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This blog is being written by Simon Marjoram our eco-barn project manager. He’s currently working on our Wash Lane conversion in Norfolk, where the BBC are also busy filming for their Current Affairs series, Inside Out. Simon’s a pioneer of eco living and is passionate about helping forge a green future for the building industry. The views in this blog are his own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Barnmasters. However, we are sure you will find them informative and at times fun as well as keeping you up to date on the barn’s progress!

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05 January

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody
 
It's nice to see that after 60 years of using fluorescent lighting (or to give it the name I was taught at college low pressure mercury vapour lighting) that the government has suddenly read the label and realised that there is mercury in low pressure mercury lamps (CFLs and the long tubes). Any electrician worth his pay should know that any fluorescent lamp should be disposed of correctly, whether they are or not is a different matter. So why have the Government suddenly come out with a scare story just as tungsten is being phased out? Conspiracy!!!!! More likely their rubbish WEE Directive is rubbish because every company rather than take responsibilty  for things pay the fee to the Government and opt out. If you are worried about the mercury, don't be it is minimal and when the bulbs expire take them to the shop you bought them from (quote WEE Directive) or get on to your local council and ask where they can be desposed of properly.
 
Megaman lamps are market leaders in developing lamps with very little mercury in them they have less than 3mg in the bulbs and they are silicone coated to help prevent breakages. It is one of the reasons I would recommend them.
 
There will be pictures of the barn this week as I have a site visit planned for Wednesday.

19 December

Soon be Christmas

Good day to you all. Sorry for the lack of ecobarn pictures but I have not been on site for ages and do not want to make a special trip over there just to take pictures. As I have no Ecobarn news I thought that you might be interested in what has sold the best in my new shop:
  1. The Greenglass wine glasses.
  2. Ecover refills.
  3. The eco kettle.
  4. The Ellie Poo planters.
  5. Megaman lights bulbs.

The Greenglass wine glasses and tumblers have been a real hit unfortunately even Greenglass seem to have been taken by surprise so we have n't been able to restock. Never mind though.

Keep it green.



12 December

12 December 2007

I have finally got broadband in the shop so I can sit and write this in between customers. I forgot my camera again but I will put a picture on the blog. I also hope to go to the barn soon to update the photos. I think that it has been busy on site recently and the windows should be going in very soon. We are now at that stage where there will be loads of changes and the barn starts to look like a building again rather than a horrible skeleton. We are putting some fat on the bones.

06 December

Solar powered

For those of you thinking of opening a shop selling solar gadgets, check which way your window faces. My shop window faces north this means that my solar Christmas lights are charging but I have to run across the street to demonstrate the different toys. Never mind, people seem to like the idea of having an electrician in a shop selling lighting it means that they get good solid advice. I also let them take a sample bulbs out of my display to try at home, B&Q wouldn't let you do that now would they. 
 
As a tradesman you know when Christmas is coming as your phone never stops ringing, can somebody reading this tell me why you leave it until 4 weeks before Christmas to start projects that will take 6 weeks but expect everybody to finish it for you before Christmas. I have a shower and bathroom to wire next week where the customer has ripped out the old suite then realised he needs a qualified electrician to wire it all, his wife seems to hold me responsible because I can't complete it until next week. I am never ever rude to people but sometimes people even try my patience, I would like to say contary to what you might think builders, plumbers, electricians etc are not sitting at home waiting for you personally to call them. We all have lives away from work and we have other customers to help. So when your plumber says that it will be next weeek before he can get to you just think he might be trying to finish someone elses bathroom or trying to have a few days with his kids. So chill out and relax it get done when it gets done. 
 
I hope to soon get details of some dimmerable CFL bulbs I have found a company that manufactures them in candle shape bulbs etc. I will put a link on the blog.  

04 December



The 17th Edition of the wiring regulations.

If you are having any electrical work carried out next year then please have a little consideration for you electrcian. Next year we have got a new set of wiring regulations to learn, there are several changes and all these will have to be considered when carrying out or pricing work next year. The biggest difficulty at the minute is that until they are published nobody knows the exact detail. They are published on 1st January (so come into force then as well) but you can still use the older regulations until July. I would therefore make yourself aware of the new regulations if you plan on having any electrical or building work done next year. This obviously has an effect on the barn and is something I will have to consider, though we hope to be finished by July(!!!!!!!!). I will update the blog with some more wiring regulation detail as soon as I can.

