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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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October








30 September

It's Christmas???

As a second job(!) i also run with my wife a small shop , it is rather alien to me but I have started selling Christmas decorations. They a rather cool ones made from old CDs and DVDs, and some more made from old circuit boards. If I had my way I wouldn't have them out until December, but they aren't going to sell themselves. We noticed in July that people were buying Christmas presents already, I am not sure if this is due to the credit crunch or just what people do. I would forget where I had hidden the presents, I have done this in December and then discovered the item in the following summer.
The barn is nearing completeion though there is an ever increasing snagging list, I don't know how that works, but as fast as I finish the jobs more appear. It's all work though. I have had to have a few days away as I am now so far behind with all my other jobs and customers are starting to get peed off with me. Summer seems to be over so the wind turbine at the barn will have to earn it's keep by charging the batteries.

20 September

20 September

Oh what fun we having at the barn at the moment. The new owners have moved in and we still haven't finished, though not unusually it can't be fun for them trying to live and work with us lot banging about. We are also still trying to iron out a few teething problems with some of the technology, I hope that these will be sorted this week. The only benefit of still being there is it means that we are there to assist. Like for instance on wednesday when a lorry driver ripped the telephone line off the side of the barn, we managed to improvise a telegraph pole with a ladder and repair the cable with a couple of cable ties and some connectors, broadband is a bit slower but it works.
 
I have recently increased my carbon footprint by allowing my son to join a youth football team, for some reason for away games we drive past several games and seem to have to travel for a hour to get to a match. Nevermind, but it does seem a bit daft for a 40 minute game.

13 September

12 September

The new owners of the barn have had a rather hard start to their lives in the barn due to the builders using all the electric in the batteries. In the run up to the move there was so many workmen and kettles on site that the batteries took a real hammering, the system has a generator as back up in the event of poor weather but the outbuilding has yet to be completed. This meant that I was unable to recharge the batteries, so the new owners have had to survive on rather skimpy amounts of electric. But on friday I managed to get the generator connected and got some extra charge into the batteries, so we used washing machines, dishwashers and a little bit of ironing was done.
I don't have alot left to do at the barn but as most electricians will tell you we are always the last to finish as we have to wait until the builders are finished and we all now what a nightmare they are.
 
I hope to start planning a small scale (15kW) wind turbine system for one of my customers next week and hope to keep a blog of it's progress.
 
I had a couple of customers come into the shop to day asking about how they can convert their barn ecologically. Anyone for Ecobarn II.




31 August

A day off

I actually had a day away from the barn today, it has been a bit full on recently so it was nice to catch up with my wife and son. Me and the wife have spent a few hours ordering shop stock ready for Christmas and sorting out other things like food for us to eat. I am eating a rather nice vegetable samosas as I type this. Most of the jobs at the barn are now done, there are a few things on back order at the wholesalers which should hopefully turn up this week for me to install. The back up generator is due very soon so that will be another job done. It is very difficult for me to finish until all the other trades have got done, for instance I still have to fit the LED lighting in the kickboards because there are no kickboards yet. But I am sure I will get done in due course, if not I am used to working around people. One thing that I do want to see this week is the boiler runing, it looks a complicated bit of machinery and it will be interesting to see it work. Most of my time on site this week will be taken up commisioning the systems we have installed, I have yet to set up anything I have just got it working so I will be tweaking and fiddling alot and almost certainly swearing. I became an electrician because I always pulled things to bits as a kid 'because I wanted to know how it worked', so I am in my element with all this new stuff. And I am guessing that I will in the long term I will need to know the finer detail of the equipment at the barn.
 
I can't wait until 2012 as it is the proposed launch date for the Nissan EV a very advanced electric car, I kind of hope that they keep the Nissan Cube as the chasis as I like the shape. It does 85 mph and around 100 miles on a full charge which having looked at other electric cars at the recent Motor Show is quite good.

30 August

30 August

Carpets are down and a fridge freezer turned up yesterday. We have now also got the solar hot water running. It's going to take me a month to programme everything there are so many controls, sensors and bit of equipment in this house it's staggering.

