It's that time of year again. Yet another birthday has passed, just, so it's time to start thinking about Christmas. Not just a matter of where we'll be to celebrate it, but who do we invite to the not quite complete house, who (if anybody) do we go to see over the holiday and, most difficult of all, what presents do we buy?
The latter has been the greatest challenge over the past few years as we've become increasingly conscious of the ethics of what we buy along with their environmental impact. As I mentioned in my previous post, we are trying to avoid plastics wherever we can, but this can be more of a challenge when buying presents. For example, last year we were told our nephew would like a Ben 10 watch, but when we saw what a huge battery powered lump of plastic it was we decided against it. He still received one, not from us, and probably still enjoys playing with it, but we weren't keen on buying it. We opted for some classic books instead, sustainable and hopefully more mentally stimulating.
Other Christmas gifts are easier to find eco/ethical alternatives for, with Lush and Body shop great places to get the obligatory smellies, and bamboo socks from BAM http://www.bambooclothing.co.uk/ were well received last year from various members of the family.
This year we're looking for a few extra things for the house, and it's good to see more and more new sustainable products arriving. Along with the various eco gadgets and products sold on sites such as Ethical Shopper it's good to see the high street stores getting in on the act. For example we recently saw this chopping board http://www.johnlewis.com/12453/Product.aspx , a hygienic and sustainble alternative to the usual polycarb boards, this is made from 'Richlite', a paper based fibre board from the US which is also used to make worktops.
What would be really good to do would be make homemade presents, such as chocolates or sweets packaged in nice glass jars, homebrew, or even something crafted from one of our many bits of wood! But with all the work we're still doing on the house this is something that'll have to wait till next year. Maybe.....
Friday, 27 November 2009
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Not so fantastic plastic
My childhood coincided with the discovery of North Sea oil and the plastics revolution that it spawned. I can still recall a primary school project where we looked at the 'fantastic' products this newly found oil could be used to manufacture in the bright new world of the 1970s.
Fortunately such things didn't surround us then, and we grew up with wooden furniture, linoleum and parquet floors and carpets made from wool and other natural fibres. Not to mention draughty houses and plenty of playing outside in the fresh air! As a result my childhood didn't see me being exposed to lots of plastics and the phthalates they contain, with their 'gender bending' potential - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8361863.stm
It's very different today with an amazing array of plastics in products you wouldn't think were synthetic. Only last week we bought a couple of coir door mats, a natural product made from coconut shells. The carpet shop offered to sell us another mat that was easier to clean. When we asked if it was natural or manmade the answer was a resounding 'natural'. So we looked at the label only to find that they were made from polypropylene, a chemical derived from oil. So not only it is an unsustainable material (unless recycled from waste polypropylene), but it has also been found to leak biocides (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypropylene) causing health concerns. Slightly worrying if you consider how many rugs and carpets, and even clothes, are made from this material.
Hence our constant drive to limit the amount of plastic items we buy and use, with the bulk of the materials we've selected for the house being natural, e.g. limestone and oak flooring with any rugs made from wool. This has proven to be a real hassle at times, not only as this can result in us having to pay a premium for such things, but they are often more difficult to find. However, it's worth the extra effort to live in a home environment free from the toxins and chemical residues from many synthetic products.
Think it's about time I went to chop some logs....
Fortunately such things didn't surround us then, and we grew up with wooden furniture, linoleum and parquet floors and carpets made from wool and other natural fibres. Not to mention draughty houses and plenty of playing outside in the fresh air! As a result my childhood didn't see me being exposed to lots of plastics and the phthalates they contain, with their 'gender bending' potential - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8361863.stm
It's very different today with an amazing array of plastics in products you wouldn't think were synthetic. Only last week we bought a couple of coir door mats, a natural product made from coconut shells. The carpet shop offered to sell us another mat that was easier to clean. When we asked if it was natural or manmade the answer was a resounding 'natural'. So we looked at the label only to find that they were made from polypropylene, a chemical derived from oil. So not only it is an unsustainable material (unless recycled from waste polypropylene), but it has also been found to leak biocides (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypropylene) causing health concerns. Slightly worrying if you consider how many rugs and carpets, and even clothes, are made from this material.
Hence our constant drive to limit the amount of plastic items we buy and use, with the bulk of the materials we've selected for the house being natural, e.g. limestone and oak flooring with any rugs made from wool. This has proven to be a real hassle at times, not only as this can result in us having to pay a premium for such things, but they are often more difficult to find. However, it's worth the extra effort to live in a home environment free from the toxins and chemical residues from many synthetic products.
Think it's about time I went to chop some logs....
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Ghosts in the machine?
With various new bits of technology in the house it's taking a while to get used to a few new noises, albeit quiet ones, that they have introduced. These include a range of hums, clicks and gurgles from the induction hob, fridge freezer, and the loft ventilator (but not in that order).
