Looking back through the archives I seem to have been remiss and never written properly on the topic of ASHP (air source heat pumps). A topic dear to my heart as it exemplifies the quandaries that we find ourselves in when it comes to a low carbon future – and all that entails including energy […]
Last month saw the issue of the report ‘Where there’s muck, there’s brass‘ (pdf, 34 pages) from the London Assembly. Waste to energy is a topic which remains on periphery of many building services engineers range of expertise – and yet we are expected to have opinions and knowledge of the technology. Would we be […]
Thanks to whoever alerted me to this great, short TED video. The goal is to harness wind power at 1,000 – 15,000m in the troposhere (much above where wind turbines currently operate). Which reminds me, I must dig out the flexifoil now the evenings are brighter… Saul Griffith: Inventing a super-kite to tap the energy […]
Firstly, let me recommend a new (to me) blog from the Construction Journal camp (who use Movable Type rather than WordPress, but I won’t hold that against them) – The Greenhouse by Paul Howard. We’ve had a conversation over the past couple of days about Chelker Reservoir and the wind turbines there. The long and […]
This has been sitting in my del.icio.us inbox since April 2006.  I can’t remember where I found the link originally.  PVSYST 4.21 is a PC software package for the study, sizing, simulation and data analysis of complete PV systems. It is suitable for grid-connected, stand-alone, pumping and DC-grid (public transport) systems, and offers an extensive meteorological […]
BRE have just issued ‘Micro-wind turbines in urban environments: an assessment’ (BRE Trust report FB17, ISBN 978-1-84806-021-0) and although I haven’t managed to get a copy myself the Guardian have and they dissect it here. The gist of things is that micro-turbines aren’t a great idea in urban areas on a domestic scale. Good to see […]
Since August 2006 this resource has been available and I failed to mention it until now. http://maps.restats.org.uk From the press release: The collection of renewable energy statistics – began in 1989 via a project carried out by ETSU (now FES – a part of AEA Technology Environment) on behalf of the UK Department of Trade […]
 I wrote this back in December last year and for the life of me I can’t remember what else I was going to add to it. It’s mostly all been said now, but the most interesting tidbit (which is why I’m publishing it now, woefully out of date) is the prediction from Arup – I […]
The CSE (Centre for Sustainable Energy) have quite a few new documents on wind power available at their website here. Delivering Community Benefits from Wind Energy Development: A Toolkit looks a useful tool (pdf, 46 pages).
Mark Brinkley has bought a domestic wind turbine. If you don’t know who Mark is, he is author of cult self-build manual ‘The Housebuilder’s Bible’. I couldn’t resist running the numbers Windsave quote on their website to see how long Mark will have to wait to see a return on his investment of £1498. I’ve […]