There is a unique opportunity to purchase one of the most energy efficient homes in the UK, nestled in the rural village of Hockerton, near the bustling country town of Southwell and next door to the Hockerton Housing Project a world-renowned sustainable development.
SOLD Eco home lake view Gables Drive Hockerton
This home offers a fantastic opportunity to live in a house fit for the future. Warm and comfortable living with built in resilience. The space is flexible and full of light with a very spacious conservatory to the south. The garden is landscaped, spacious and teaming with wildlife. The house sits close to other “eco” houses with a good social feel. The local pub is just a short walk away. Southwell just over the hill offers good shops, restaurants, schools and many other amenities within a thriving community. Full details available in the sale brochure here. The super insulated earth sheltered design works very well indeed at keeping bills to a minimum and the environmental impact low. It is a 2 or 3 bedroom home so suitable for singles to small families. It would be an ideal place to grow up in! So “How to buy an eco home in Nottinghamshire”,
Contact us now before it’s gone to arrange a viewing and put in your offer.
Sustainable construction – what is thermal mass? Lets have a look at what this means:
Lets start with what is Sustainable Construction?
Sustainability is the creation and maintenance of systems that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
There are three key interacting aspects to sustainability: economic, environmental and social. If one of these is lacking, people will find it difficult to meet their needs.
The challenge for self-builders or any new-build is keeping costs of the build under control, but it is important to not let short-term costs deter you from making long-term savings from lower energy and water costs.
The principles of high thermal mass and passive solar gain work in HHP homes to eliminate the need for artificial heating. It also underlines the priority we give to helping people develop and deliver low budget, low tech and buildable designs.
What is thermal mass?
‘Thermal mass‘ describes a material’s capacity to absorb, store and release heat. For example water and concrete have a high capacity to store heat and are referred to as ‘high thermal mass‘ materials.
Thermal mass acts as a thermal battery. During summer it absorbs heat during the day and releases it by night keeping the house comfortable. In winter the same thermal mass can store the heat from the sun and release it much later, helping the home stay warm.
Thermal mass is not a substitute for insulation. To be effective, thermal mass must be integrated with appropriate design techniques such as areas of glazing facing the appropriate directions, tight construction and insulation on the outside of the mass.
So how does this work?
Thermal mass reduces the need for any form of whole house heating in the Hockerton homes. The house construction of concrete creates thermal mass because it is insulated on the outside. The mass stores the energy from the sun, our bodies and incidental gains to keep the houses at a constant temperature throughout the year typically around 20 degrees. In the summer the houses feel cool and in the winter they feel warm.
More information on Thermal performance and the construction of HHP houses are available here and from the concrete centre.
How does HHP manage its autonomous water systems at this time of year? As spring arrives, we are planning ahead. We have been pumping rainwater up to our reservoir for the last few months. It is very nearly full at the moment which feels great. We could be going into a dry period so may need it to last quite a long time. We have over 150 days in the waterbody which means self-sufficient living does not feel risky. I am fairly sure it will rain again in the next 5 months!
How many rainwater harvesting systems do we have at HHP? We have three systems one using the reservoir which supplies the bulk of our water, a second one supplying our drinking water and a third more informal system catching water from a shed roof to help supplement watering the plants. Having diverse systems helps you become resilient.
Top Ten Tips for Rainwater Systems
The top ten ways I would suggest to improve a rainwater systems:
Maintain the collection area so things like gutters are clear and clean. This means you will not lose water when it rains and your filters will have less work to do.
Keep a record of when you change the filters so that you know when they are due to be done next time.
Keep an inventory of the stock of filters so you are aware when you need to buy more.
As mentioned above have more than one system so if one fails you have another water supply to hand.
Regularly check the level of the store so you know how much water you have and adjust your behaviour should the tank become near empty.
If you plan to have a drinking water system, consider using concrete tanks instead of plastic tanks for storage as these help reduce the acidity of the water, limit food for bacteria and improve the taste.
Improve the resilience of your rainwater system by having a large storage tank. The amount you can store enables you to continue to use water between rainfall events. If you believe climate change is going to increase the variability of rainfall, then I would suggest you err on the side of caution and have as large a tank as possible. This will enable you to keep going for as long as possible with your own supply.
If you want to collect rainwater on a budget, I suggest buying a device that you fit into a standard down pipe that collects the water without any leaves etc. The water collected can be diverted to something as simple as a dustbin or other watertight container. You will supply yourself with a surprising amount of water. There is a local supplier of off the shelf systems called Stormsaver if you want a whole house system.
