On Sunday the 20th, we run a bus tour of eco-homes for the residents of Stockport.
This was part of the "Carbon Co-op in Stockport" project that is being support by Stockport Council.
The rain held and we had a great day with 28 people attending the tour.
The big red bus took us to Marple first to see the home of Geoff Tomlinson and his wife, who are active members of the group MESS (Marple and Mellor Bridge Energy Saving Strategy). They welcomed us into their home and organised the tour in two parts, one group stayed with Geoff who told us about all the various implemented measures, while the other group had a detailed tour of the house. The two groups then swapped.
Geoff also prepared some excellent hand outs, packed with information to make all the technical aspects and technical terminology accessible and user friendly!
We learnt about their fabric-first approach (insulation and renovation of the house) and their green technology as well: solar electricity (PV panels), solar hot water and also the installation and use of a MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery) system.
We then also visited the Victorian Semi "SuperHome" of Charlie Baker and Sarah Hughes in Chorlton, where we were able to learn about their approach to retrofit, focused on low-environmental impact materials, such as wood fibre insulation, lime plaster, passive stack ventilation together with use of renewable energy in the form of a biomass boiler, PV and solar hot water panels. Lunch was also served by the excellent catering skills of Rachael Baker and this also offered us the opportunity to talk about Carbon Co-op and the project we are currently running in Stockport.
For more photos of the day, visit our Flickr page.
We run these tours regularly, for future dates please keep checking our News page.