How do Brits like to be green, and what green behaviors do they still avoid?

That’s what a new survey by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is showing us by examining the environmental actions and preferences of 100,000 British people from 40,000 households.

The findings presented below are the first from a new annual household survey in Britain named Understanding Society. The environmental topics are one subset of the whole survey, which also examines the “working lives, relationships, health, finances, neighbourhoods, education, transport and more” of Brits.

What are the main findings thus far?

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In a Cliff’s Notes version of the myriad incentives, rebates, and tax incentives GREENandSAVE has created a Federal Tax Incentive Decoder and condensed the material to 11 bite sized pages. Best of all, this resource does not cost a dime and can be downloaded at: http://www.greenandsave.com/homecheckup/free_federal_tax_incentive_decoder

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The Drake Landing Solar Community collects solar energy in a heat storage fluid through an array of solar panels on the roof of each home and covering all of the garages at the back of each home. The heated fluid is transferred to a neighborhood energy center, and then into the ground beneath an insulated layer, where the heat is stored in the earth.

Combined together, the 52 home community is able to collect and store enough energy from the sun during the summer that the ground storage temperatures reach 80 degrees C (176 F). This heat is sufficiently insulated beneath the ground that it can be drawn from throughout the winter to provide heat and hot water.

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Using only water-filled beer bottles and connecting hoses, Ma’s mother now has hot water on demand, and so do more than 20 other families in the village whom Ma has helped build their own system.

He wants to build a public bathroom for the village using the same process, but he needs enough money to buy the beers. He probably has plenty of volunteers to empty them.

Image and source.

Off the Grid Homes combines beautiful images with technical information for sustainable homes.

The book by architect Lori Ryker is less of a manual for systems to be used in off the grid homes (though it does include good information about the systems and strategies that are used in sustainable off the grid living) and more of a showcase of state of the art homes at the intersection of appealing architecture and high sustainability.

For many, the phrase “off the grid home” brings associations of a rudimentary, hand-built, rustic cabin. It usually suggests a rough hewn character and images of anything other than refinement and elegance. But that image is far from the case in examples presented in this book.

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Solar thermal technology provides space heating and hot water and is a frequently forgotten member of the solar family. These highly effective systems are popular in many parts of the globe, from China to Greece to Zimbabwe. They displace the use of the existing hot water heater and heating equipment, typically saving either natural gas or electricity.Solar thermal is a more mature technology than solar photovoltaic systems that produce electricity. It has been used for centuries for water heating. In fact, even Leonardo Da Vinci owned one.

When considering the installation of such a system, it is important to consider the following items.

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Solar hot water systems should be in use everywhere in the country. They are not terribly expensive to install, and the payback period on them is much shorter than it is for solar photovoltaic. Even in cold climates, it is possible to have a system with a heat exchanger and an antifreeze filled loop, so that the system can be run, even when nighttime temperatures are below freezing.

But the appearance of rooftop mounted panels is a drawback. Lots of people find solar panels, whether they are hot water or photovoltaic, to be unattractive. While it looses some efficiency by being out of direct sunlight, Dawn Solar offers a concealed solar hot water system. "The Dawn Solar System uses heat generated by the sun shining directly onto a roof. Solar energy is absorbed and transferred into a concealed, patent-pending collection system that is hidden just below the roof tiles. There is no ugly collector that is visible from the street."

The website offers few details about the configuration of the system, but presumably it uses some kind of pipe or tubing running just under the roof to collect heat from the attic space in the water for use in the building. The case study they offer is a distillery in New Hampshire (pictured) with the tubing running under the metal roof of the building. This is tied in with their other building systems and contributes to the radiant floor heating and the domestic hot water for the building.

The same week I came across this system, I also got an e-mail that included a suggestion of a similar system that someone had installed as a DIY project in his own attic.

Homeless Dave, who invented the Pedal Powered Washing Machine, is also a blogger who conducts interviews with a range of people on a teeter totter in his back yard. Most of the interviews are of local interest to Ann Arbor, though he has also hosted a former US president. A recent interview with the central power plant manager for the University of Michigan brought up some discussion of a couple of DIY projects that he had installed in his home, including one that struck me as being very similar to the Dawn Solar system. Homeless Dave sent me an e-mail about the interview and suggested it as material for possible DIY articles. There isn't enough information in their discussion to make a useful DIY article on its own, but if you are really inclined towards doing a DIY installation of this type, I think you may find some inspiration from this.

A few things occurred to me as a result of this that would make a DIY installation easier. For one, Wickboldt's system uses PVC pipe. While this can be installed fairly easily, there are joints that have to glued and pipe that has to be cut to do this. However, PEX tubing, which is also used in underfloor and in-slab radiant heating, is a continuous length of tubing, which could be pulled into the attic much like electrical wire and then threaded back and forth through the rafter spaces, much like the system described. Small diameter PEX would also have more surface area to diameter, so that it would potentially heat the water faster than the PVC version. There are also clips for installing underfloor radiant heating systems that would be equally appropriate for this application. And, again like an underfloor radiant system, efficiency of the system might be further improved by adding radiant foil insulation (as well as helping keep the attic cooler).

