Archive for May, 2006
More woe for Part L - now solar water heating is hit
The disastrous implementation of Part L continues with solar panels the latest technology to fall foul:
Johnston (Managing Director of Chester based company Solartwin) says ODPM red tape makes it impossible for 82% of Britain’s solar water heating panels to be installed legally, unless they are installed in a place where they will not [...]
Lessons to be learnt from BedZed
BedZed, Bill Dunster’s pioneering zero-carbon development has been beset by a number of well publicised problems in delivering the vision. For the full details see the piece in the Guardian. The most interesting point to me is that the development has been a success ’socially’ - always one of the hardest aspects of sustainability to [...]
Review - A sustainability checklist for developments (BR 436)
A debate I often have with folk is what constitutes sustainability in construction? Carbon and M&E is only one part of it.
The framework given in the BRE publication BR 436 ‘A sustainability checklist for developments’ gives a fantastic starting point for educating clients as to what sustainability can encompass. It takes the 4 themes [...]
Agents the barriers to green office buildings?
Building Design reports that at the BCO (British Council for Offices) conference in Dublin 2 weeks ago (I was unfortunately unable to attend), agents were concluded to be the main stumbling block in designing green office blocks:
Developers, though, are not the biggest barriers to the spread of sustainable design. If occupiers will pay more for [...]
ODPM to be know now as DCLG
Are you keeping up? Yes, yet another name change. ODPM (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) is now DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government). Website address is now www.communities.gov.uk
Ruth Kelly is running the show (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Minister for Women), with Yvette Cooper in charge of Housing and [...]
Part L2 update
The pieces of the jigsaw are ever so slowly beginning to drop into place.
A new release of SBEM released on 11 May appears to work OK as long as your building is a nice square box with either mech vent or nat vent (no mixed mode or curves, please).
IES version 5.5 is now out and [...]
Catching up on that huge pile of books
I have to confess my biggest vice (and surprisingly, it isn’t a good Rioja, although that comes in a close second). It’s buying books. I can’t seem to help myself. And the more I read, the worse it gets. I start one book and I find a link to yet another book I want to [...]
3D mayhem?
Found this article which is worth reading in full. I have been an advocate for 3D design since I can remember. Perhaps it’s because I’m (almost) young enough to be of the playstation generation, but to design in 3D just seems logical to me.
I was quite surprised by the statistic that Arup have only used [...]
Enticing girls (and boys) into engineering…
I almost fell off the sofa last week when I saw this ad on TV. According to the Construction Skills website:
‘The new advertising campaign ‘Make Your Mark’ features iconic buildings, which come to life in a specially animated style, evoking the sense of dreams becoming reality. For the first time this year we will [...]
The world as you have never seen it before
I love funky graphics and they don’t come better than the ones on Worldmapper (go to the site itself to see full size):
Refined Petroleum Exports
Refined Petroleum Imports
Gas and Coal Exports
Gas and Coal Imports
The maps presented on this website are cartograms, otherwise known as density-equalising maps. The maps of the world you are used to seeing [...]