28 August

28 August

The carpets are down the lights are on, it nears completion.
 
Sorry for the lack of updates but the long days are starting to take their toll.


20 August

Proper Builders

Just back from Legoland now there is some descent builders around there. Sorry to say that I got a bit competitive in the car building though it all ended with us winning one race each.
 
Back atthe barn it is all hands to the deck as we enter the finishing straight. Still loads to do but baths, toilets, lights everything is being fitted now.



26 July

Air conditioning

I spent a little while yesterday in a local motor bike showroom, an air conditioned one, so it should have been a relief after spending most of the day in a loft. But they had all the doors open, do people not know that this means the units are trying to cool outside as well, this is a huge waste of energy. I then popped into the local Co-op to buy an ice cream to find the air conditioning roaring away and once again the doors wide open. Air conditioning uses a large amount of electric and there seems little point in having these units running and trying to cool outside as well as the premises, so if you go into or work in a shop with air conditioning always shut the door.
 
EDF have just increased their electric prices meaning that it is even more important to implement those energy saving tips I keep going on about. It also means that if you buy a wind turbine or solar photovoltaics you are going to get your money back a hell of alot quicker!

25 July

25 July

Still not spending much time at the barn, just the odd day every so often. I am getting on with the second fix but am some what governed by other peoples progress.
 
So this week I have wired some stables, wired a kitchen and today I am going to start to rewire a bungalow. All very borring and very hot or at least crawling around in a loft will be, nevermind it pays the bills.
 
 
 

15 July

For eco packing


Any more interesting discovery, (or not so interesting) and I will let the world know.


05 July

5 July

This week I have been meeting people to discuss wood pellet boilers, having seen a few now and looked at the pellets I have to say that I think this is possibly the way to go. With wood you are not reliant on other nations for fuel (gas, oil) it has a little or no carbon footprint, the pellets supplied locally are pressed from sawdust and scrap wood from a local joinery factory. The sawdust would have been used in animal bedding  and then end up in landfill and the wood off-cuts would have been thrown away, and the best bit is that it is still alot cheaper than oil which is the normal fuel use to heat propeties such as this.
 
A green tip: make sure that your tyres are at the correct pressure.


28 June

28 June

Busy week on and off-site. Knowing that the job must soon be finished I am trying to get all my other jobs as far along so when needed I can spend more time at the barn.
 
We lowered the turbine on Thursday and gave it a service and made sure it was all in working order, we had to do it quickly as the wind started to pick up and we needed to raise it again  before it got too windy.


24 June

The credit crunch

The credit crunch is starting to bite businesses, I read with interest that Debenhams now have a 96 day payment policy for suppliers. This made me wonder, do you think they would mind if I went shopping in their stores then took 96 days to pay them? No, I would be arrested before I got to the pavement outside the shop. So how is it possible for them to get away with it, it has a knock on effect throughout business as their suppliers will struggle to pay their suppliers and so on and so on. This sort of thing has always gone on and almost certainly continue but it does n't help small businesses already struggling, I already know of one small company closing due to this type of practice.
 
On a happier note the sun is shining and we are getting lots of free electric, its lovely to go on site and see the kilowatts increase as the sunshines brighter. It does make me jealous as I live in a house that faces east to west and is over shadowed by a lovely oak tree renedering it useless for solar power. Nevermind, I will have the consilation of helping other people.

19 June

An article I wrote for the Grapevine.

Energy saving tips for the home

Did you know that 27% of all carbon emissions are from our homes?

Most of the energy that we use in the home is for either heating or lighting, so by reducing the amount wasted we can reduce CO2. Even if you are sceptical about global warming if you cut your emissions you will also be cutting your energy bills, so think  about it more as a money saving exercise.

The best way of reducing your energy bills is by making sure that your house is well insulated.  There is no point in me running on about efficient boilers if the energy that it produces is gushing out of the roof. Different types of insulation have different types of thermal resistance so I won’t quote any depths, but I will say the more insulation the better. About 12 inches of fibreglass would be a good start, if you can get more without compromising your lofts ventilation then all the better. Cavity walls need to be insulated as well, though this is a job for the professionals. There are also door and window strips that can be fitted to stop drafts and heat escaping.