01 December

1st December

It was the allthingsgreener shop opening yesterday. Everything went very well though I have to admit to being somewhat surprised by peoples interest in our shop. We have had enquiries about nearly everything that we are selling and lots of people have ask my advice about lighting which I found very refreshing. There will always be those who just refuse to change but we would all still live in caves and eat raw meat if someone hadn't been inspired and fancied taking a cart ride to his mates BBQ. I still say the best way to get people to cut CO2 emmissions is to advertise the savings and make that the selling point, by telling people you have got to do this and that you will only alienate those who refuse to change.
 
I am hoping that we get some nice weather soon so that my solar Christmas lights can get a good charge and I have the delight of Christmas shopping tomorrow.
 
An eco tip: Turn off lights when you leave the room. Sizewell C will be about 30 miles from my front door, I know it makes the sea around it nice and warm but thats not the point.

29 November

29 November

I have spent the day at the cottage with the low doors. I managed to last 3 hours before I smacked my head on the kitchen doorway. By the afternoon I was on the Neurofen not a good day. 
 
The shop opens officially in town tomorrow, I will be down there tomorrow morning at about 7ish to get our sign up above the door. We are still with out a lease though this is only a problem to our landlords solicitor, who seems to be trying to justify her self (and her fee) by bombarding us with letters. Our landlord is just happy to have a paying tenant in his premises. It all adds to the excitement of starting the new business.
 
An eco tip: It is something that we will be doing in our new shop (I have no shame) and the tip is to find a shop that does washing liquid, fabric softener, laundry liquid etc refils, check out the Ecover site. This way your bottle will get used loads of times before it gets squashed and shipped of to the other side of the world.

27 November

27 November 2007

Just back from taking the new pictures and the barn is starting to look fantastic. The next big thing will be when the feather edge gets put on, then the barn will really start to look grand once again. The roof looks so much better with no green tarpualin and now the ridge is on it even looks straight. The first Eco product gets used today and I have to admit to being slightly nervous as I supplied it from my new business, its Auro environmental wood stain. It looks good stuff and I used the paint and liked that, though I have to admit the best thing is the smell or lack of smell. It is made from natural oils and ingredients so the paints smell lovely and because it has no chemical binding or drying agents it lets houses breathe. You can see why barns are a popular choice to live in when you look at the detail in the beams and roof, in most houses this age the beams wood have been covered up by ceilings and plastered over. But because we have to strip the building back to its timber frame we can uncover some real quality craftmenship for all to see.
 
I will be have a unofficial opening of the shop tomorrow to see if I can work the till and get things ready for the official opening which will be when the Christmas lights get turned on this Friday.

22 November



Shop update.

The wife and I should be in our new eco shop setting up this weekend. The legal profession (not my solicitor who has been brilliant) have done their best to scupper my plans to have a good Christmas trade. Even I might struggle to sell solar powered Christmas lights at Easter. All I have left to order is some Eco kettles and a bigger range of compact fluorescent lamps, at present I have a limited stock and I know the lady down the road wants some candle shaped CFLs so I better get on to that tomorrow.

21 November

Progress report.

Things are moving on with the barn most of the roof is now back on. the insulation is on the walls (well above building regulations) which are also felted and battened ready for the feather edge finish. Some of the floor structure is fitted inside. The footings are now in for the extension. I am very proud to say that I the site electrician had a small hand in all these things. Yes, I have been on site for the last couple of weeks helping (???) out with  some of thes jobs. Because of this my arms have ached to much for me to even think about typing this blog. All the foundations have been mixed on site using the crushed concrete from the old farm buildings, I take my hat off to Harry who has mixed them all, mixing up with him was the hardest I have ever worked. Ed he deserves a bonus. I liked fitting the tiles on the roof because there is a lovely view and that was something completely different from my day job.
I am also in the process of setting up a small shop selling some of the things I have found whilst helping to plan the barn. I have also found some really cool gadgets that I hope might inspire a few more people to go solar.
 

29 October

29 Ocober

I am back from a short break with my family in the north. I spent a rather drab day watching Norwich City lose to Burnley (Norwich losing is all to common these days). I then spent three days in Yorkshire. I have to say that I was very pleased to see alot of solar powered street lights and signs beside the road. Yes it is sad that I was in a beautiful part of the country and I noticed that but there you go. I am currently starting a new business supplying some of the things I ramble on about. I will be internet based and I should have a small shop giving advice and selling many evironmental products. I will be trying to make Norfolk even greener than it already is. allthingsgreener
 
An eco tip. Shop locally. If you don't the world will soon be run by huge multinationals with no local interest. Use it or lose it.