The most obvious ones, especially as we haven't managed to install any doors yet, are the hums from the underfloor heating (UFH) pumps along with the clicking on and off of the UFH control valves. As the set that is in the airing cupboard is only a few feet away from my head at night it can be particularly obvious, especially when it switches on at 3am, and this is what is puzzling me.
The UFH system is controlled by Polyplumb controllers which act much like a conventional boiler controller, except that they only control one UFH zone. So we've got one controlling the kitchen/diner, and two for the two upstairs zones. They come with a range of preset time settings to suit typical heating on/off times. As somebody who likes to optimise such things I've used the 'User' programme to create our own timeschedule for each zone. Needless to say none of the zones are set to provide heating at 3am, unless they drop below the 'setback' temperature of 11C. Hence being puzzled when I've been woken up by the sound of the UFH working when it shouldn't. What is more peculiar is that the controllers (it's not just one that does this) indicate the hand symbol when this happens, something that is supposed to indicate manual override. So who is it overriding the UFH at 3am and other times....or is it some sort of ghost or gremlin in the controllers? Our plumber can't see why it's happening, so looks like I'll have to do some more testing before talking to Polyplumb to see if they've come across this before.
The most obvious ones, especially as we haven't managed to install any doors yet, are the hums from the underfloor heating (UFH) pumps along with the clicking on and off of the UFH control valves. As the set that is in the airing cupboard is only a few feet away from my head at night it can be particularly obvious, especially when it switches on at 3am, and this is what is puzzling me.
The UFH system is controlled by Polyplumb controllers which act much like a conventional boiler controller, except that they only control one UFH zone. So we've got one controlling the kitchen/diner, and two for the two upstairs zones. They come with a range of preset time settings to suit typical heating on/off times. As somebody who likes to optimise such things I've used the 'User' programme to create our own timeschedule for each zone. Needless to say none of the zones are set to provide heating at 3am, unless they drop below the 'setback' temperature of 11C. Hence being puzzled when I've been woken up by the sound of the UFH working when it shouldn't. What is more peculiar is that the controllers (it's not just one that does this) indicate the hand symbol when this happens, something that is supposed to indicate manual override. So who is it overriding the UFH at 3am and other times....or is it some sort of ghost or gremlin in the controllers? Our plumber can't see why it's happening, so looks like I'll have to do some more testing before talking to Polyplumb to see if they've come across this before.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Pellet hiccup
I had the day off work on Friday to lay the last lot of limestone flooring, this time in the utility room. Coincidentally the Ecoflex boiler decided to have a slight hiccup that day.
As you may have read previously, we've had to make a slightly 'heath robinson' amendment to the flexible hose that feeds pellets from the auger to the boiler, to ensure that it is straight to prevent pellets from collecting partway down it and therefore causing the boiler to lock out on 'pellets missing'. This has been working fine for the last two months.
So I was slightly suprised when I was greeted by a flashing red light on the room 'stat on Friday morning. When I checked the boiler it was due to 'pellets missing' with a slug of pellets stuck in the flexible hose. A quick shake and they were free, but this was repeated several times during the morning while I was supposed to be sorting out the limestone. Eventually a rearrangement of the fixing of the hose, with it secured on a slightly greater slope this time, resulted in success and a constant flow of pellets.
As nothing had been altered in the first place I wonder why this happened. It may be that a build up of dust from the pellets had collected in the hose, making them flow less freely. Or maybe it was due to a batch of pellets with higher moisture content, again flowing less freely. Whatever it was I'll probably not find out why this strange anomaly occured. But it does reiterate the fact that biomass isn't as straightforward as more conventional gas or oil fired heating. This is further illustrated by the fact that I've just ordered our second tonne of pellets, but unlike oil or gas I need to arrange delivery on a day when I can be here to offload them. Great for my exercise regime but not all that convenient!
Dick Strawbridge is right, it's not easy!
As you may have read previously, we've had to make a slightly 'heath robinson' amendment to the flexible hose that feeds pellets from the auger to the boiler, to ensure that it is straight to prevent pellets from collecting partway down it and therefore causing the boiler to lock out on 'pellets missing'. This has been working fine for the last two months.
So I was slightly suprised when I was greeted by a flashing red light on the room 'stat on Friday morning. When I checked the boiler it was due to 'pellets missing' with a slug of pellets stuck in the flexible hose. A quick shake and they were free, but this was repeated several times during the morning while I was supposed to be sorting out the limestone. Eventually a rearrangement of the fixing of the hose, with it secured on a slightly greater slope this time, resulted in success and a constant flow of pellets.
As nothing had been altered in the first place I wonder why this happened. It may be that a build up of dust from the pellets had collected in the hose, making them flow less freely. Or maybe it was due to a batch of pellets with higher moisture content, again flowing less freely. Whatever it was I'll probably not find out why this strange anomaly occured. But it does reiterate the fact that biomass isn't as straightforward as more conventional gas or oil fired heating. This is further illustrated by the fact that I've just ordered our second tonne of pellets, but unlike oil or gas I need to arrange delivery on a day when I can be here to offload them. Great for my exercise regime but not all that convenient!