In my experience older properties are a bigger challenge as they never have cavities and very often don’t have lofts, but there are still things that can be done, mostly with the help of a competent builder.

Insulating your loft could save you £110 a year, insulating your cavity walls could save £90. There are various grants available so check out the Energy Saving Trust website www.energysavingtrust.org.uk or call 0800 512 012.

The options available to reduce the energy used to light your house are compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) or light emitting diodes (LEDs).  CFLs are the most commonly used energy efficient light available and come in all the shapes that you may need.  In fact there are very few bulbs that cannot be replaced by CFLs. There are also many types of dimmable CFLs available now. Yes, I know they cost more to buy but they will save you money in their life time, plus manufacturers are this year starting to phase out the production of tungsten light bulbs.

LEDs are not yet up to replacing ordinary bulbs but they are good or effect lighting and can be used to change colour of rooms  features.

If you would like more information contact us at info@allthingsgreener.co.uk


14 June

14 June

There are so many  things that I could put in this blog that I simply can't for legal reasons and the electricians client confidentiallity agreement, I have always wondered why there is not an TV program called "Customers From Hell" every tradesman has at least one. They are the ones who call you on a Sunday or take weeks to pay you but expect you to turn up at their whim or their houses are a health hazard, some of the things I have seen would turn the strongest of stomaches (please note that this is not are reference to the Ecobarn but other jobs and previous experiences). Then there are the stories from site that stay on site. It's a laugh or most of the time it is, it is getting harder as the first industry to be hit by an economic downturn (recession) is always the building trade, then suddenly all the builders, electricians etc who were employed by companies suddenly become self employed and are desperate for work.  


 
The barn is making steady progress, and by the end of next week we should have an ideas about the boiler. The supply is in the shed ready for the borehole pump to be fitted so we can finally have water from a tap.


07 June

7 June

Thursday after 6 days the wind turbine began to turn again, the most reassuring thing was that though the weather has been poor in Norfolk the solar panels have generated enough electric for us to work with out the generator. I don't think that the new owners will be using a cement mixer and circular saw for 8 hours a day so I was glad that the system coped so well with the lack of wind. I have very nearly finished the first fix wiring now and hope to start the second fix soon as some of the rooms are now decorated.


 
My shop has sprung a leak and we currently have water leaking in through the roof, so I do hope that it stops raining soon as the carpet is getting wet, if the leak wasn't in the door way I would put a water butt under it.



31 May

31 May

I spent yesterday onsite trying to finish the first fix wiring, as it happened I didn't. I seemed to spend most of the day on the phone organizing, but it has to be done. There is paint on the walls and all the internal walls are up so I no longer have any exscuse not to finish the job.  I will have to pull my finger out in the next few weeks and get on.


21 May

21 May

I have had an interesting afternoon trying to teach year 2 pupils about solar power, thankfully it was sunny. I took several toys to show them and donated some solar education kits, they had great fun building them and finding out which way they worked best. They seemed most impressed with my pictures of NASA's solar plane and not the barn.
 
I am having some time away from the barn as there is little for me to do at the moment, I hope to be there next week to carry on with the first fix. I have not taken any pictures recently and know you will all be impresssed with the transformation over the last few weeks.
 
The lady from my local council at the green event last week was less than impresssed with the fact that I take recycling home from the shop, they are not collecting recycling from businesses, and business have to pay for such services on top of business taxes. I personally would rather have it recycled than going in to landfill so will continue to take it home until they sort themselves out. 


15 May

15 May

The barn is steadily turning into a home I will update my photos soon.
I put the solar thermal panel (not the tubes as it will not be filled for a while) on the roof yesterday. I have still to wire the utility and a bedroom, then the first fix is complete and I will have to wait for the plasterer. The long job of decorating starts on Monday when the painter starts, I would hate to have to do all that cutting in around all the beams.
 
