Energy Ratings for Houses

In the UK, houses have to have an energy rating certificate if they are being rented out or sold.
Our house doesn't have one, as we bought it before the current rules were introduced.

However, we can estimate our house's energy rating by using the certificate of the house next door, and then making adjustments for the differences.

The house next door has a rating of just 55 (right at the bottom of Band "D" on the Government's A-G rating system).
Their certificate recommends a condensing boiler (we had one a few years ago!), with more modern heating controls (we have that too!), and suggests that those improvements would be worth 7 and 3 rating points respectively,
Then we have double-glazed windows, and they don't. So that is another 3 or 4 points.
Low-energy lighting throughout gives us another rating point,

So we get about 55 (next door's rating) + 7 (condensing boiler) + 3 (modern heating controls) + 3 or 4 (double glazing) + 1 (low-energy lighting), giving us an estimated energy rating of 69 or 70 points, which takes us to the bottom of Band "C" - a whole rating band above our neighbour!

our condensing boiler

our modern, digital, wireless, thermostat.
our heating is optimised for the hamster!

One of our LED table lamp bulbs

Are there any other neighbours we can check "our" assumed rating against?

Yes - another house in our street, which is being rented out, also has a certificate.
Remember, all the houses in our street were built at about the same time by the same property developer, and although the vary in layout and size a bit, they are all built to a similar standard using similar construction tecniques and materials.

So, this second house has a rating of 60 - still Band "D", but better than the first house we looked at!
The values for improvements have changed a bit, too (the energy report for the second house was issued four years later than that for the first house).
So here we go.
60 (for the second house) + 5 (condensing boiler) + 2 (modern heating controls) + 2 (low-energy lighting), giving us an estimated energy rating of 69 points, which takes us to the bottom of Band "C" - so we scrape into a rating band above that neighbour too!

How efficient is your house?In the next 10 years or so, I expect to have solar panels on the roof, too, and that'll be worth a further 15 (first report) or 13 (second report) rating points, and would lift us into Band "B"!
Interestly, the inspector for both energy reports was the same man (!), so I suspect that the guidelines about the rating points have been altered a bit in the four years between the two reports.

A Few Ideas to Make the World a Better (Greener) Place - Part 2 - Condensing Boilers

We have a modern condensing boiler.

Our boiler hangs on the wall in our kitchen.

It is a Worcester-Bosch Greenstar 30si model, with a rated efficency of 90.1%.
Our previous boiler (a late '80s Glow-worm model) had an efficiency of just 68%.
As things these days have an energy rating, our current boiler is rated as an "A" (the best), while our pevious boiler was rated as a "G" (the worst).
So, what does it mean?

Well, moving from an effiency of 68% to 90% means the boiler will use about one-third LESS FUEL, while still providing the SAME HEAT OUTPUT.

How is such an improvement possible?
Is the technology that much different?

Yes, it is.
A condensing boiler uses waste heat from the combustion to pre-heat the incoming water.
The heat-exchanger inside the boiler also has to be made of a more expensive corrosion-resistant material, due to the mildly corrosive nature of the condensed waste liquid inside the boiler, which is then drained off.
Read more about it here.

Of course, since the boiler is modern, it is also available with modern heating controls - so we got a wireless remote thermostat.
It is great, because you can put it where you want, and if you want to be sure that one part of the house has a particular temperature, then just put the thermostat there!
(in the picture, we are regulating the temperature of our house to keep our hamster warm! Of course, we also have TRV valves on our radiators)

The boiler has a snazzy little remore thermostat.
Here we are using it to keep our hamster warm enough.

So there you have it.
The same amount of heat, but from a third less gas.
That's good for my wallet, and, if not entirely good, is at least less bad for the planet!
Every little helps!

What direction should transport policy take in YOUR town/city?

I am now a "moderator" on the "Car-Free Cities" community.

Why not share your views with my survey on "What one change would make folks cycle more and drive less?"

We all love cycling.

But what about taking it one stage further, and thinking about whether we should change the "Car-first" situation that exists in our towns and cities.

Does your town have a "pedestrianised" area?
How could it be made better?
Dou you use buses or trains much?