Let me know if you undertake a system like this. I'm interested in other examples of this and seeing how viable a possibility this would be for direct heating or even just pre-heating water for household use. This seems like a very viable possibility, and I'm interested in gathering more information to help make this a more useful system that more people can install and use in their own homes.

Solar hot water systems are a little more complex in cold weather locations where they need to be filled with anti-freeze fluid for heat collection and then use a heat exchanger to transfer heat to the water, or valves and mechanical systems in the plumbing in order to prevent damage from freezing. But even with these elements, the payback period for a solar hot water system can be just a handful of years, even in a northern state.

But if you want to do some experimentation with a hot water system without going to a whole house system, this project will provide an inexpensive demonstration project that gives you a useful device.

I must preface this with the caveat that, unlike some other projects I've written up, I have not built this one myself. However, I've been gathering information for a few weeks, and I have several resources for you to use to look further into this project. And, in the middle of writing this article, I found another commercial example (in case you want to buy something like this rather than making it yourself, although there is no price listed as yet) on The Sietch Blog. (They have posted earlier examples that are being used for more extensive hot water needs, as well.)

The materials list for this project are as follows:

PhotoCredit: Path to Freedom

• 75-100 feet of 5/8" inside diameter black garden hose
• a low flow showerhead (and possibly an adapter to connect it to the hose)
• a piece of plywood or some other support for the coil
• and some hardware for mounting the coil; the photo here shows some plumbing strap being used to keep the coil nicely organized and flat.

You will also need to have a place to mount this assembly overhead and in direct sunlight. (5 gallons of water weigh more than 40 pounds, so be sure it is securely supported.)

FrontStepDesign is where I first came across the concept for the solar shower. (Of course, she's in Florida, where an outdoor shower is more useful fixture than it is further north.) Her inspiration came from a similar project at Path to Freedom (a couple of whose photos I've borrowed for this article. The whole set begins here) I recommend that you take a look both at those photos and the FrontStepDesign article for further information about the assembly. Basically, you need to make a flat coil of the hose, and then fasten it to a supporting board or surface. A few small bolts through some plumbing strap, as shown, makes a neat and efficient assembly. Then it is simply a matter of connecting the showerhead to the hose (you may also need a plumbing adapter for that), shutting off the showerhead and filling it with water, and then setting it in the sun and allowing it to heat.

Let me leave you with some comments from Sarah at FrontStepDesign. She's a fellow architect, so I trust her numbers about the project:

"A low-flow showerhead ($15) from the local big box uses 1.4 gallons/minute. A 5/8" interior diameter black garden hose ($30) holds 5.1 gallons of water. That's only 3.5 minutes per change of water in the hose - can it really heat up the water? All sorts of people say they've done this, but clearly not enough geeks. I want 'time to heat a 5/8" hose to 120F' data! Of course, if you switched to the not-yet-available Aqua Helix, at only .5 gpm, you'd get a 10 minute heating period in the hose."

I'll be especially interested in feedback from any of these that you build.

Koo's Corner is a project in Vancouver that took an old automotive repair shop and turned it into six urban loft residences. The existing garage building was turned into two of the lofts, and another four units were built to fit the neighborhood context. Building in an existing neighborhood helps to increase urban density (which makes for more efficient use of existing city services) and makes use of available property rather than buldozing undeveloped land for construction.

Photo Credit: cmha.caApproximately 80% of the construction waste was recycled or re-used. Interiors included reclaimed Douglas fir for flooring and cabinetry, low VOC interior finishes, and energy-efficient and water-saving appliances. Site landscaping was done with drought-tolerant plants and no irrigation systems were installed. One of the new loft units has an attached solar hot-water system attached and the roofs of the new lofts are pitched at a "solar-ready" angle, making the possibility of future solar upgrades even easier.

Koo's Garage - before renovation: Photo Credit:cmhc.caThe site had some brownfield contamination from its previous incarnation as an automotive repair facility which was cleaned up as part of the development process. (Brownfield cleanup added to the cost and scheduling issues for the project, but the developer still produced a profitable building). But, by undertaking new development, the project helped contribute to the cleanup of the property.

The units are moderate in size (the largest is under 1200 square feet), which also helps with resource conservation. Simply building smaller units allows more efficient living and use of materials. The project is one of several Vancouver area projects being touted for its ecological orientation and benefits. "In an eco-dense city, planners say, citizens will live closer together on less land, drive fewer cars, consume fewer resources and produce less waste." With the location of the project and the reuse of the existing structure, as well as the materials used in building these lofts, Koo's Corner is an excellent example of good, green construction.

At the time this project was built (completed in 2002), there was no LEED standard for low rise homes, but the team estimated the building would have qualified for LEED certified status.

A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation case study offers more description and analysis of the project.