22 October



22 October

The barn is coming along as you can see from the photos. It is strange standing in the lounge area now there is finally a roof on, it seems to have made the room bigger. The windows are being measured this week and the timber is on site ready for the floors (just in case it gets really wet again). I know things are getting on as the discussions are about such things as alarms and home entertainment systems. So it won't be long before I start throwing the wires around.

11 October

11 October

I have had the privilage of working on site this week. I have been getting the new site hut ready for our new generator (the generator will run on bio-diesel). Its starting to look more like a proper building site now, the rain has meant that the mud is now ankle deep.
 
An eco tip. Only use timber that is FSC certified and look for the FSC logo on other wood products and furniture.
 
 

09 October

The greener barn

Sorry for the name change but I have been asked to change the name for reasons I will keep to myself for now.



01 October - "1st October"
I will actually be working on site this week. We are finally taking delivery of our new site office/tearoom, the old wooden shed that we have been using is not ideal so having this will be a luxury. I have the task of connecting up all the services and making sure everything is in working order. So I will update the photos soon.

An eco tip. If you are giving wind turbines serious consideration then go to the DBRR site to find out the wind speed for where you live. Any speed above 5 m/s and you should be okay. It will mean you can work out your annually output and possible pay back time.



29 September - Rain stops play
Unfortunately work has slowed to a standstill at the eco barn due to the fact that we have had rather alot of weather this week. I went to have a look yesterday and it was miserable weather and due to the fact we have got the roof off there is no work in the dry to do, this meant everyone had to find alternative jobs elsewhere in the dry. I didn't hang around bieng an electrician I don't do rain and mud.

20 September - More Eco builds.
As if one ecological project isn't enough for one electrician I am about to start on another one. This one will prove that you can be ecological whatever the scale of your project. It is a two bedroom flat above some shops in town, it is a large flat but its a flat none the less. The lighting will be high spec energy efficient, there is solar thermal, and recycled newspaper insulation. It will be interesting to see how ecologcal we can go with this project. We once again have the problem that we are working with a listed building and this one is in a conservation area. I will try to keep you up to date with this and see what details my customer will allow me to disclose.

I continue to spend hours on the phone or online trying to sort various things. It was interesting to hear my customer today complaining about the lack of customer care he has recieved from some companies. At least it isn't just me. I get so fed up with people promising to do things and then letting you down. Some companies have kept us waiting four months for estimates, when I have chased them they then promise to get it done, they then fail to do it again. Some companies just will not respond at all to my questions and one company after three months has suddenly informed me they are to busy to help, why couldn't they have saved us all time by saying this at the begining. On a slightly different note I have been trying to make some wooden capping to hide wires in the old cottage I am rewiring. Plastic trunking looks awful in an old building, so I have borrowed a router and have set up a little carpentry workshop in my garage. I think it looks good, I am going see what it looks like fitted next week. If it looks good I might even take a picture of it.



12 September - Been busy.
I have been rather busy of late on other jobs. Unfortunatley working on the Eco Barn isn't a full time job at the moment (for me at least), this is because at this stage it is all about making the barn structurally sound. It won't be long before we have it water tight and I can get stuck in. I am spending a lot of time on the phone and in meetings sorting things out. This week I have met with JCC; a lighting manufactuer who will be helping us with the lights for the barn. Lighting a barn is very difficult, it is always best to get as much natural light into a house as possible and with barns you inevitably will not be allowed many windows. This makes chosing the right lighting plan all the more important, most of the big manufacturers will offer a design service so I would recommend utilising this service. As I have said before I work in alot of old buildings my latest challenge should have come with a health warning though. I have banged my head so many times on the low beams or ridiculously low door ways. I have on more than one occasion put myself on my backside and its begining to really hurt. Were people really that short? Anyway, its a beautiful timber framed clay lump building with some lovely original features such as an old oven and beautiful floors. It is proving a real challenge hiding wires and incorporating all the various regulations. Things are moving on with the Eco Barn and I will let you now of some big developments soon. I am off for a lay down now.



