Yvette Cooper MP
, Minister for Housing and Planning, visited Hockerton Housing Project today to find out more about the issues associated with achieving zero carbon housing.
During the whistle-stop 50 minute visit, Nick White (Director & Project resident) gave the Minister and an accompanying Guardian journalist a quick tour of his house and explained how they worked, what was successful and what lessons had been learnt over the last 9 years.
Summary of points made to Minister
What can be achieved?
- Ultra low energy homes (25% energy use compared to homes built to current building regulations) by primarily focusing on reducing space heating
- Ultra low energy homes need not cost any more to build – BUT need to remove complex spaced heating systems and use savings to invest in insulation & glazing
- Increase in thermal comfort
- Long term energy cost savings (approx. £1000/annum for HHP homes versus average UK home)
- Future proofing householders against rising energy/water costs
- Zero carbon homes …BUT currently at a cost due to expensive renewables.
Barriers
- Perceived premium costs for environmental building
- Attitudes towards keeping complex space heating
- Love affair with high technology & gizmos!
- Micro-Renewables currently expensive and too much emphasis on payback rather than return on investment.
Key Lessons
- Get the structure/basics right early on in design
- Energy conservation first, second & third…then generation
- Complex heating systems are very poor value for money compared to use of high levels of insulation as part of construction
- Technology invariably disappoints in terms of performance and durability
- Energy generation costs a premium
- Micro-wind very site sensitive and unlikely to perform in urban environments
- Design should limit on-costs & maintenance
- Keep it simple ….easier/cheaper and less wasteful.
Hockerton Housing Project has scooped an award in the National Energy Efficiency Awards run by UK CEED in partnership with EDF Energy . The event was also sponsored by defra and The Independent .
Nick White & Trudi Macagnino on behalf of HHP collected the top prize in the residential construction and renovation category this week (6 December) at the Science Museum in London.
Judges commented: “This is a commendable project that demonstrates how community leadership can achieve inspiring living spaces in absolute harmony with their surroundings”
“Hockerton Housing Project is an eco-community which grows much of its own food, generates its own power and enjoys massive energy savings. Over the past few years, the project has helped to spread the word that sustainable living is within everyone’s reach. To date, more than 10,000 people have visited to see it for themselves. The families have their own water collecting system and environmentally friendly sewage system – and their lifestyle produces other eco-benefits, such as the reduction in waste from food packaging.”
There was a special supplement about the awards & winners in ‘The Independent’ on 11th Dec 2006.
In November 2006 we ran a visit for extremely able sixth form students from all over the UK as part of a one week intense, inspirational course brought together by Villiers Park Educational Trust. The course title is ‘The World in Crisis’. The aim of the visit to the Hockerton Housing Project was to provide an experience that anchored the whole course to the students own lives and to bring home how their daily lives will have to change in order for us to work towards a sustainable future.
The visit incuded a tour of the project, and a debate on ‘The Government has a duty to force individuals to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.’ Each student was assigned a role within ‘for’ and ‘against’ teams; such as: a politician, Friends of the Earth representative, Climate change expert, Car industry representative, and a Representative of a human rights organisation.
After the visit specific feedback was collected from the students about the trip. During the general feedback session almost all of them said that the trip was one of the two highlights of the course.
HHP has had a flurry of interest from various written and broadcast media over recent months including:
- BBC One O’clock News & BBC News 24 (23rd June 2005) – Live broadcast linked to Governments launch of a consultation on micro-generation
- Carlton TV (16th Feb 2005) used HHP as part of a news item to coincide with initiation of the Kyoto Protocol
- Regeneration & Renewal magazine (27th May 2005) – “Innovations – A self-sufficient eco-housing scheme”
- BBC2-‘No Waste Like Home’ (autumn 2005) – HHP was used as an example of good eco practice
- Energy & Environment magazine (DEFRA) (July/August edition) – Article about HHP
- Self Build & Design Magazine (Due out in next edition) – Article about HHP and new ‘Master Class’ events
- Artist Blacksmith magazine – Article about HHP’s new recycled sculpture
- The Independent (1st June 2005) – Diary Of An Eco-Builder – ‘If you and your mates want to build a fully fledged eco-idyll, this is the way to do it‘ (Will Anderson). This article was written after Will visited HHP and another local eco-development. A short excerpt from the article: “Hockerton is a contemporary autonomous community… It didn’t cost much to build and it’s clearly a delight to live there. If you and your mates want to build a fully-fledged rural eco-idyll, start here.”
On Thursday 14th August, HHP featured in a Radio 4 programme, ‘Dream Homes’ as part of the series ‘Costing the Earth’. Costing the Earth tells stories which touch all our lives, looking at man’s effect on the environment. It questions accepted truths, challenges the people in charge and reports on progress towards improving the world we live in.
The details below are taken from the Radio 4 website programme summary.
In this week’s Costing the Earth Miriam O’Reilly meets the pioneers to hear their tales of stiff-upper lips in the face of adversity. She hears of the council planning departments who would much rather you went away and bought a Wimpey home. She uncovers the terrible truth about solar-powered showers- they’re fine if you don’t mind a cold shower for six months of the year- and there’s a visit to Hockerton where fish and children happily swim in the waters that flow out of their reed-bed sewage system.
