"The Government launched its long-awaited consultation on proposed changes to the Building Regulations this week, setting out a number of proposals designed to boost energy efficiency.

The Government has has made great efforts to mitigate the cost impact on house builders of achieving Part L from next year by setting an improvement target of 8% in additional carbon savings compared to the 25% that the industry had been told to expect by the previous government. There is no plan to drop the obj...

I am a great fan of LED lighting as the preferred method of low energy lighting and have successfully incorporated replacement LED lighting in several residential projects over the last couple of years. I am pleased to say to the total satisfaction of the owners. Therefore, inspired by the clarity of an article I recently read, I wanted to share these reasons. This blog might look counterintuitive at first glance, but having read it I may have convinced you that compact fluorescent light bulb...

1. The optimum orientation is ‘due south' (not ‘magnetic south') as this will maximise the sunshine and/or daylight.2. The optimum pitch of the PV Module is 30 degrees. At this angle, the PV Module will 'self clean' as much as possible.

3. A PV Module fitted at less than 10 degrees pitch will need regular manual cleaning.

4. An array of PV Modules can be a very effective source of electricity production, depending on the size and number in the array. This could provide a consistent sour...