I am off to Diss today to take part in a green exhibition, it's our first one and I am looking forward to meeting some new customers and other green businesses. I also plan to speak to my local council who claim to be environmentally aware but won't recycle business waste from my local fire station. I don't know if they are just awkward or want to charge businesses for removing recycling but lots of the local shop keepers take their cardboard home. They have started a high profile campaign to get shops to stop using carrier bags, big wow, all the supermarkets got their names in the paper then carried on using carrier bags, whilst all the little shops got in paper or material bags at big expense and gained no publicity, and South Norfolk are trying to put us out of business by charging for parking in town (it will soon cost more to park here than in Norwich), cheers South Norfolk Council you are definately working for the comunity.


09 May

9 May

What a week to have solar panels. The sun is shining the builders are all getting sun burnt and the solar panels are working a treat. 
I have been busily wiring the extension ready for plastering. I am so busy that I have got to work there tomorrow hence I am doing this on a Friday night. Things a gradually moving on we now know what and where the borehole pump and filtration plant are going, the underfloor heating is down in the old part of the barn and the feather edge is going on. We did think that the local farmer was going to plough the garden for us this week but I think he has been busy elsewhere, so the weeds are going from strength to strength.


03 May

3 May

Just opened up the shop and thought whilst its quite I would fill you in on my week. I have n't been at the barn to much this week as I have had to get on with a few other jobs, yesterday whilst working in someones loft I was shocked to find that they had no insulation in part of their loft, now come on people. Insulate, insulate, insulate. I cannot believe that I still crawl around in lofts with no insulation, though I have recently worked in a loft with 300mm of insulation and it was a tad tricky to find a joist to stand on, but with that much insulation if I had come through the ceiling at least it would have been a soft landing. 
I also finished the pipework for a solar thermal system that I installed on a roof recently, though this is a plumbers job it was a doddle using flexiable pipe, now I just need to wait for the plumber to complete the installation.
The barn will soon start to look better as the feather edge is being appplied, it will start to look much tidier. I have been carefully monitoring the systems to make sure everything is working as it should be, my biggest problem is making sure we use enough electric on-site even with the kettle in almost constant use this is proving difficult on sunny days, so I decided to turn off the solar electric yesterday and run the site on the wind turbine.
The shop is going well I think it helps that we are not diehard environmentalists (every little thing that you do DOES help) and that we are stocking a few of the fun things as well as the more serious stuff. I have to say it is great seeing the kids standing outside watching the solar toys all working in  the afternoon, though the solar powered cricket does get on my nerves after a while.
Just to prove that every little thing helps why don't you all walk to the local shops for a week, especially on a lovely sunny day like today.



26 April

25 April

Well it is all up and running. Today was a very interesting day as we set up all the charge controllers and monitoring devices and this meant we could see how much electric was being generated. Even a 7pm on an overcast evening the PV is generating. The happiest man on site is Gary who has been told he must use the kettle in order to discharge the batteries, we have to do this as we do not want them sitting fully charged, it will be different when someone is living in the barn but at the minute it's down to Gary & co to help by drinking coffee. You can't tell from the pictures but the panels are very thin and very light in weight they are fixed in to a frame (using anti theft devices so don't even think about trying to remove them), the frame holds them above the roof, all the wiring is hidden underneath the panels. The panels, controls and batteries have all been made to the specification of the barn and are farily complicated as we have two incoming supplies (the solar and the turbine) this all needs to be combined and utilized to charge the batteries and then converted to useable electric in the house.

24 April

24 April

Well its up and very nearly working, hopefully by 11am tomorrow we will have it all commissioned and operational.

23 April

23 April

Relatively quite day today as we were let down by a couple of deliveries so no PV yet but the sad techie stuff inside looks good, the battery installation is completed and the consumer unit is now connected to the inverter, though it is not live. Rather alot of disscussing of how things work and how I think they should work, all very helpful, and very interesting for me. We have got the very large armoured cable in ready to connect the wind turbine to the charge controller. Its a bit exciting. We are though all in the hands of delivery drivers so it might be a late one tomorrow. And I finally know how the bore hole and filtration systems will work and where they are going, the water is extrated ( the water is only 5m from the surface) and the iron and other stuff is then filtered through sand, simple.

