of the building’s green projects are expected to be finished by the end of 2013.

Mr Bloomberg, who has set a goal to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 30 per cent by 2030, said the famous landmark shows “the rest of the city that existing buildings, no matter how tall they are, no matter how old they are, can take steps to reduce their energy consumption.”

The Zero Carbon House returns to Ecobuild, a year after its hugely successful launch at the event in 2008. With updates to the original ruralZED design and a detailed case study on the performance of the very house on display at Ecobuild last February – since reassembled in Dunkirk – it’s an unmissable opportunity to gain an insight into the realities of zero carbon design and construction.

Combining modern methods of construction with a traditional heavy weight timber frame structure to ensure fast build times and low embodied carbon, the house meets the highest levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes.

It has 20 solar photovoltaic panels (3.6kW) and an optional roof-mounted 1kw wind turbine, and requires minimal heating and cooling due to the super-insulated building fabric, passive heat recovery ventilation, passive solar gain and use of thermal mass.  A biomass boiler provides top-up heating if required and supplements the supply of hot water provided by 2 evacuated-tube solar thermal collectors.

A passive heat recovery ventilation system provides whole house ventilation with 70% heat recovery and rainwater recovery systems provide water for toilet flushing and irrigation.

Source; EcoBuild

While any structure built in a way that lessens its footprint is welcomed, some of the buildings that people try to turn green simply make no sense. LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), in all its greatness, does not take the building’s intended purpose into account; this leaves us with some hilarious, unabashedly self-contradicting buildings. Here are the ten of the most laughable green buildings.

1. BP’s Helios House Gas Station - Los Angeles, Cal.

Yes, there is an LEED-certified gas station. It’s actually a nice building, complete with rainwater collection, solar panels, recycled building materials, and LED lighting. However, don’t think you’ll be able to refuel with biodiesel or charge up your electric car—they’re only in the petroleum-dealing business. How green of them, right?

2. Justin Timberlake’s Golf Course/Lodge - Woodstock, Tenn.

So Justin Timberlake decided that he wants to buy a golf course and fix it up with an LEED-certified lodge. While it’s an improvement compared to most other golf courses, the fact remains that maintaining a golf course takes chemicals and lots of water. In the United States alone, golf courses total more than 1.7 million acres and consume around 4 billion gallons of water every day. How does a green lodge counteract the water used to maintain the course? Justin, if you really want to be green, you should have turned it into a wildlife sanctuary instead.

3. Nestle Pure Life Water Bottling Plant - Boiling Springs, Tenn.

While this isn’t the only LEED-certified water bottling plant, it’s listed for having the most greenwashed name. Ozarka, Arrowhead, Ice Mountain, and Deer Park water bottling plants also have LEED certifications of some sort, but they couldn’t compete with Pure Life in the name department. If anyone needs a reminder of why bottling water is a bad idea, here are five reasons to ditch the bottle. Oh, and Nestle as a whole won’t be getting an award for their treatment of the planet and its people any time soon.

4. Logan Airport Terminal A - Boston, Mass.

Activists in England have put their freedom on the line protesting against a third runway at the enormous Heathrow Airport; do you think they’d be more satisfied with the runway if the airport terminal was LEED certified, with solar panels and the whole bit? You’d be right to assume they wouldn’t, because whether they take off from a green building or not, airplanes are still one of the top causes of global warming.

5. Toyota Car Dealership - Rockwall, Tex.

While Toyota is almost synonymous with green when it comes to cars, in reality they’re not much better than any other car company. They have a full line of vehicles, including four-wheel-drive SUV’s, some of which are 8-cylinder. In fact, their entire fleet’s average gas mileage is worse than Chevrolet’s. Perhaps they should clean up their cars before trying to green their dealerships?

6. Antilia Tower - Mumbai, India

While this probably will not be LEED certified, it has been often mentioned as being one of the greenest building concepts on the planet. While it does look beautiful and will act as a giant carbon sink in the middle of the city, there’s a major problem: it will be the home of one family. No matter how green this building is, that is a complete waste of space in a city known for its overcrowding.