05 September - Building Regulation -Part L

The conservation of fuel and power, I think this is one of the most important building regulations, as do the government who have recently updated it. This regulation concerns the prevention of heat gain and loss, and the consumption of energy. It is very dificult to say how much insulation you should put in as each material has a different thermal value. All work will have to meet the new requirments, so check out the requirements for you insulation with builing control. Then put in even more. The part that concerns me most in my capacity is conservation of energy, this is in a nutshell the fitting of energy efficient lighting. Light fittings should only take lamps with a luminous effiency greater than 40 lumens per circuit watt, which means that you must use fittings that will only except compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or light emmiting diodes (LEDs) So ES or bayonet CFLs are not acceptable, though if you really can't find a light you like with CFLs try and compromise with building control. There are more and more light fittings coming on the market that only take CFLs, some can even be dimmed. I have got CFL downlighters in my kitchen and I love them, and the best bit is they use 20% of the electric halogens do. So if your electrician tells you he has got to fit CFLs in 30% of all the lights (hiding them in cupboards is not acceptable) in the new extension/ new house/ rewired house you can impress him and say " that must be Building Regulation Part L". You could of cause really impress him with your green credentials by insisting on 100% energy efficient lighting, it will pay in the long run.



31 August - Some of my favourite buildings.

After my recent moan about uninteresting buildings I spotted an advert for a building soon to be built in London called the Strata, I think it looks brilliant. This got me thinking about what makes a inspirational building, is it scale, design, location, what gives something that wow factor? I think it is different for every person. So I came up with a list of buildings I have visited that made me say wow, remeber these are buildings I have been in or to see, not buildings I have seen on television or in a book. I am one of those people who has to find out how things work and why they work, so for me there is no real alternative to having a look about.
The list could go on, but these are my ten favourite buildings that I have visited.



29 August - Building Regulation - Part P Did you know that your
electrician and your plumber are expected to know building regulations but your builder is not, this is something that I always find rather odd and frustrating. The amount of times I have to help out builders or point out the possible problems, they seem to rely on building control officers or architects( I have found some architect aren't much better) to tell them their requirements. Anyway onto my favourite Building Regulation, Part P. Heard of it, well you should have as it concerns all electrical work carried out in the home. I quote " reasonable provision shall be made in the design and installation of electrical installations in order to protect persons operating, maintaining or altering the installations from fire or injury". Basically nearly all electrical work carried out must be done by an electrician registered with one of the domestic installer schemes, such as the NICEIC. There are still a few jobs that the keen DIYer can do, if you are unsure then contact your local building control officer or better still find a good electrician (we are out there), it is the safest thing to do.



24 August

As you can see from the photos that I have taken today things are progressing, things are starting to be put back! Things are progressing off site as well, with us finally getting quotes from suppliers, and trust me when I say that having never had to do this sort of thing I have found this really tiresome. When you say you will call back, please call me back. Looking at the barn today made me want to start on the electrics, but it will still be several months before I finally get to actually do some physical work on the barn.

Some of you might be questioning the use of Kingspan insulation, it is something we struggled with ourselves. It isn't very ecologically sound due to the chemicals and energy used in its production, but it is a good insulator for the thickness. This means that we can maintain the characteristics of the building, and the bonus is we can meet Building Regulations and exceed them by adding more insulation. We will, where possible, use eco friendly insulation such as recycled newspaper or lambs wool.

You may also have noticed a rather large pile of crushed concrete in my pictures, this is from the old pig pens. This will be reused throughout the build and some is already forming part of the kitchen floor.



20 August - I have been on holiday
Sorry for no updates lately but I have been on holiday, I have been camping, no not at Heathrow, but in Sussex. I am rather anti-protesting I always find it rather negative, it would be better if the protestors did something positive, how about if they went through all the bins at Heathrow to sort out what can be recycled, or changing light bulbs. I fly and will continue to do so, I don't fly anywhere as much as I used too, but that is my personal decision and not one forced on me. I also feel some guilt in that my one flight a year is to visit family in Japan, it is rather a lagre CO2 contributor, and I haven't offset yet but I am looking into some of the schemes to see if they are really worth while, so watch this space. I do think that it would be better to spend billions on rail links in this country rather than expanding airports and road links, but the bottom line is that while using the railways are so expensive people will use other options, be they planes or their cars. It will take a strong politician to actual take action on climate change and to make unpopular decisions, I will state now that we will not meet any target that is set for reducing CO2, any target met will be a fudge and will have been done by offsetting which is just hiding the problem.

If we are serious about reducing CO2 produced from energy production then we need to follow the Germans, as they seem to have got renewable energy production sorted, it is their fasted growing industry. The government here seems to covering everyone in very sticky red tape, whilst protecting the big energy companies, there needs to be a rethink before we all pay the cost. We need to bring in tarrifs like they have in Germany, if we were to scrap the over complicated and awful grant system and replace it with a better buy back price for electric generated by microgeneration, this would mean the pay back time of equipment would be reduced and more people would invest and hopefully it would take off. It is a simple and proven solution but as with everything it will never get done, though I would love to be proven wrong. I hope to get some new photos on line this week as things are changing on site.



