Tim Pullen's sustainable building books

[Fred]

Hi,

Some years ago I went to a show about building your own house. I wasn't in a position to build my own but went out of curiosity. A chap called Tim Pullen was there talking about sustainable building. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds - it's not all about windmills ;)

Some of the things he was talking about were insulating with celotex ground source heat pumps and under floor heating, etc. which don't seem that daft.

At the time he was pushing his book, "Simply Sustainable Homes" but I never got round to buying it. Looking at Amazon it was published in

2008, so I think that a lot of it could be out of date now.

Amazon shows another book called "The Sustainable Building Bible" that he wrote in 2011. Has anyone read either of these? Is the 2011 book a reworking of the first, is it the second edition under a different name, or is it very different? I suppose what I am asking is has anyone read both and is it work reading both or just the latest one? There are no reviews for the second title on Amazon.

TIA

[Nightjar]

If you go into Waterstones, you can look at the book for yourself. It would be polite to buy it from them, rather than going home and ordering it from Amazon - Waterstones do online sales if you prefer that to carrying the book home yourself.

You might also like to look at The Green Building Bible Volumes 1 and 2 (Fourth Edition) ISBN 978-1-898130-05-5 & 978-1-898130-06-2. The third edition was a runner up for a RIBA award in 2007. Reviews suggest that volume 2 is more useful than volume 1.

Colin Bignell

[harry]

Quite a few such houses have been built/converted. I have such a house.

[RJH]

Do you know of a book that looks systematically at costs/benefits, both in terms of building/retrofitting costs and pounds saving, and the wider costs and benefits? Things like solar panel manufacture and pollution, labour exploitation, local economy effects, global warming/cooling (I lose track!).

Thanks, Rob

[harry]

Including 4Kwp PV panels, I spent £19,000 on my place (converting standard house to solar passive house) Doing nearly all work myself. The annual financial benefit is about £3500.

However the FIT prices have changed as has the price of solar panels.

I think a new passive house need cost no more than a standard house because there would be no gas supply or central heating to pay for.

I don't believe you will find any book that can give you the total picture. The situation is politicised, evolving and there are lots of nutcases out there. Some writing books.

My assumption is that energy costs will go up. Lots. I anticipate getting my money back in five years. I am half way there and see no reason to think I'm wrong.

[RJH]

Couldn't agree more. The picture seems to be especially confused in my field - social housing. The nature and scale of housing development usually follows the money, with very little thinking about whether it's actually wanted.

Which is of course fine - for you. I'd like a more systematic way of evaluating the consequences of this understandable way of thinking. I'd loosely hypothesise that it's actually making things worse overall. I wrote to Green Books and they don't know of such a work.

Rob

[Theo Markettos]

The Housebuilder's Bible by Mark Brinkley has a lot of the hard numbers (on everything - walls, plumbing, roof as well as energy stuff) for cost/benefit, primarily aimed at new build. Doesn't cover the environmental side as much as the economics.

Old editions on Amazon are cheap, though maybe with fewer current fads.

Theo

[harry]

The problem is too complex/too many varibles to come up with numbers. But the time to act is now while you can still afford to. If you have any money, the government will steal it by QE and now they're thinking about negative interest rates.

[Nightjar]

On 27/02/2013 06:43, harry wrote: ....

Negative interest rates only for banks, in order to encourage them to lend money.

Colin Bignell

[Nick Odell]

Everything the government/BoE has done so far[1] has, in the long run, had a negative effect on consumer savings and I have no reason to think this will be any different.

Nick [1]With the exception of the Deposit Guarantee Scheme - and even there, it was Europe that demanded the amount guaranteed was raised to its current level.

[Nightjar]

It probably isn't very good news for savers in the short term. It may well result in higher bank charges and lower interest rates for savers. However, if it manages to stimulate the economy by increasing lending to business, it could be a good thing in the long term. Unfortunately, it is virtually unknown territory and there is no certainty that it will have the desired effect.

Colin Bignell

[Fred]

Thanks, I'll look into the title you suggested.