Green Building Accreditation Systems Explained
There are many different organisations around the world who offer green building accreditations. These are independent rating systems that measure the building’s “green” credentials against closely defined criteria. The mains ones are Breeam (UK), Leed (USA), DGNB (Germany) and CASBEE (Japan). In Spain we use the Spanish version of the Green Building Council which isContinue reading
It’s hot hot hot! Cool your building with no electricity, no moving parts and no noise
Conventional air conditioning burns a hole in your wallet and if the electricity is generated from fossil fuels it contributes to climate change. So cool your building with no electricity, no moving parts and no noise. Solar Cooling Spain Solar Cooling with Salts It’s a brilliantly conceived system. It just uses the energy from theContinue reading
Air Source Heat Pump: Is this Just Hot Air? How Does it Work?
Intuitively we can understand how a log fire works, electric radiator or an oil fired boiler but heat from the air seems counter intuitive so how does it actually work and is it reliable? Well you already own a heat pump. Your fridge is a heat pump. Heat is extracted from the fridge and expelledContinue reading
How Much Money Can You Save With an Energy Efficient Home in Spain?
If you live in a typical energy inefficient home in Spain constructed say 5 years ago to the minimum standards required by the building regulations then it’s possible that 70% or more of your energy consumption is on space heating (and maybe cooling) and another 20% is on hot water. And the rest could goContinue reading
Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) In Spain
An intelligent building isn’t one with a computer: it’s a building so designed that the computer has little to do. Passive Ventilation All good design should allow air to pass through a building. This is especially true in Spain where for most of the year you will want the windows open and to be livingContinue reading
A unique opportunity to create a special home and financially viable too
We’ve been tracking the progress of this unique site because it has the potential to be a truly wonderful building and offer its inhabitants a remarkable quality of life. Following a careful study of the figures, including an assessment by us of all the sites and villas currently for sale in Cerro Gordo the ownersContinue reading
The Principals of Rainwater Harvesting in Spain
Depending on who you listen to water supplies may become increasing erratic and water increasingly expensive. Generally speaking we need to get better at reducing our usage, retaining, and reusing water. It makes sense to find alternatives to the high grade drinking water that has been cleaned and filtered and pumped for great distances whenContinue reading
Buying a home in Spain and Can’t Find What you Want? Solution: Convert One
Buy a building in the right place, with the views and the space and the lifestyle you want, and convert it into the home you are looking for. Property is cheap in Spain at the moment. And as someone said to me the other day there are plenty of people out there who want toContinue reading
