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How to Green Your Home – Online Short Course

Updated: Jan 28, 2021

This event has now ended. You can find webinar recordings and presentations on our "resources" page.



Interested in our Future Fit Homes services? Register your interest here.


Join us for our FULLY FUNDED 4-week short course on all things energy efficiency and retrofit – greening your home.



Do you aim to live a sustainable lifestyle?


Wondering how you can access the Greener Homes Grant?


Wanting to reduce your carbon emissions significantly, whilst investing in your property and saving money on your energy bills year on year?


You may be looking at a whole-home retrofit…


From insulation to thermal imaging, solar PV to solar thermal, our 4-week short course offers a deep insight into what you need to consider if you’re looking at improving the energy efficiency of your home. If you’re looking for practical solutions, and action you can take now, join us every Wednesday evening for our online sessions and have your questions answered by experts in the field and people who have gone through the process themselves.


What we’ll cover

  • Home Energy Efficiency Basics

  • Making use of the Greener Homes Grant

  • Building efficiency – where to start

  • How to see what your home leaks heat – thermography

  • EnerPhit, PassivHaus and other models for future-fit homes

  • Behavioural change to help reduce emissions

  • Renewable energy and cleantech solutions

  • How to plan your retrofit

  • Finding a contractor and what to look out for

  • Talk to someone who has done it – full house retrofit journey

  • Selce’s Future-Fit Homes Program


Evening Sessions

Wednesday 14th October, 6.30-8.00pm

  • What is the Greener Homes Grant & what does it fund

  • Energy Efficiency – understanding the basics

  • Why building fabric and U values matter

  • Ultra energy-efficient building design models – EnerPhit

Featuring expert guest James Traynor, Managing Director at ECD Architects and author of ‘EnerPHit – A Step by Step Guide to Low-Energy Retrofit’.


Wednesday 21st October, 6.30-8.00pm

  • How to apply for the Greener Homes Grant

  • a deep dive into retrofitting older buildings

  • why your home is losing heat – air-tightness & insulation

  • the do’s and don’ts of retrofit – practical solutions

Featuring expert guest Nick Parsons, CEO at Sustainable Buildings, and a lecturer in sustainable building courses for Derbyshire Eco Centre and the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.


October half-term break


Wednesday 4th November, 6.30-8.00pm

  • a case study of Harry’s home

  • going through a deep home retrofit – the practical process

  • assistance with funding – the greener homes grant and more

  • working with contractors – the good, the bad, and the ugly

Featuring expert guest Harry Paticas, architect and co-director of Arboreal Architecture & founder of RAFT (Retrofit Action For Tomorrow). He has also completed his own Full-House Retrofit in his South East London home.


Wednesday 11th November, 6.30-8.00pm

  • Key renewable energy technologies (Solar PV, EV Charging, Heat Pumps)

  • Why smart homes could be the mini-power stations of the future

  • Selce’s Future-Fit Homes program

  • Course roundup and next steps

Featuring expert speaker Nadia Smith, non-exec director, and project manager at Selce (South East London Community Energy).


Speakers


James is Managing Director of ECD Architects and author of ‘EnerPHit – A Step by Step Guide to Low-Energy Retrofit’. He is a Certified Passivhaus Designer with over 15 years’ experience in low-energy design. James obtained an MSc in Advanced Energy & Environmental Studies at the Centre for Alternative Technology and is a graduate of the University of Liverpool school of Architecture. He has a particular interest in Post-Occupancy Evaluation as a means of improving building handover issues and addressing the gap between predicted and actual performance.


In recent years James has been involved in a number of pioneering projects which address the future of building refurbishment in the UK. He has created partnerships between industry and academia to improve wider learning, and is passionately committed to creating attractive, affordable and sustainable environments that meet the long term needs of the building user. James lives in South London and is married to Kate with two children (Josh & Adam). In his ‘spare’ time he is also Chair of his local TMO (Tenant Management Organisation).


After 10 years of running a community sector energy project in Sheffield Nick became a freelance sustainable building consultant and trainer in 2010. He provides advice, training and consultancy in renewable energy and sustainable building, with a particular emphasis on energy-efficient refurbishment of older buildings. He also carries out ‘Green’ building work, concentrating particularly on complicated insulation and air-tightness.


Nick is a lecturer of a wide range of sustainable building courses at Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales.


Harry is an architect and co-director of Arboreal Architecture & founder of RAFT (Retrofit Action For Tomorrow).


Harry is a certified Passivhaus Designer and member of the 15-40 low energy architecture collective. Arboreal is an RIBA Chartered Practice committed to integrating rich architectural experience with high-performance fabric and services. Their research project “32 ways in which buildings should be more like trees” explores ways in which architecture can learn from the ecology of forests.


Furthermore, Harry has completed his own “full-house retrofit” in his South East London, giving him amazing insight into the practicalities, dos-and-don’ts, through first-hand experience.


Nadia is Young Communtiy Energy Chamption 2019, and Power Players 2019 award winner, who is passionate about renewable energy and clean technologies.


She has experience in government policy and createing pioneering networks, to realise the value of renewables and enable sustainability-driven business models. She has worked on energy in buildings, sustainable finance, and community energy with a focus on solar PV, energy storage, and electric vehicles.


In her spare time, she has helped set up Dream Renewables – a practical training course for school leavers in Dzita, Ghana, in addition to a positive eco-news channel, Rising Earth News, and is also the youngest ever director of South East London Community Energy.



 



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