Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are the best current option for reducing the carbon emissions from home heating in most UK homes. This is because a heat pump is powered by electricity that…
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Free, independent and impartial advice on a wide array of topics relating to sustainability and sustainable living: renewable energy, green building and renovation, water and sewage treatment, organic growing, and more.
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Energy
Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Panels
The price of Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels has dropped rapidly in the last ten years. A domestic PV array can now be cost effective without any subsidy. You can sell…
Solar Water Heating
Solar water heating (or solar thermal) uses sunlight to heat the water you’ll then use in your bathroom or kitchen. Even in cloudy Britain, solar energy can meet more than…
Wind power
The UK is the windiest country in Europe. Wind farms are therefore a great way for us to meet our energy needs without carbon emissions. Small-scale wind power can also…
Wood-Fired Heating
For some homes wood-fired heating could be a good alternative to fossil fuel. Whether it makes sense for you will depend on your location, the appliance you choose, and the…
Micro-Hydro Power
Micro-hydro turbines can be a very efficient and convenient form of small-scale renewable electricity. The best locations will be on steep hills, with fast flowing water. If there is not…
Battery Storage
We need energy storage and smart controls to reduce the use of gas-fired power stations. It will allow electricity from renewable energy to be stored and fed back to the…
Eco-renovation
Whole House Eco-Retrofit
In CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain report, we promote a mass retrofit of all existing buildings, to greatly reduce heating demand. Renewable energy can then meet our heating needs as well as…
External Wall Insulation
Almost one-third of all UK houses have solid walls, and we’ll be living in these homes for decades to come. If we don’t improve these houses, it will be difficult…
Internal Wall Insulation
Most of the houses we live in now will still be homes decades from now. However, it will be difficult for us to meet their current heating demand with only…
Windows
Replacement glazing will be one of the most expensive parts of a renovation, so making good choices is important. Your choice will also affect the environmental impact, lifetime and maintenance…
Airtightness and Ventilation
Reducing heating demand in our homes is one of the most important steps to a zero carbon future. It’s then far easier to install enough renewable energy to meet our…
Keeping your home cool
Extremely hot summer spells are becoming common in parts of the UK. Rapid global action to reduce carbon emissions would reduce the chance of periods of extreme heat. However, our…
Building
Natural building materials
At CAT we’ve been using natural building materials for many years, and you can see examples all around our visitor centre. We also run hands-on courses and workshops and sell…
Low-energy buildings
Ever since CAT first started, one of our main aims has been to construct low energy buildings. Reducing heating demand is vital when building or renovating, because it’s then much…
Planning permission for an eco-building project
Getting planning permission for an eco-building project will often be no more difficult than for a conventional building. It will depend on the location, and whether specific rules will apply…
The WISE Building
WISE, the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education, is a state of the art educational facility. It is home to CAT’s postgraduate courses on renewable energy, building design and environmental sustainability.…
Green Living
Energy saving at home
Domestic energy saving measures are vital if we are to achieve the goal of a zero carbon future. Reducing the UK’s energy demand will make it much easier to meet…
Transport and Travel
Reducing our transport impact The need to take action on climate change is more pressing than ever. Transport is one of the main causes of the problem: making up a…
Carbon calculators, ecological footprints and offsets
Calulating where your carbon emissions and other environmental impacts come from is a very useful starting point for decarbonising your life. Another way of measuring impacts is with the ecological…
Water and Sanitation
Reducing water use
The average domestic use of water in the UK is 150 litres per person per day, but it is easy to reduce this to 70-80 litres per day. Behaviour changes,…
Reusing Rainwater and Greywater
There are high-tech ways of capturing and reusing rainwater and greywater (the wastewater from showers & sinks) in place of mains water. However, the best options are simple and low…
Sewage Treatment
If you don’t have mains sewerage, there are many treatment options you could consider. Ecological sewage treatment usually involves a combination of different methods to separate out solids, deal with…
Composting Toilets
A composting toilet treats sewage onsite, recycling nutrients into fertiliser that you can use it on the garden. There are many types of composting toilet, from expensive proprietary systems to…
Nature and Growing
Home Composting
Home composting is key to sustainable and organic gardening, as well as being the ideal way to recycle waste. CAT’s gardeners have tried out all sorts of composting methods over…
The Edible Forest Garden
A forest garden takes as its model the most wonderfully healthy and productive organic system in Britain – the deciduous woodland. It consists of trees and shrubs, with bushes below…
Saving Water in the Garden
As we start to feel the effects of climate change, droughts are expected to become more common in the UK. Hosepipe bans are therefore likely in many areas, to reduce…
Growing Year-Round
Traditionally, summer is salad season, and root vegetables are the main winter crop. However, with a little planning you can extend the growing season and plant for harvests of fresh…
Organic Gardening
To look at the thriving gardens in CAT’s Visitor Centre, it is hard to imagine that 50 years ago the site was mostly bare slate waste. Hard work and a…
Sustainable Woodland Management
Sustainably managed woodland can be both productive and beneficial to the environment. Broadleaf woodlands full of native species create an important habitat for a wide range of wildlife, the woods…
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