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the missing team member – comment from an ESCO

June 29, 2009 by Casey Cole

As Phil Clark pointed out in a comment on my last post, there’s a very good piece in Building on the disappearance of ESCOs. This is a subject near to my heart as I’m part of  Fontenergy, an independent ESCO.

Continue Reading »

Posted in ESCO, feed in tariff, private wire, utilities, zero carbon | Leave a Comment »

what is an ESCO?

June 11, 2009 by Casey Cole

Most people who work in the built environment agree that ESCO stands for Energy Services Company. But that seems to be the only thing about ESCOs that everyone agrees on – the term can mean vastly different things to different people.

So what is an ESCO?

The short answer is: there’s no one answer. Here’s a rough list of the services that an ESCO might offer. Keep in mind that a company might provide all, some, or only one of these services and still call themselves an ESCO:

ESCO-responsibilities

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Posted in chp, energy, engineering, ESCO, private wire, renewable energy, sustainability, zero carbon | 1 Comment »

help wanted (bypassing the middle man in practice)

June 2, 2009 by Casey Cole

I wrote a post in April about a new, more collaborative way of working. It turns out Mel Starrs had been thinking along similar lines. Then Jackie Sadek at Estates Gazette wondered if we should bypass the recruitment agents in the construction and sustainability sector, applying a collaborative model not just to working but also recruitment.

In that spirit, here’s an experiment. Nick and Julian at Brooks Devlin are looking to hire a new person. They’re a small practice doing great work – and as a small practice, hiring the right person is absolutely crucial.

Talking to Nick about this yesterday I suggested that advertising via web 2.0 might be interesting as the audience is self-selecting; I suspect you’re more likely to get motivated, interested, intelligent, autonomous people via blogs, twitter, etc. Anyway here’s the blurb Nick sent:

Brooks Devlin is a small and successful Environmental Design Consultancy based in West Dorset and is seeking a new team member to assist in delivering our increasing workload. We are looking for an experienced Code for Sustainable Homes assessor, preferably with other BREEAM and SAP accreditations.

Our core services include CSH assessments, renewable energy strategies, daylight modelling and SAP/ new build EPC’s. We have a wide client base with projects across the southwest, south and London regions. Our projects ranging from one-off low energy houses to 5,500 home master-plans, but also includes commercial, education and healthcare.

The position is based in Bridport, West Dorset. Remuneration will be commensurate with experience and capability. Interested parties should call 01308 428918/01308 428917 and speak to Nick Devlin or Julian Brooks. Alternatively email CVs to enquiries@brooksdevlin.com.

Link to it, tweet it, digg it, whatever you like, but if you think you have access to a network of people who might be interested, pass it along.

Brooks Devlin is a small but successful Environmental Design Consultancy based in West Dorset and is seeking a new team member to assist in delivering our increasing workload. We are looking for an experienced Code for Sustainable Homes assessor, preferably with other BREEAM and SAP accreditations.

Our core services include CSH assessments, renewable energy strategies, daylight modelling and SAP/ new build EPC’s. We have a wide client base with projects across the southwest, south and London regions. Our projects ranging from one-off low energy houses to 5,500 home master-plans, but also includes commercial, education and healthcare.

The position is based in Bridport, West Dorset. Remuneration will be commensurate with experience and capability. Interested parties should call 01308 428918/01308 428917 and speak to Nick Devlin or Julian Brooks. Alternatively email CVs to enquiries@brooksdevlin.com.

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links for 2009-05-29

May 30, 2009 by Casey Cole

  • Poyry – Potential and costs of district heating networks report
    Brilliant report. Pöyry finds that, where DHNs can achieve high penetration in built up urban areas, the carbon abatement costs of various district heating options are more cost effective than stand alone renewable technologies.

    But the report indicates that unless there is a shift in the present market or regulatory environment, the take up of DHNs in existing building stock is likely to be limited, particularly in the domestic sector.