Dick Strawbridge is right, it's not easy!
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Thermal mass
A few friends have observed that our kitchen/diner looks like a small church hall, but it's not that kind of mass I'm writing about.
The last week or so has seen autumn finally arrive, with the pellet boiler being well used after a mild October. As a result the underfloor heating in the kitchen/diner has been in operation for it's first full week, and it shows. The floor comprises a concrete slab foundation, a layer of thermal insulation, the underfloor heating pipework, concrete screed and then limestone tiles as the finished floor. Hence the floor contains a lot of mass. The net result of this is that it has taken several days for the cold concrete and limestone to warm up once the heating system has started pumping warm water (At a temperature of 40 C) through it. However, once warm the mass of the floor retains this heat so that once the boiler stops firing it acts as a heat sink, slowly releasing heat into the house, much like a giant storage heater. So despite being a large open plan space, with plenty of glazing, the kitchen/diner is proving to be one of the warmest rooms.
The warm floor is also very comfortable to walk on. Human physiology is such that we are at our most comfortable with warm feet and a cooler head, yet in the UK and other cooler climates we've developed homes that are heated by hot panels mounted on the walls. Not only do these fail to warm our feet but they rely on high temperature hot water which is less efficient to produce. It's far more efficient to produce more warm water at a lower temperature and spread it over a larger area, such as the floor. This satisfies our need for warm feet, uses the concrete floors that so many homes have and keeps our walls free from the clutter of radiators.
Makes you wonder why we didn't think of this years ago...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocaust
The last week or so has seen autumn finally arrive, with the pellet boiler being well used after a mild October. As a result the underfloor heating in the kitchen/diner has been in operation for it's first full week, and it shows. The floor comprises a concrete slab foundation, a layer of thermal insulation, the underfloor heating pipework, concrete screed and then limestone tiles as the finished floor. Hence the floor contains a lot of mass. The net result of this is that it has taken several days for the cold concrete and limestone to warm up once the heating system has started pumping warm water (At a temperature of 40 C) through it. However, once warm the mass of the floor retains this heat so that once the boiler stops firing it acts as a heat sink, slowly releasing heat into the house, much like a giant storage heater. So despite being a large open plan space, with plenty of glazing, the kitchen/diner is proving to be one of the warmest rooms.
The warm floor is also very comfortable to walk on. Human physiology is such that we are at our most comfortable with warm feet and a cooler head, yet in the UK and other cooler climates we've developed homes that are heated by hot panels mounted on the walls. Not only do these fail to warm our feet but they rely on high temperature hot water which is less efficient to produce. It's far more efficient to produce more warm water at a lower temperature and spread it over a larger area, such as the floor. This satisfies our need for warm feet, uses the concrete floors that so many homes have and keeps our walls free from the clutter of radiators.
Makes you wonder why we didn't think of this years ago...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocaust
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Harvesting
The rainwater tank has been inplace for months now, and we've been using the 1500 litres of mains water that was put into it when it was first installed to flush the toilets. However, with the recent priority being getting back into the house, and therefore sorting out bathrooms and the kitchen, completion of the rainwater system has dropped off the critical list.
So last weekend I did a temporary lash-up of drainage pipework to connect the downpipes from the house guttering to the rainwater tank inlet filter. This is the WISY filter that is supposed to keep leaves etc out of the harvested water tank. After a dry week I've not had the opportunity to see if it has worked, but several heavy rain showers today have obliged and a quick check of the water level in the tank this evening indicates that we are now collecting rainwater, hurrah!
I need to sort out the pipework properly next weekend, but in the meantime it's good to know that we are flushing 'free' water down the WCs (cost of the tank etc excluded obviously) and not water that's good enough to drink. It'll be interesting to see how we get on with water quality, as the harvested rainwater system in our new office produces brown silty water when it's collecting rain, and crysal clear water when it's off the mains. Time will tell if we have the same issue to contend with.
So last weekend I did a temporary lash-up of drainage pipework to connect the downpipes from the house guttering to the rainwater tank inlet filter. This is the WISY filter that is supposed to keep leaves etc out of the harvested water tank. After a dry week I've not had the opportunity to see if it has worked, but several heavy rain showers today have obliged and a quick check of the water level in the tank this evening indicates that we are now collecting rainwater, hurrah!
I need to sort out the pipework properly next weekend, but in the meantime it's good to know that we are flushing 'free' water down the WCs (cost of the tank etc excluded obviously) and not water that's good enough to drink. It'll be interesting to see how we get on with water quality, as the harvested rainwater system in our new office produces brown silty water when it's collecting rain, and crysal clear water when it's off the mains. Time will tell if we have the same issue to contend with.
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