After 12 years of being part of the Hockerton Housing Project, Nick White & Trudi Macagnino and their three girls; Rebecca, Francesca and Freya are preparing to leave.
A personal note from Nick White
In 1996 my family had the opportunity of joining the Hockerton Housing Project… Within months we had sold up, moved into a caravan, and started to build our own zero-heated, ultra low energy homes with four other families. Since moving in 1998, our earth-sheltered home has used less than £10 on space heating, whilst never going below 18degrees C. Overall we only use 10% of the energy we used in our previous cottage, and most of that we meet with wind and solar power….a huge testimony to the insight of designers!
I would like to acknowledge the wealth of knowledge and experience gained over the twelve years from being part of the HHP; living in the ultra low energy homes, installing renewable energy systems, being part of an eco-community and developing an eco business supporting others to achieve greater levels of sustainability.
The unusual nature of HHP means that your fellow Directors are first your neighbours and friends and second your business colleagues. So a huge gratitude goes to Simon, Helena, Pete, Nick, Sandy, Bill, Louise and Tina for their; support, tolerance, strength, drive and kindness as our young family has matured within the Hockerton fold.
I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity of joining the HHP and going on a very real and practical journey of creating the ultimate in low energy living. I hope that our experience shared with thousands of visitors and others that have read or seen HHP on the numerous broadcasts, has played a part in turning the tide towards greater awareness of mans environmental impact and brought about significant change to reduce this.
Looking back I have to pinch myself to realise how far we have come, turning stapled information packs to a publication available from Amazon, from tours of a muddy building site to full day technical workshops, from student dissertations to GCSE curriculum material. However the HHP people haven’t changed very much – Whether you are a politician, royal, businessman, architect, student, environmentalist or even Laurence Llewellyn Bowen or the many others that have walked through our homes – you have all been asked to take off your shoes and share the experiences or normal people trying to do things differently.
Over the last few years the sight of buzzards around Hockerton has become increasingly common, mirroring their wider success across the UK. We are also fortunate to have resident kestrels to keep in check the abundant vole population and occasionally a sparrowhawk races through the site.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been very pleased to also have regular sightings of a peregrine (and in one case a pair) dashing across the skies over Hockerton.
The most exciting sighting at Hockerton was an osprey last weekend. It travelled from one of the far ponds near our wind turbines, flew over the lake in front of the houses at quite a low level and did a flypast for the group visiting that day!
One of HHP’s objectives is to enhance wildlife by providing suitable habitats in association with our own human habitation. The siting of the osprey represents something very important about the Hockerton Housing Project…it’s biodiversity.
Do you want to cut your energy bills?- Would you like a more energy-efficient home?
- How can your home achieve a better Environmental Performance Certificate?
- Do you want a greener life at little extra cost of effort?
Saving energy in the home is a book written by Nick White in association with HHP. Nick has been a member of HHP since the start of the construction of the homes in 1996. He contributed to the self-build and has led the development and marketing of the Project’s on site ‘eco-business’ since 1998. Now with this book, Nick offers you straightforward and achievable strategies for reducing your energy bills and living a more environmentally aware life. With lots of useful tools to assess your energy and carbon use, Saving energy in the home gives practical advice on everything from heating homes to managing those teenage consumers.
The Hockerton Housing Project recently collaborated with the BBC Programme Blue Peter, for a special edition, ‘Green Peter’ .
On Tuesday 29th May , Blue Peter became Green Peter to look at the changes that are happening to the planet and the ways the Green Peter audience can help limit the effects of climate change.
“Green Peter won’t be a list of scare stories, the purpose will be to focus on what is being done, what can be done, what needs to be done to protect the world the Blue Peter audience will inherit.” (Richard Mason, Blue Peter Editor).
….This is where the Hockerton Housing Project comes in, as explained by Tim Fransham (Programme Director)….”Hockerton will play a pivotal role in the programme, showing our viewers a different way of living, through younger residents living in a carbon neutral environment. This will involve taking our presenter around their home and the hockerton site, giving us the low down on living in an different kind of home. Our hope is that the programme will inspire our viewers to take action against environmentally damaging activities and become more green”.
Francesca & Naomi (young residents of HHP) act as project guides showing Blue Peter presenter, Gethin Jones, many different aspects of Hockerton Housing Project; how they reduce their environmental impact, as well as how much fun it is to live here.
The programme is part animation, part archive, part child-led films, set in the year 3007 from a space ship overlooking earth.
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.
