Government department Communities & Local Government has recently published (18 June 09) a report on multi-foil insulation by Professor Philip Eames of Loughborough University. At the same time they have issued a circular & divisional letter.

The Department continues to support the so-called ‘hot box’ test and other tests agreed at a European level for insulation materials and that results from such tests only will carry a ‘statutory presumption’ of being correct. The Department, however, accepts that there is a scientific dispute over test methods and that Building Control Checking Authorities and Approved Inspectors are therefore free to decide for themselves whether to accept a construction detail that involves a multi-foil (as has always been the case it seems).

For those of you who are interested there is a long running debate on multi-foils at the Green Building Forum.

For several years my Local Authority Building Control department has refused to accept Actis Tri Iso Super 10. I’ve just finished two loft conversion designs and we used MLM who are happy accept Actis.

Whatever the predictions of climate change I don’t believe that here in the UK we will be forced to address water conservation as acutely as the Australians. That doesn’t mean we should ignore efforts to be more efficient in our use of water; it ludicrous that we go to great lengths treating our water only to flush significant volumes of it down our toilets.

Travelling to Deepdale Farm brought back memories of building the Scolt Head Island Ternery Hut for English Nature. We installed a  rainwater harvesting system to provide water for showering and washing up. Four 1520litre linked ex-orange juice containers were linked together; the water pumped on demand by a 12V pump powered by PV panels on the roof. The rainwater was filtered by an in-line Wisy downpipe filter.

The largest rainwater harvesting system that I installed was at Pinetrees where we installed an 8000litre underground tank that provided filtered rainwater for 5 toilets and a washing machine.

If it’s new build it makes sense to consider incorporating some kind of rainwater harvesting / water recycling system. For those of us in existing buildings we’ve got to have the spare cash and motivation to retro-fit a system. Of course installing a rain water butt is not onerous and there are measures we can take to reduce our water demand – when we decide to revamp our bathrooms ultra low flush toilets can be installed. But then at some point all toilets will have to be  ultra low flush. And that’s the thing, in the UK with the building regulations increasingly addressing sustainability – will every new house eventually be an eco house?