Do you prefer coffee shops to drive-thrus?

Why not share your ideas and experiences with me and a wider audience?

Go on and give us a try!

Update 23 Nov 2014
Another survey: What should YOUR local government concentrate on FIRST?
Are more cycle paths the best priority in your area?
Or would you prefer more trains, or better bus services, or something else?
Let us know over on Car-Free Cities

Phased out - how should signal-controlled pedestrian crossing be phased?

I first came across all-pedestrian phase lights in Edinburgh, Scotland.
There is a phase on the traffic lights (signals) where ALL vehicles lights are at "stop", and ALL pedestrian lights are at "go".
This allows folks on foot to cross as they wish during this phase.
I have subsequently come across the same phasing in Newquay, Cornwall, England.

I believe it was introduced after the success of similar schemes in Japan.

So, it is universally accepted as an improvement?

Apparently not.
In the "land of the car" (the USA), there seems to be moves to change some of the crossings back to "regular" phases.

Wikipedia also has a long piece on this issue here

How does your town/city rate for non-car infrastructure?

Map from "OpenStreetMap", but the annotations are mine.
Blue = schools for under 11s ("primary"), Red = supermarkets, Black = train stations,
Green = bus stations, Purplr Line = Bourg Walk bridge

For those of you that want to know what it is like living in a compact town ... (there is a scale, bottom left). To put it in context, the urban area of Aylesbury shown on the map above has a population of in the region of 75000. (new housing is still going up, so the census number from 2011 is like to be on the low side!)
This is where I live - Aylesbury. I live near the big "x" on the north-east side of town.
The blue dots are schools for the under 11s (three are "special schools" for those who, due to learning disabilities etc. need lots of extra support - and tbh, I think one of the three I have marked is for the older kids - so that's two for the younger kids).
The red squares are the supermarkets - EVERY major British supermarket chain is represented in Aylesbury. There are, of course, local, smaller, food stores on top of that.

Gotta be copyright of Chiltern railways, but I'm sure they won't mind me sharing their route map.
the map is about 7 years old, and there is now a second railway station in Aylesbury that is not shown.
It is Aylebury Vale Parkway, which is just a bit further up the spur that leads to Aylesbury.

The two black marks are the two railway stations - both connect to London (Marylebone), which is VERY close to Baker Street and the Madam Tussaurds waxworks venue. There is an alternative route that connects (via a change) to Birminham, and thus, to the rest of the country's rail network.

Map copyright Arriva, showing the Places one can get to with
an "All Zones" pass.

The green square near one of the railway stations is the Bus Station.
The purple line near the Bus Station is the "Bourg Walk", the $12.8 million walking and cycling bridge that was built a few years ago as the centrepiece of the town's cycle program.

Can I go to a recycling centre on foot or on a bike?

As a lot of you know, I live in Aylesbury, a designated "cycle town".
Things are slowly getting sorted out to make more and more things possible by bike.

But what about recycling?
A rider can obviously cycle to the bottle banks that are pretty common in the corner of supermarket carparks, and we have a fortnightly "mixed" recycling collection from our houses in the "blue bin".

But what about the bigger stuff, or the odd stuff?

There is a recycling centre on the edge of town (the Rabans Lane site), and another just out of town, on the other side (the Aston Clinton site).

Can I go there on a bicycle to do my recycling?
First place to look is the council website, as they own the sites.
And, indeed, there is much helpful advice available there.

But there is nothing on bikes!

So today I went to the Raban's Lane recycling centre and asked the staff.
Apparently folks arriving on foot need a (free) permit from Bucks County Council - indeed this is hinted at, but not explicitly spelled out on the pdf download the council have on their website.
According to the recycling centre staff a few folks DO already visit on foot, and DO have the (free) permits.

But what of bikes?

The helpful staff said that a cyclist, with or without a trailer, would be treated like a pedestrian, and would need a (free) permit,
The good news is that cyclist are actually allowed at all, as I have heard some distressing reports from other parts of the country that only motor vehicles are allowed into their local recycling centres, with apparently no exceptions or exemptions.