Author Archives: davidl

March comes in – sunny!

Posted on July 8, 2015 by davidl

Amazing what a few days’ sunshine makes.  Now that there’s a bit more oomph in the sun light, the thermal panels heat the water in the thermal store quite quickly, so that within less than a day there’s all the … Continue reading →

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Frosty Christmas

Posted on January 4, 2015 by davidl

Pleased to be able to report that Porters is still performing as we’d expect as far as the house, log burner and solar thermal goes.  In contrast with last winter which was warm, and wet – and so grey with … Continue reading →

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Hot September

Posted on October 16, 2014 by davidl

Not said a lot here for quite a while.  It has been an excellent summer in many ways.  With so much water in the ground after the long wet winter, things have grown very well – and there’s been quite … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar PV, Thermal mass, Windows | 2 Comments

Another article – and wood usage update

Posted on June 5, 2014 by davidl

Those who follow these things will by now have seen an article on this house in the June issue of Self Build & Design magazine.  This was an interesting experience, in that the journalist, Debbie Jeffery wrote the article based … Continue reading →

Posted in Log burner, Solar thermal, Thermal Store | 2 Comments

More Publicity!

Posted on February 17, 2014 by davidl

Fame (though not fortune!)  seems to have struck – again.  No sooner had the 6 minutes of BBC fame begun to die down than our local MP, Sir Alan Haselhurst, came to see the house. Together with Dunmow Broadcast reporter … Continue reading →

Posted in Cladding, Thermal mass, Ventilation, Windows, Zero Carbon House | 2 Comments

It’s catching (on): as heard on BBC

Posted on January 21, 2014 by davidl

Some recent excitement: at very short notice I was contacted by a producer – John Neal – of You and Yours from the BBC.  He’d heard from Touchwood Homes that they had a client who made money from his fuel … Continue reading →

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Wood usage

Posted on January 2, 2014 by davidl

The wood store is relatively impressive – or so people have been kind enough to say. Essentially it’s the space between the two sheds with a corrugated plastic roof over it  and a slatted back so that the air can … Continue reading →

Posted in The project history, Thermal Store, Zero Carbon House | 14 Comments

Autumn (and Summer) 2013

Posted on December 31, 2013 by davidl

July, you’ll remember, was very hot.  After a winter that went on and on, there was a very short spring and suddenly we were in summer.  The thermal store got up to 95°C and the solar thermal panels were about … Continue reading →

Posted in Electrics, Solar PV, Solar thermal, Thermal mass, Thermal Store, Uncategorized, Ventilation | 2 Comments

Winter and Spring 2013

Posted on December 27, 2013 by davidl

More grovelling apologies.  I’ve been sitting on this for months without publishing it and now (round about Christmas 2013) have finally got round to doing something about it. Well, quite a winter (meaning early 2013)!  This was a severe test … Continue reading →

Posted in Foundations, Solar thermal, Thermal mass, Thermal Store, Underfloor heating, Windows | Comments Off on Winter and Spring 2013

Week Thirty one to end October ’12

Posted on January 2, 2013 by davidl

There were apologies here because I hadn’t kept this up to date.  So some progress now (end May 2013) at long last! Last autumn and winter we really got very busy indeed and keeping this up to date was a task … Continue reading →

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