30 July - I need you to recycle glass
Next time you throw your glass into the recycling bin you might being adding your own touch to the eco barn, the reason is that we are hoping to use recycled glass worktops. They are made from 85% reccled glass and the rest is a resin which holds them together, I think that they are brilliant because no bit will be they same and you can choose what colours go into it, so it is very individual to your kitchen. Glass worktops seem to be replacing granite in he high end kitchens, my hope is that with green being the new black more people will think about products made from recycled materials. When you do fit that new bathroom what about recycled glass tiles, you can even get paving slabs made from recycled glass.

I know that these things can be costly and they are not to everyones tastes but its worth thinking about, after all it doesn't cost anything to look. If you are having any work done you could also try and sort out having any of the waste recycled, at the barn it has proved more cost effective to crush the old concrete than to buy crushed concrete, the farmer up the road has taken the old tin roofing to use again, and we are going to make composters out of any pallets we get.



25 July - I've been busy

I've been rather busy of late finishing jobs before the school holidays, as I am self employed I will be taking care of my little boy for the next 6 weeks. For this reason I wanted to catch up with all my jobs so that I won't have to much to do during the school holidays, and that way we can have a bit of fun whilst he is on holiday. It didn't start very well, as on Monday he had to sit in my pick-up for 2 hours while I had another site meeting at the barn. Things are moving along steadily now, most of the concrete and blocks from the old pig pens has been crushed and is being re-used on site. In the words of Bob the Builder 'reduce, re-use, recycle'. I have also been spending my time producing some eco tips for a web site run by Ed, so if you want any eco tips then you can see them at Barn Masters, I think I could have come up with more so perhaps I will post some more on this page and on his site soon. Looking at the Barn Masters website got me thinking of some of the buildings I have worked in, I have in the past worked in everything from Grade 1 listed buildings to mobile homes, but in the seven and a half years I have worked for myself I have only wired one new build house. All the work that I have carried out has either been extensions to existing buildings, or rewiring and renovating older properties.

I always used to like new builds as they were easy and there were no surprises, but as I get older I want the challenge and I now appreciate the buildings and the workmanship that went into and is going into them. It seems a shame that developers don't seem able to think outside of the boxes they build, you could take a house built by them in Manchester and it will be the exactly same as one built in Lowestoft. We have some of the leading architects in the world, but seem to build some of the most boring houses any where. It's about time some of the new energy technologies were built into all homes and not just an optional extra, more glass to make homes lighter, rain water harvesting a standard, super insulated homes, these are all things that are readily available at the moment. The technology and knowledge is out there so lets use it.



12 July - Customer service.
I pride myself as a small business on the service that I offer, I always turn up when I say I will and i always return phone calls, providing people leave me their number, its surprising how many people forget this after leaving a message. I am getting fed up with companies not replying to my emails or calling back, I think that a list should be started of the worst offenders. We have made a decision to not use companies like this as I am spend to much time chasing people who obviously do not want the business. Yesterday I met the man who will supply the barns rainwater harvesting system ( and sewage treatment plant ), he was a pleasure to meet he was 10 minutes early and nothing was to much trouble, plus he was also a Norwich City supporter. So whilst there are some poor businesses, there is also some very good ones, you just have to look for them and keep them secret.



13 June - The BBC come and do some filming.
Quote The BBC come and do some filming. Although we have been planning the barn for a couple of months today was the first day I realized what a task we have on our hands, and how I could look a fool. Today the BBC came and started to film a diary of the project, as I have been sorting out lots of the ecological things on the barn it will be me that looks a twit if it fails.

To design a house that is not connected to any public utilities is not to big a task, but this is a four bedroom luxury barn conversion, not a little cottage in the mountains of Wales. I am the electrician and was given the task of sorting out wind turbines, photovoltaic solar panels, solar hotwater systems and a zero carbon heating system simply because I am the only person on site who knows what a kilowatt hour is. It has been an interesting challenge and we hope to prove that it is possible to meet the challenge of global warming without giving up all the luxuries of moden life, and to show how we could all do somethingto help the enviroment in hich we live in.

For instance if we all had some form of micro generation built into our homes there would be no need to build any new nuclear power plants, we could all have solar panels, wind urbines or a combined heat and power boiler in our houses and contribute to the national grid. There are ways to produce energy for local communities this would cut down on the huge loses caused through the distribution and production of electricity.
















 

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