7. Civic Center Parking Garage - Santa Monica, Cal.

The only green parking garage I want to see would be located at a train or bus station for people to drop off their cars to finish their commute on mass transit. To quote every politician involved in the 2008 campaign, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.”

8. Vacation Home Development - Las Vegas, Nev.

You only need one house, people! Granted that seven of these eight homes are 1/12 shares, these homes are being built in a desert (Las Vegas) and if anyone needs a water-capture system, it’s people who live there year-around. Simply due to their excess, vacation homes may be the least environmentally-friendly structures on earth.

9. Spaceport America -  New Mexico

Another case of the rich attempting to make the rest of us think they’re doing the world a favor. Recreational space travel, at least with the current technology, is a huge and unnecessary carbon polluter. But hey, the spaceport will be LEED certified, so everything’s going to be fine, right?

10. Every Fancy New Building - Dubai, United Arab Emirates

I know, I know — I cheated on this one. I couldn’t pick just one since they’re all ridiculous for the same reason. The government is intent on making Dubai one of the biggest, most gaudy places on earth. Perhaps to compensate for unending excess, they’ve mandated that all new buildings must have specific eco-minded properties, but when you take all of it in at once, you know it’s nothing but a giant waste of resources.

Source;  Green Building Elements

Image Credits: (All Flickr under CC License) Top from J. Phil on Flickr. 1. danperry.com on Flickr 2.BP 3. Macon County, TN 4. MileageNYC on Flickr 5. Dushaun on Flickr 6. Concept illustration 7. City of Santa Monica 8. Emre Ersahin 9. Spaceport America 10. utpal. on Flickr

No, New York or London are not underwater (yet, anyhow) – that’s a clever ad for HSBC by Ogilvy & Mather Mumbai ad agency in India. The bank wanted to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming, so the clever ad guys glued an aerial photo of a city’s skyscrapers to the base of a swimming pool … the effect of a submerged cityscape is fantastic!

Source: www.neatorama.com

Artists are lighting up London’s South Bank with 1200 wind-powered lights as part of a digital arts festival.

The Aeolian tower – which means moved by the wind – is a 15m steel structure located next to Waterloo Bridge. The tower is covered with hundreds of tiny wind-powered LEDs. Each one made of a plastic turbine, controlling circuits and three red LEDs.The designers aim to show how renewable energy can be used to power sustainable art and design. As wind blows over the tower, swirling patterns of light reveal the strength and direction of the breeze.

“We want to visualize the invisible, making people realize that there’s a lot of energy out there that we’re not using,” said Zena Bruges from Jason Bruges Studio, which designed the tower.

The designers chose the location next to Waterloo Bridge because of the complex wind patterns that come off the River Thames and the bridge, said Gabby Shawcross, one of the tower’s creators.The lights need a gentle wind of about 3mph (4.8kph) to reach full brightness.

A 2.5m square panel of lights is also on show inside the BFI delegate centre. Since the panel is indoors, the lights are powered with two industrial fans. These lights are connected to a laptop, which controls the lights so that they can display patterns and messages.

“The result of this could be a low-resolution, wind-powered billboard,” said Ms Bruges.

The team is working with architecture students from the University of Westminster to develop a wireless version of the technology that will allow the lights to be controlled remotely. These lights wouldn’t need power or data cables, so designers could apply them to any surface in any location, said Mr Shawcross.

The Aeolian Tower will be in place from 14 -16 November as part of the One Dot Zero – Adventure In Motion festival at the BFI Southbank in London. 

Source: BBC News

Yesterday Sainsbury’s joined the great supermarket battle for the environmental initiative by opening the UK’s greenest ever superstore. The new store in Dartmouth, Devon, is built entirely from timber (not steel), collects rainwater to flush the toilets and uses wind turbines to power it’s checkouts. Better still, Sainbury’s have begun powering delivery lorries with methane-gas produced from rotting rubbish.

Sainsbury’s have really pulled out the stops on this one. The company has planted 400 trees to replace the 200 needed in construction, and engaged in no less than 38 energy-saving tactics. These include burning wood-chips in the biomass boiler, installing LED lights and solar-powered fans. Even in construction, Sainsbury’sclaim 90% of waste was recycled.

