Low Impact Building : Housing using Renewable Materials.
Title:
Low Impact Building : Housing using Renewable Materials.
Author:
Woolley, Tom.
ISBN:
9781118524190
Personal Author:
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (266 pages)
Contents:
Title page -- Copyright page -- Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Information and assistance was kindly provided by: -- Figure credits -- Introduction -- The Renewable House Programme -- The expansion of natural building -- The wider environmental agenda -- Chapter overview -- 1 Renewable and non-renewable materials -- Synthetic, manmade materials -- Limitations of synthetic materials -- Questioning claims about recycling -- Resource consumption problem with synthetic materials -- Renewable materials - insulation -- Carbon sequestration and embodied energy -- Performance and Durability of natural materials -- Natural renewable materials commercially available -- Low impact materials -- 2 Case Studies: twelve projects in the Renewable House Programme -- Abertridwr: Y Llaethdy South Wales:sheep's wool insulation -- Drumalla House, Carnlough, County Antrim: Hemcrete and sheep's woolrim -- Blackditch, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire: Hemcrete and hemp fibre insulation -- Callowlands, Watford: Hemcrete -- Domary Court, York: Hemcrete -- Inverness: CLT and fibre insulation -- Long Meadow, Denmark Lane, Diss: Hemcrete and Breathe hemp flax insulation -- LILAC, Leeds: Modcell strawbale -- Tomorrow's Garden City, Letchworth: wood fibre and Hemcrete -- Reed Street, South Shields: wood fibre and stone wool -- The Triangle, Swindon: Hemcrete and hemp insulation -- Pittenweem: no renewable insulation materials -- 3 The Renewable House Programme: a strange procurement! -- Monitoring and evaluation -- 4 Analysis of issues arising from the case studies -- Success in using natural renewable materials -- Adapting conventional timber frame construction for using natural materials -- The importance of getting details right and using detailsappropriate for eco materials -- Problems with designs and the need to get warrantyapprovals for changes of details.
Weather issues and hempcrete -- Decision of Lime Technology to go for prefabrication in future and whether this is the best option -- Using wood fibre products and issues related to construction and components -- 5 Attitudes to renewable materials, energy issues and the policy context -- Why attitudes and policies affect the use of renewable materials -- Climate change and energy efficiency targets -- What is carbon? -- Sustainable construction and energy policies -- UK Code for Sustainable Homes -- New planning policy framework -- The zero carbon myth -- The carbon spike concept -- Energy in use or 'operational energy' is all that matters to many -- How embodied energy is discounted -- Carbon footprinting -- Passive design approaches -- Do natural and renewable materials have lower embodied energy? -- Carbon sequestration in timber -- Wood transport issues -- Carbon sequestration in hemp and hempcrete -- The Green Deal -- Official promotion of synthetic insulations -- Other attitudes hostile to natural materials - the food crops argument -- Transport and localism -- Cost -- 6 Building physics, natural materials and policy issues -- Holistic design -- European standards, trade and professional organisations -- Building physics - lack of good research and education -- Lack of data and good research on sustainable buildings -- Energy simulation and calculation tools -- Assessment of material's environmental impact and performance -- Moisture and breathability and thermal mass -- Breathability -- Thermal mass and energy performance in buildings -- Building physics research into hempcrete -- Indoor air quality -- 7 Other solutions for low energy housing -- Hemp lime houses -- Hemp houses in Ireland -- Local sheep's wool in Scotland -- Strawbale houses in West Grove, Martin, North Kesteven, Lincolnshire -- Timber experiments -- Scottish Housing Expo.
Using local materials? -- Greenwash projects? -- So-called 'carbon neutral' developments -- Earth sheltered building -- BRE Innovation Park -- Masonry construction for low energy houses -- Blaming the occupants -- Back to the 60s and 70s - déjà vu -- 8 A future for renewable materials? -- Middlemen -- Postscript -- Glossary/Abbreviations -- Index -- Other Books Available from Wiley-Blackwell -- Advertisement.
Abstract:
This guide to the designs, technologies and materials that really make green buildings work will help architects, specifiers and clients make informed choices, based on reliable technical information. Low Impact Building: Housing using Renewable Materials is about changing the way we build houses to reduce their 'carbon' footprint and to minimise environmental damage. One of the ways this can be done is by reducing the energy and environmental impact of the materials and resources used to construct buildings by choosing alternative products and systems. In particular, we need to recognise the potential for using natural and renewable construction materials as a way to reduce both carbon emissions but also build in a more benign and healthy way. This book is an account of some attempts to introduce this into mainstream house construction and the problems and obstacles that need to be overcome to gain wider acceptance of genuinely environmental construction methods. The book explores the nature of renewable materials in depth: where do they come from, what are they made of and how do they get into the construction supply chain? The difference between artisan and self-build materials like earth and straw, and more highly processed and manufactured products such as wood fibre insulation boards is explored. The author then gives an account of the Renewable House Programme in the UK explaining how it came about and how it was funded and managed by Government agencies. He analyses 12 case studies of projects from the Programme, setting out the design and methods of construction, buildability, environmental assessment tools used in the design, performance in terms of energy, air tightness, carbon footprint and post-occupancy issues. The policy context of energy and sustainability in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world is subjected to a critical
examination to show how this affects the use of natural and renewable materials in the market for insulation and other construction materials. The debate over energy usage and embodied energy is discussed, as this is central to the reason why even many environmentally progressive people ignore the case for natural and renewable materials. The book offers a discussion of building physics and science, considering energy performance, moisture, durability, health and similar issues. A critical evaluation of assessment, accreditation and labelling of materials and green buildings is central to this as well as a review of some of the key research in the field.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
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