Expert advice on renovating a home to the highest standards
Save a fortune by avoiding expensive mistakes! Save energy, money and carbon with measures that repay their cost over time. Financing is available from the Green Deal, Renewable Heat Incentive and Feed-in Tariffs. Full details of the approaches to take, by topic, are below in downloadable individual chapters from David Thorpe's definitive book The Expert Guide to Sustainable Home Refurbishment.
Click on each small picture to see a sample page (poorer quality than the pdfs).
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"This is an excellent book - comprehensively researched, powerfully-presented and crystal clear. It should be the first stop for anyone seeking objective advice in a field cluttered with misleading claims. I couldn’t recommend it more strongly." - George Monbiot.
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Start here
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This introductory chapter explains basic concepts like insulation units, power and energy; the national and global context; the principles you should employ, like doing more with less to obtain real value; and outlines the standards that may be achieved.
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Quick Wins
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Everything you can do at little or no cost to block unwanted draughts and damp; basic stuff that will start saving you money straight away: seal types, doors & windows & frames, lofts, service entries, floors, shutters, curtains, cavity walls, chimneys, vents, air bricks & eaves.
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Insulation materials
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Technical information about the performance and characteristics of all common insulation materials. A discussion of criteria and evaluation of their characteristics, insulation value, composition, life cycle impacts, healthiness, value; pros & cons.
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Insulation strategies
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If you can't tackle the whole building at once, this is how to insulate the walls (internally or externally), roofs (flat, cold or warm attics), floors, etc. one by one. How ‘tight’ and ‘warm’ should it be? How to deal with damp & older, solid walled homes, and ensure ‘wind tightness’.
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Passivhaus Standard
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If it's a complete building makeover, then this ambitious target may cost 15% more, but after 10 years or so pay back a significant return on investment. Modelling heat flow through materials, construction details, obtaining airtightness & breathability, and scrutinising installation
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Windows & doors
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Features of high performance doors and windows, types of glazing and coatings for optimising capture of thw sun's light and heat (solar gain). Tips on fitting windows and doors, their thermal conductivity, PVC vs. timber, light tubes, shutters, blinds, controls and secondary glazing.
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Heating & ventilation
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Controlling the internal climate and air quality to minimise energy use for heating, cooling and health. Fans, heat recovery, passive cooling, Phase Change Materials, heat pumps for cooling and underfloor heating, solar power, biomass stoves, boilers & controls.
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Water & plumbing
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Efficient water use and heating: water meters, solar water heating system design, boilers, pipes (width & length matters), lagging, leaks, toilets, taps, showers & baths, washing machines, dishwashers, rainwater collection, greywater recycling, flood prevention, drainage.
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Electricity supply
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It's cheaper to reduce electricity use than generate your own, and this tells you how to do both: electricity explained; voltage optimisation, smart meters & homes, light-bulbs, energy use of gadgets & appliances, renewables, photovoltaics, micro-chp, renewable gas, feed-in-tariffs.
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Materials & garden
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Sourcng materials, their environmental life-cycle impacts & embodied energy, waste reduction and reuse/recycling, designing for deconstruction, timber, lime, finishes and paints, floor coverings, ironmongery, the surrounding environment, health, plants, gardens, green roofs and walls.
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Other useful books in the series
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