Tim Worstall

The Zero Carbon House

So they’ve unveiled a (near) zero carbon house. Hooray!

No, that’s not sarcasm either. Pre-fab housing which uses less energy, all for it. The builders claim it will be cheaper than traditionally built housing too, which is even better. At 110 sq m (roughly 1,000 sq ft) it’s pretty small but then I’m sure larger versions can also be built.

Two questions that occur. Given the large windows (and thus I assume the passive solar heating through them) can they be built to the required density required by current planning regulations? Or, like the Passivehaus ideas, do they fall foul of those restrictions?

Secondly, timber framed housing. Is there a reason (other than we’ve not done it very much in the UK) why we don’t use this technique all that often? I can imagine (and have no knowledge here, I’m hoping for a comment or two to inform me) that the US experience, where most housing is timber framed, means that it will work….or is there something about our damp and rainy climate that means we’ve avoided it in the past?

Another way of asking the same question. Why haven’t we been using timber frames, as many others do? Not invented here syndrome? Or a better reason than that?

In

8 responses

  1. ScotsToryB Avatar
    ScotsToryB

    Our family home was a timber framed and clad house (a gift from Sweden to Scotland for some reason)even the roof was timber. There were no problems with cold or damp and as long as it was painted every 20years nothing more than normal maintenance was required.
    STB

    Reply
  2. Jim Avatar
    Jim

    “can they be built to the required density required by current planning regulations”
    Yes. Look at the pictures accompanying the Telegraph article. High density.
    “Or, like the Passivehaus ideas, do they fall foul of those restrictions?”
    The Passivhaus concept does not fall foul of minimum density restrictions, as I have patiently explained to you before.

    Reply
  3. mark Brinkley Avatar
    mark Brinkley

    The chief reason we haven’t built much timber frame is that we don’t have a lot of suitable timber in the UK. Countries that have a lot of timber (N America, Scandianvia) build almost exclusively in timber (at least for low rise residential). Having said that, timber frame has taken off in a big way in Scotland and now accounts for over 70% of housing starts there.
    But as you know, Scotland is a different country!

    Reply
  4. Steve Avatar
    Steve

    If I recall correctly what my father (civil engineer) said when I asked the same question, 15 years ago, when I got back from a year living in the US.
    We don’t build many because they suffer the same problem as high rise apartment blocks. A bad reputation due to shoddy materials and building methods. When in fact both are perfectly good solutions.
    Coupled with a conservative approach to planning and design, very little real competition in house building and easy credit meaning whatever is built sells; why risk trying something different.

    Reply
  5. Jeff Avatar
    Jeff

    I contemplated building a timber-framed house some 30 years ago… But couldn’t get a mortgage. Unless building societies and banks have had a change of heart in the intervening period that’s one damned-good reason for there not being many of them built.

    Reply
  6. The Remittance Man Avatar
    The Remittance Man

    Maybe, as well as the scarcity problem, in the past there was a reluctance to use wood because of the fire risk.
    Not that that should be a problem nowadays, what with all those wonderful modern chemicals one can apply to timber. Except of course somebody’s likely to deem them carcinogenic or something.

    Reply
  7. gene berman Avatar
    gene berman

    Jeff:
    If you’d been just a little different sort, your experience of 30 years ago would have led you to see the golden potential in lending where the others feared to tread. You might, even now, be titled (Sir Woodlender?) and celebrated.
    It recalls to my mind that Ben Franklin spent a few years over there as a printer and mentioned in his Autobiography that, if there were such a thing as a lender for the working class that would make mortgages, many of them of the class and earning capacity of the printers with whom he worked–could easily have very decent homes just for the price of the pints they drank at lunch and on breaks.

    Reply
  8. Christian A. Wittke Avatar
    Christian A. Wittke

    I think our website at http://www.rockenergy.co.uk tells you all about technic and technology of Low Carbon timber frame houses. We live in one in the North of Scotland – the best you can have.
    Regards
    Christian

    Reply

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