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Archive for the ‘chp’ Category

Communal Wind Turbines No Use for Zero Carbon Homes

Posted in chp, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, renewable energy, stamp duty exemption, sustainability on March 10, 2008| 6 Comments »

Communal wind turbines are currently of no use when trying to achieve Zero Carbon status for Stamp Duty Exemption. Here’s why… (more…)

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Greenpeace model town

Posted in biofuel, biomass, chp, climate change, energy, engineering, renewable energy, sustainability, utilities, tagged , , on February 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Greenpeace has created their version of a model town, stitching together examples from all over the UK. It’s a very cool combination of flash pages with lots of case studies, animations, and videos. Worth a wander.

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emissions from CHP: the standard method is wrong

Posted in chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, engineering, micro chp, renewable energy, sustainability, utilities, tagged , , , on February 4, 2008| 5 Comments »

[update March 20: I’ve looked further into how SAP treats CHP and written it up here. So while the method described below is being used elsewhere in the industry, the criticism doesn’t apply to SAP.] 

I’ve written on this topic before but maybe I didn’t succeed in making clear just how far off the mark the standard method is when estimating carbon emissions from CHP. Why does it matter? Here are some reasons:

  • Right now, big developers and the Housing Corp are assuming CHP can get them to level 4 under the Code for Sustainable Homes and this may not be true.
  • These emissions figures can determine whether or not a scheme gets planning permission or passes building regs.
  • The nascent micro-CHP industry (expected to be worth £2billion per year across Europe) is using this flawed method to back up its sustainability claims. Changing from a commonsense approach to the much more forgiving “standard” approach explains why the first Carbon Trust interim report on the micro-CHP field trails was so bleak and the second was so rosy.   

There’s a good chance that, if I’m right and the standard approach is flawed, when the CLG and BRE realise their mistake, the rules will change, leaving public and private sector developers and the micro-CHP industry with a very costly mess to clean up. (more…)

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without action, the plan for zero carbon homes by 2016 will fail

Posted in architecture, chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, engineering, micro chp, renewable energy, stamp duty exemption, sustainability, utilities, tagged , , on January 3, 2008| 5 Comments »

The requirement for all homes to be zero carbon by 2016 is going to fail unless we take action now. In particular, a set of interim requirements under the Code for Sustainable Homes must be imposed on private housebuilders. In addition, the Code must allow more flexibility in how zero carbon is achieved.

(more…)

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Carbon Trust micro CHP interim report finally out

Posted in chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, engineering, micro chp, stamp duty exemption, sustainability, utilities, tagged , , on November 27, 2007| 3 Comments »

Much later than planned, but here it is. In summary, micro-CHP saves 5% to 10% of carbon in large inefficient houses but only if you use a flawed methodology and give yourself extra-extra credit for displacing grid electricity. A few of the key findings:

  • The trial has demonstrated that the carbon and cost savings from Micro-CHP are generally better for buildings where they can operate for long and consistent heating periods.
  • In small commercial applications, the field trial has shown that Micro-CHP systems can provide typical carbon savings of 15% to 20% when installed as the lead boiler in appropriate environments.
  • The domestic Micro-CHP systems monitored in the trial have the potential to provide typical carbon savings of 5% to 10% for older, larger houses with high and consistent heat demands (over 20,000kWh/yr).

So since the last report, the Carbon Trust has toed the industry line that the 0.568 figure should be used.

There’s some very interesting output from the boiler field trials in the report as well. In particular, the boilers they’re monitoring are generally performing 4% to 5% below their SEDBUK rating.

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confused about policy changes? Phil’s crib sheet is the answer

Posted in architecture, biofuel, biomass, chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, engineering, london, micro chp, other stuff, renewable energy, stamp duty exemption, sustainability on November 22, 2007| 2 Comments »

Phil Clark and Fulcrum have put together a fantastic list of upcoming proposed policy changes relevant to construction. Though I couldn’t find the attached doc he talks about: Fulcrum’s housing chart – where is it? Phil’s promised to keep the list updated as more information is released.

That’s just saved me a pile of research this morning, Phil. Thanks.

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SAP and CHP – a dangerous muddle?

Posted in biomass, chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, engineering, london, micro chp, renewable energy, sustainability, utilities, tagged , , , on November 19, 2007| 6 Comments »

[Update March 20 – while it’s true that SAP gives misleadingly high emissions savings for CHP, I got the methodology wrong. See an updated post here. Points 3 and 4 below are still valid.] 

The SAP results for dwellings using CHP are badly skewed. This may cause large developers to formulate strategies for meeting the Code for Sustainable Homes which fall well short of the targets.

Doing some research this week, I read the Housing Corporation’s report on the estimated costs of meeting various levels of the Code for Sustainable Homes. It’s an interesting document, but at a certain point I was confused by their claim that you can meet the carbon reductions required by code level 4 (i.e. a 44% reduction in DER relative to TER) just by using gas CHP. In fact, when I looked closer I found that in some cases, they were claiming an emissions reduction of over 50% – an extremely high figure. Something closer to 10 and 15% is much more reasonable, unless you want to get Orchardesque.

The source of these wild claims is the Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure for dwellings – SAP 2005. As hinted at in the CHP debate running in the BSJ over the summer, SAP does some funny things when it comes to CHP. Have a closer look at the SAP worksheets and you find that SAP:

(more…)

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CHCP saves carbon? the question is moot.

Posted in chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, engineering, london, micro chp, sustainability, utilities, tagged , , , , on October 30, 2007| 5 Comments »

Over the summer there was a debate between some big names in engineering over whether combined heat, cooling, and power (CHCP) using absorption chillers actually saves carbon. The theory goes that because engine size is usually dictated by the base summer heat load, the additional heat load from the chillers allows you to upsize your engine and generate more low-carbon electricity throughout the year.

However on a current project, we’re looking at the feasibility of installing a district heating and cooling network, including installation costs. And one thing is clear: regardless of whether CHCP saves carbon, the capital cost of cooling is unaffordable.

(more…)

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estimating energy cost

Posted in biofuel, biomass, chp, climate change, energy, engineering, micro chp, renewable energy, sustainability on October 11, 2007| 3 Comments »

I’m doing financial comparisons of energy systems on one of our projects. It’s a pretty standard part of our work but this morning the precision of the figures appearing in my spreadsheet strikes me as particularly specious because it doesn’t tell the whole story. Sure, clients need a comparator and you can’t preface every report with a thesis on complexities of the energy market (not that I’m capable) but just the same these results are making me uneasy and here’s a short list of reasons why:

(more…)

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Stamp Duty Exemption scuppers zero carbon homes

Posted in architecture, biofuel, biomass, chp, climate change, Code for Sustainable Homes, energy, london, stamp duty exemption, sustainability on October 3, 2007| 4 Comments »

The Draft Statutory Instrument (DSI) for Stamp Duty Exemption for Zero Carbon Homes, announced at the last budget, will undermine the majority of attempts to deliver the greenest of housing. The DSI doesn’t appear to be available online, but the link is to a copy we acquired from the Treasury after badgering them.

The DSI is to be laid before Parliament at the end of next week for Committee approval by the end of the month. It is at best a misguided piece of well-meaning legislation that will do more harm than good, or at worst a genuine attempt by central Government to limit the loss of stamp duty receipts from too many zero carbon homes.

(more…)

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