If you want to treat a large amount of water that is not for drinking, I suggest a slow sand filter. The name suggests it does not supply enough water but in fact they can. It all depends on the area of the sand and the depth of water above it.
If you are using a slow sand filter to treat your water be attentive to th
The water from out store is treated through this slow sand filter.
e top 25 millimetres of sand. It is this where the Schmutsdeke lives that does most of the water treatment. When the flow rate reduces you will need to reduce the thickness of this layer but I would suggest only removing about 10 millimetres so there is sufficient left to continue treating the water to some extent when you refill the filter.
Our Rainwater Systems Products
If you want more information, we have chapter written on our water systems which has good clear information and advice. Get chapter 7 here. We also have one on our unique hot water systems chapter 4 and one on the value of autonomy, chapter 12, which you may find useful.
People come on tours to see our systems and we get some good revues.
Subject: Today’s tour!
Dear Debbie, Matthew and Simon,
Thank you so much for the tour today. As always, it was a great way for the students to see and connect many different aspects of the material covered throughout their Environmental Management MSc, and a nice eye-opener for our international students, who are predominantly from India/Pakistan/East and West Africa (some of whom haven’t left their accommodation since they arrived in the UK in January!). Thanks, too for the added XR discussion. Hopefully, there’ll be a few more additions to the XR academy, now!
In other news, we’ve a new MSc course starting in September, on Renewable Energy Management. So it might mean even more attendees next time around, but perhaps by then we may be back in person.
I did not imagine I would be writing to you about a small piece of irreplaceable Fenland habitat near York and the threat from property developers to destroy it. Understanding the value of our natural environment is key to a sustainable healthy future.
Globally our whole planet is under threat from Covid 19 and climate collapse. Could the former be a turning point to help solve the latter? A cool-headed assessment is required. Thankfully, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has just produced a report titled ‘The Global Climate 2015 to 2019’ to help us understand where we are. The New Scientist interviewed the author Petteri Taalas who had some very interesting things to say.
During the past 20 years we have seen the 19 warmest years on record.
We have observed concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of 415 parts per million (400 was once regarded as critical.)
During the past century sea level rise was typically 1 to 2 millimetres per year, during recent years we have seen the rise of between 4 and 5 millimetres per year.
20 years ago we had 20 million people exposed to heat waves on an annual basis, during the past 3 years we have exceeded 200 million a year. We have seen casualties from this in Europe at over 75,000 people in a single year.
With these sobering conditions in mind as we invest in the recovery from COVID-19 it is imperative that we tackle climate change as part of the recovery. This is perfect opportunity to start solving the problem.
The IPCC report found last year that emissions must fall by 7.6% every year this decade to meet the Paris agreements goal of checking warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
We cannot assume the climate catastrophe is solved by Covid -19. We must not head back to burning coal, oil and gas. If we allow the climate catastrophe to continue the health and economic impacts will be much higher than the ones that we are facing with this “short term” COVID-19 crisis. If you compare casualties from hunger the numbers are already much higher than the COVID-19 casualties.
What about the little scrap of fenland bog in Askham near York? Well I am pleased to say you made the right decision and stopped the development. I wholeheartedly congratulate you for this. Please focus your mind on solving the much bigger yet more important problem of the climate crisis with similar resolve. You would be very welcome to visit Hockerton Housing Project to see our attempt at a solution for low cost low impact eco housing with a holistic approach while still meeting very high environmental, social and financial standards.
If you have read to here congratulations. If you have read to here and you are not Robert Jenrick please consider sending this or a similar letter to your MP. If you are an MP please consider acting upon this information.
Othrwise…..
If you want to come to see Hockerton Housing Project for real book a place here for the 12th September.
May be of interest….a webinar run by The Concrete Centre provides an introduction to thermal mass and its energy/carbon saving benefits. It will cover: What is thermal mass? How is it used? How is it measured and how much do you need? General rules of thumb are provided throughout the talk, including the upfront carbon savings that can be achieved through avoided internal finishes and M&E plant. Book now
We
hope this finds you safe and well in these challenging times. We have been reviewing what the foreseeable
future may be like for us and have some exciting news to share.
Live Zoom tours:
You can book a LIVE zoom tour of the project by one of the founding members. Ideal for people interested in a more sustainable life and want to see how others have done it. We live in a sustainable community and can show you our response to the Climate Emergency. You can book by contacting us.
View of the five eco homes at Hockerton Housing Project