This very much seems to be the blueprint store for all of the supermarket’s new stores. Sainsbury’s anticipate that this store will use over 50% less electricity from the grid and produce 40% less CO2 than their normal stores. Sainsbury’s also hope to use 60% less rainwater than the typical supermarket store.

(Via: Brand Republic)

If you’re really serious about going green, then generating your own electricity isn’t as difficult as you might think. Traditionally, energy was cheap and solar panel technology couldn’t meet the challenges. Worst, it was a massive capital expenditure which most typical families couldn’t afford.

But now it’s changing.

First, there is a wider range of technology available now which can generate electricity for homes. There are better wind turbines, solar thermal systems, hydroelectric power, biomass boilers and even ground source heat pumps. You can see how they all fit together with your home here.

Today, there are also banks and loan schemes which finance the capital needed against the money you can generate. Even better (and this is the most important thing), the government has announced schemes which will allow homes generating their own electricity to sell excess electricity back to the energy grid. Effectively, you could make a tidy profit and recoup your money quite quickly.

The most telling quote is in John-Paul Flintoff’s article for The Times about homes which generate their own electricity, it reads as follows:

Haward calculates that a 50kW hydro-turbine, which costs about £200,000 to install, would generate £34,000 of electricity a year. Such a potential income stream, he believes, should add £300,000-£400,000 to the value of any property. “That’s quite a big turbine,” he says, “but even at half the size, you’re going to be putting £200,000 onto the value of the property.”

That’s a nice sum and certainly a worthwhile investment. This isnt to say you should rush in, it is a big investment and a major commitment to make. Not all homes can use it, and those living in rented properties or in shared properties (flats, apartments etc) will struggle to make this happen.

However, if costs or concerns about it’s efficiency were your primary reason for not living ‘off the grid’, it’s time to think again. It could be the best way to increase the value of your property.

This remarkable story is reported by EarthFirst about Edith Macefield. Edith rued her house being engulfed by local industry and refused to leave. In desperation local developers offered increasingly large sums of money for Edith to move out. The Seattle Times article states Edith was offered nearly $1m to move, she turned it down.

Edith, 86, passed away a fortnight ago, in the same house and on the same couch where her mother had died. As the Seattle Times reports:

The tiny house in the industrial flats once was part of a row of picket-fence-lined cottages along a working-class street. That was old Ballard. Today it sits walled in on three sides by what will be a five-story health club and a Trader Joe’s. New Ballard.

The only reason the new hasn’t completely obliterated the old — yet, anyway — is because of the principled lady who lived there. She stuck it out through years of garbage trucks rumbling by, a homeless car-camping colony out her front door, and now, for the past two years, the racket of construction mere feet from her windows.

“I don’t care about money,” Edith said. “What would I do with that kind of money anyway?

So what becomes of her house now? The article notes that joints and holes have been left in the construction around her assuming they will be added in once the house is demolished? Edith had no relatives, and in the last two years spent much of her time with the senior construction superintendent.

Cate Trotter reports on Inhabitat that the £7.2m Orchid House, of the Lower Mill Estate, has been purchased - possibly by a celebrity.

The eco-friendly house, designed by Sarah Featherstone, is part of the Lower Mill Estate project to rejuvenate a disused gravel pit into a range of environmentally friendly and fashionable homes. As noted in the comments, the computer generated designs do not feature a driveway or any route in to the house, prompting the suggestion that a bike path, canoe or another form of environmentally-friendly transport will be needed. Cate also provides extra details about the record-breaking property:

Possibly to subsidize the £3,000 per square foot cost of the property, the building aims to generate more energy than it consumes, making use of geothermal heating. The house can be adapted to any occasion, be it a family holiday or a large reception, due to its flexible living spaces. Inhabitants and visitors to the property can be entertained by the glass-sided badger set installed in the garden

So who has bought the house? So far the buyer has remained anonymous, though the post does speculate upon a possible celebrity buyer:

The buyer chose to remain anonymous, but rumor has it they work in the entertainment industry – and may well be a household name, going by the celebrities such as Brad Pittand Kylie Minogue who’ve expressed an interest so far. We may have to wait until 2011 to find out though – this is when the house will be completed and become home to the mystery buyer.

Some great images are available at Inhabitat.