  • Climate Change round up from Nabarro – CCS update
    Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of the Drax group,doubts whether CCS would contribute anything significant to Government targets for reducing carbon emissions by 34% by 2020. Ms Thompson pointed out that, should a modern coal-fired station be fitted with CCS today, it would need to generate 25% more electricity just to power the equipment to remove the increased carbon being emitted. Ms Thompson finished with a warning against planning for the future and neglecting the present.
  • Eco-ventilation health scare prompts regulation change
    A review of MVHR in use. The BRE’s report said: “There is no market for replacement filters, with several manufacturers reporting no filter sales at all. Even basic maintenance is not undertaken.”

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links for 2009-05-20

May 21, 2009 by Casey Cole

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2013 comes two years early

May 20, 2009 by Casey Cole

We’ve all seen the private development sector hit the skids over the past nine months. At the moment, the only residential projects that seem to be going ahead are those with a large RSL component (and so grant-funded by the HCA). This has a serious implication from a regs point of view because from spring 2011 all publicly funded housing will have to meet Code 4 (pdf). That effectively means that the residential development sector, such as it is, has to meet its regulatory targets two years early.

Here’s a map (ok, I know Code 6 won’t look quite like that once the consultation finished, but it will still be a hell of a drop):

Regs-emissions-over-time-RSL2

Bob Cervi, the editor at the CIBSE Journal, writes this month that on the road to zero carbon “it’s going to be a quick six years.”

It’s going to be an even quicker 5.

Posted in climate change, energy, engineering, renewable energy, sustainability, zero carbon | 5 Comments »

a simplified financial model for CHP (or any LZC generation)

May 14, 2009 by Casey Cole

We engineers are great at estimating energy and carbon emissions and dealing with concrete systems: pipes, wires, flues – that’s our bag. One of the things we do poorly (but for some reason are too willing to do) is financial modeling relating to low and zero carbon generation.

For the last couple of years I’ve been working alongside financial and commercial bods who actually do know what they’re on about and it’s been a real eye opener. They might not know how to size a duct but they can tell you where your business is making money – and where it isn’t.

On a recent project I was looking at small CHP engines (5 – 30kWe) on a sheltered housing scheme. As part of that work, I put together a simplified financial model (with guidance from the bods) to quickly test whether a given option was worth looking at in detail. It was hugely useful and threw up some surprising results – for example, none of the small engines I looked at could pay back its capital cost in its lifetime. Ouch.

So based on that work, here’s the model. I’m using micro-CHP as an example but it’s just as easy to use for renewables.

Continue Reading »

Posted in chp, energy, engineering, micro chp, renewable energy | 14 Comments »

new SAP

May 12, 2009 by Casey Cole

Ok, here we go! The draft version of the new SAP is out.

This is it – the document that could assist or sabotage the whole move to low carbon homes. Have they sorted out the major issues? I almost can’t bear to look.

[update 14/5: No, they haven’t. All the more reason to respond to the consultation.]

Let’s get stuck in.

Hat tip to Nick Devlin.

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nicholas stern’s blueprint for a safer planet

April 30, 2009 by Casey Cole

I just listened to Nicholas Stern’s lecture at LSE on the train on the way home. It’s extremely interesting – have a listen if you haven’t already. Ricardo at XCO2e has posted a text summary here.

A couple of things that rubbed the wrong way:

  1. I find it odd when scientists, agencies, economists, etc base predictions on future population on current rates of growth – assuming 9 billion by 2050. It’s like a strange form of tunnel vision.
  2. While he described the hydrocardon economy as self-destructive, declining output didn’t seem to figure largely in his thinking
  3. How does he imagine we’ll feed such a population without fossil fuel derived fertiliser?

Posted in climate change, sustainability | Leave a Comment »

construction crisis points to the future of green consultancy?

April 22, 2009 by Casey Cole

Recently faced with a consulting job that we couldn’t do in time at Fontenergy, I called Nick Devlin. Nick and I had done a lot of this particular type of work together at XCO2 and I knew he would do a great job.

Nick took on most of the burden. We collaborated online and by phone and within a week I delivered a superb report to the client. In fact it went so well that we’re now discussing formalising the arrangement and jointly developing some tools to allow us to carry out this type of work more efficiently, sharing the work and the profits.

So could small business networks be the future of low carbon consultancy?

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Posted in engineering, other stuff, sustainability | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

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