22 April

22 April

I don't know if a grown man should be excited by solar photovoltaics but I am, once a technology geek always a geek.
As you can see the frame is being put on the roof ready for the panels to be inserted, lots of very complicated equipment specially made for this job has been fitted inside, the batteries are linked together ready to start supplying the barn with electric. I like the inverters and charge controllers they are designed for our barn and they look impressive bits of kit, I am beginning to think the wife is right and I should get out a bit more.
We have had a plumber on site today running in the pipework for the kitchens and bathrooms so that the floors can be laid and the oak flooring then laid on top, the oak flooring and windows are all being treated with organic linseed oil which gives them a lovely golden colour. 

21 April

21 April

Gary and I put the batteries in the battery store today all 1.5 tonnes, now I have back ache. Tomorrow should be the start of the micro-generation installation, I think I might be taking a few pain killers to get through the day. The underfloor heating installation has started as well so it's happening at once as usual, every day somebody new seems to appear to help or install something, apparently we will soon have a decorator on site as well.

19 April

18 April

Sorry for the lack of updates and pictures of late but I have been busy elsewhere. Next week though I hope to be able to update every day as we will be fitting the wind turbine and solar panels. So watch this space!!!!!


11 April

Water saving

This is a small article that has been included in the local parish magazine that might be of interest to regular readers.

It has been quite a dry winter so we can all look forward to a hose pipe ban in the summer, so why not help by conserving water and fitting water saving devices.  There are as with most things some easy ways to do this and some difficult ways.

One of the easiest ways is to fit a water butt, your roof is a very large catchment area and you would be surprised at how quick water butts will fill.  Once you have a water butt you can water your garden and wash your car without fear.  If you feel the need to save large amounts of water you can buy a very large butt or couple two or three smaller water butts together.  Alternatively, you could get a big hole dug in the garden and bury a very big tank with a pump and then you will never need worry about water shortages again. Though rainwater shouldn’t be drunk it can be used to flush toilets, wash cars, water the garden and wash clothes so think of the savings.

Other devices available that can help us save water are products like the ‘water hippo’ which can be placed in your toilet cistern so you save with every flush.  However, care needs to be taken when using devices like this in toilets as you do not to cause double flushing.

You can also get aerating taps and shower heads which mix air in with the water flow to save water. Of course some of these things are much easy to fit new rather than retrospectively so if you are considering a new bathroom or kitchen then it is worth looking into.  Other ideas include fitting a shower timer so you become more aware of how long you are taking in the shower, or share a bath (or the water at least!).   It is also a good idea when buying a new appliance such as a washing machine to consider the water usage as well as the electrical energy used. You can reuse household water to water the garden, though not advisable for edible crops.

Other water saving devices includes the Eco Kettle, the design of which helps you to save water and energy.So you don’t have to splash out too much cash to save water, just get a small water butt to start with and then you can always join another one to it when you can afford it.   

11 April

I have had a busy week on site and off, I have now wired the kitchen ready for it to be plastered next week and have run in the last few wires in the main barn. The only part not yet first fixed is the new extension, this will be done in the next couple of weeks.
 It's not long now until the micro-generation is installed so we are (Gary at least) getting the battery room ready, as we are not having a grid connection we will be storing the energy produced in 12 very large batteries.
 
Away from the barn I have been catching up with all the minor jobs that came in whilst I was away on holiday, everything from faulty pull switches to smoke alarms with flat batteries.



19 March

Turbine foundations

A busy day on-site today getting the turbine foundations finished. It was not a nice day to do it, it was very windy, with a bit icey rain, which just went to prove that this is a really good site to have a turbine. I am not on site for a couple of weeks but come April I will be dedicating alot of time to getting the barn finished so keep watching.

10 March

10th March

I spent a rather windy morning on site finishing the wiring for the master bedroom. Plastering has begun so we are in the final stages so as to speak. Tomorrow morning the guys are digging the foundations for the turbine. Hopefully the extension will continue as this is the engine room of the house, it will be where we store the batteries that will supply the electric and where the inverters will  be. On this roof will be all the solar panels for the electric and thermal. It seems to all be coming together rather quickly now. If the pictures are not up to my usual standard then I will blame it on the gales.
 
