Sustainable Buildings Trail
5th - 9th February 2007
Climate Change is here, whether we like it or not, and we all have an obligation to 'do our bit'.
On Tuesday 6th and Thursday 8th February, during the 'Sheffield is My Planet' week, South Yorkshire Energy Centre (based at Heeley City Farm) is co-ordinating the Sustainable Buildings Trail. This gives the public a chance to talk to householders and other building users who have incorporated sustainable methods or materials or renewable energy in their buildings. Has it worked? Would they do things differently if they started again now? Now's your chance to ask.
See the schedule below, and pick your building or buildings. Dial the contact number, and make an arrangement to visit.
Map of the Sustainable Buildings Trail
- South Yorkshire Energy Centre
25 Alexandra Road
Sheffield
S2 3DT
Telephone 0114 02584574 or 0794 107 2313
Open 4 days (5th, 6th, 8th and 9th February), 10 a.m. - 3.30 p.m.
33 or 47 bus.
South Yorkshire's demonstration centre for sustainable building and renewable energy. Find out how to turn your old house into something that performs, and saves money and CO2 emissions, like new! Will your choices damage the environment? Find out here, with expert help and advice.
- Private house with solar water heating and photovoltaics
Ecclesall Road area, Sheffield 10
Telephone Amyan: 0114 2681148
Open by appointment with owner both 6th and 8th February.
81/82 bus.
- Private house with solar water heating and photovoltaics
Ecclesall Road area, Sheffield 10
Telephone Sophie: 0114 2683520
Open by appointment with owner both 6th and 8th February.
81/82 bus.
Solar water heating (SWH) can provide 50 - 70% of your annual water-heating requirements, and 9 square metres of photovoltaics (solar electricity) can provide 25% of the electricity needs of a typical household.
- Private house with solar water heating, photovoltaics and solid-wall insulation
Nether Edge area, S7
Appointments via South Yorkshire Energy Centre
Telephone 0114 2584574 or 0794 107 2313
Open by appointment with owner both 6th and 8th February.
22 bus.
- Super-insulated self-built timber-framed house
Heeley Green area, S2
Talk and guided tour by householders Tuesday 6th February at 2 p.m.
Appointments via South Yorkshire Energy Centre
Telephone 0114 2584574 or 0794 107 2313
47 bus.
- Tinsley Green, Sheffield 9.
Heating by ground-source heat pump, solar energy and high standards of energy efficiency.
Appointments via Bella Pender - Facilities Manager
Telephone 0114 2841800
Open both 6th and 8th February.
69 bus.
- Moorland Centre, Fieldhead, Edale
Sustainably-built visitors' centre with ground source heat pump and green roof.
Biodiesel-fuelled minibuses leave South Yorkshire Energy Centre on 6th and 8th February for return trip and guided tour.
Telephone 01629 816312 or 0114 2584574 for departure times.
- Private house with 6 kilowatt wind turbine and rainwater harvesting.
Off Redmires Road, Sheffield 10.
Open 6th February a.m. only, by appointment with owner: 0114 2308019.
N.B: The house is up an unsurfaced track about a mile from the main road. Please do not attempt to take vehicles up the track. Stout footwear recommended!
51 bus.
The owners of the Redmires Road house write:
"We live entirely off-mains and for nearly a decade we depended on a diesel generator for our electricity, which ran for five and a half hours each day in order to charge up our batteries and power our house. In the summer of 2005 we put up a 6kW Proven wind turbine on a 9m mast, and since then it's not only provided most of our electricity, it has also provided so much heat that we've hardly had to run the central heating at all. We've run the generator fewer than ten times in the last 18 months, and have only had our central heating on perhaps 6 times this year."
"In conjunction with the South Yorkshire Energy Centre, we invite visitors to come and look at our lovely wind turbine, and to ask questions on how it has worked for us, and to view our rainwater harvesting system we put in last autumn (which is not quite finished yet, and so is easy to inspect)."
"Visitors are welcome to arrive between 10am and 11am on Tuesday 6 February. I'll be answering questions for as long as I can, depending on the weather and the number of people who attend."
"Now a few warnings about the site, which are not intended to put anyone off visiting. Please do not bring any dogs up, as our dogs are very territorial with other dogs and will be outside with us. Our track is very rough and deeply rutted, and not suitable for timid drivers or vehicles with low clearance: if you're at all worried, park at the bottom and walk up, it's only a mile (!). If you do drive up there's room for parking up at the house, but very few passing spaces on the track: do not drive off the track once you're over the cattle grid as there are ditches hidden in the grass verges which you will get stuck in, and block the track. If that happens I will have no way of getting out to collect my children from school, and I will not be pleased. Wear wellies and warm clothes, as it's very muddy up here and much colder than it is down on the road; and if there's any snow on the ground on the day, do not come: the event will be cancelled as access will be impossible."
"Despite all those warnings this is a lovely spot. We're looking forward to seeing plenty of people on the day, and are very pleased to have this chance to support Nick Parsons and the South Yorkshire Energy Centre."
For more information, see Sheffield is My Planet