Eco tip of the day - very topical, fit draft strips to all your doors and windows.


07 March

7th March

Spring is in the air. Time to start thinking about the summer. I am going camping in the summer, probably North Norfolk.
 
We start to plaster the Ecobarn next week. Perhaps we should have lime rendered it but as with everything we have had to compromise this is to large a project to lime render. We should also be digging the foundations for the wind turbine and I should be continuing with the first fix electrics.
 
 


02 March

February

Things are starting to take shape at the barn with the interior first fix progressing and the extension rapidily going up. The new build is the most important part as it will contain all the controls etc that will run the house. The newspaper column continues and we have now put these on our website if you are interested www.allthingsgreener.co.uk and follow the link to my EDP columns that Ed and I do. I am really busy with other electrical projects at the minute so have been a bit lax with the Ecobarn updates, this will soon change and hopefully I will be on site alot more. This will mean more photos and info. 



04 February

4 February 2008

When it was suggested to me by Ed that it would be good publicity to write a newspaper column, I was sceptical that anyone would be that interested, when I found out it would be hidden in the property section of the EDP (circulation 200,000). I thought that at the very least it would be a chance to meet up with Ed in the pub every fortnight and have a bit of a laugh. But to my surprise people do actually appear to be reading it.
 
I apoloize for any spelling mistakes in my blog but I cannot get the spellcheck to wok. 


02 February

2 February 2008

I have not been to the Ecobarn this week, instead I have started rewiring a house in town. The house dates from 1550 ish so it's fairly old, it does have one feature that I have complained about many times before, bloody low doors. The lowest of which is a staggering 1.27 metres, that woulndn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that you actual have to step up to go through it and being a bloke I struggle to do two things at once. It is a lovely house and the people make me plenty of tea so I am sure that I will cope.
 
Yesterday saw the publication of the second newspaper column (I unfortunatley don't have a link yet) that Ed and I have done, much to our disgust we had to give up half our column space to an article about Phil Spencer. Never mind apparently there is no such thing as bad publicity, how ever small and well hidden in the property section it is.
 
 




26 January

Update.

The barn continues to progress, I spent yestereday on site making sure that I hadn't forgotten any wires before they start covering the walls. Next week the eco insulation turns up, we used Cellotex outside so we meet building regs without compromising the buildings integrity, but on the inside we are using Isonat which is recycled cotton and hemp. As I personally hate fibreglass and  I look forward to this sort of insulation being used more often. It's a shame that we couldn't have used it throughout but it would have meant adding so much to the size of the building or hiding some of the features, this way we can better building regs by possible 50-100% in places. 
 
The extension is now well under way this is where the plant and battery rooms will be so as soon as this is complete the solar panels can go on and the wind turbine can go up and we can start generating our own electric. The extension is being made with a mixture of reclaimed and locally grown oak and is being put together particularly well by Gary. I watched some of it being fitted yesterday and it was brilliant how all the joints fitted, if it was me I can guarantee you would need huge amounts of glue and filler.
 
 


18 January

I can play the saw.

Today was a interesting day at the barn as John taught me how to play the saw. I am not quite as accomplished as him but with a little bit of practice I hope I can soon play a tune like him.
 
This week I have started to first fix the main barn. I do like working in barns but my goodness they were built to last some of the oak beams are bloody hard and take some drilling. We are fairly happy with they way we have designed it, but we are constantly looking for new ideas. Today we had a meeting with a LED company they have developed some awesome lamps, they are rather expensive but in 30 years time it's all that will be fitted. 


14 January

I've started to wire the barn

Well I have finally stated to wire the barn. I am wiring it mainly so that in the event of bad weather the guys have something to do (plasterboarding) inside. I haven't got alot done today (sorry Ed) as it took a couple of hours to decide where things were going, and then I helped(!) unload some oak for the new extension. There is also alot of thinking about where to run wires as I prefer not to drill the oak to much, unlike modern houses there aren't to many voids to hide things in.
I was informed on Saturday that I have got another rewiring job in town, this one is a 500 year old house with some beautiful well preserved features. As I have said before I don't do new houses. Where's the challenge?


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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