The first of the has insulation started to arrive on site. We are using polystyrene in the floors, and also in the walls below damp proof course level. It's an oil-based product, but far better to use a little here, where we hope it will remain for hundreds of years, than to create houses which use more energy to heat than they could have done, every year, from now on. The white insulation blocks are 25cm thick, for the floors and the grey ones are 30cm thick, for the walls. Special thermal blocks are used where the floor and ceiling meet, to avoid creating a "cold bridge".
The pipes you can see popping out of the ground are for the various services. The big black ones are for the insulated district heat pipes. We are bringing as many services through the floor as possible, rather than through the wall because it is easier to keep the building air-tight that way. It's not that we don't want fresh air in the buildings, but we want it all to go through the 90% efficient heat exchanger, rather than leak in uncontrolled.
Also this week, work started on the Common House walls. Here are the recycled aggregate blocks arriving. They were due to be sourced from the Aggregate Industries plant just one village away in Nether Kellet - must double check with the contractors that they have actually been able to obtain blocks that were manufactured there.
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| Down at terrace D, a mini quarrying exercise is in progress, to make space for the services which need to be buried in the pedestrian street to the north of the houses |
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| The future bike store is in use as an insulation store for now |
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| This is plot 7u/d. You can see the rock was at an ideal level here. No need to dig deep and pour in lots of concrete, and no need to peck out lots of rock either. |
The first of the has insulation started to arrive on site. We are using polystyrene in the floors, and also in the walls below damp proof course level. It's an oil-based product, but far better to use a little here, where we hope it will remain for hundreds of years, than to create houses which use more energy to heat than they could have done, every year, from now on. The white insulation blocks are 25cm thick, for the floors and the grey ones are 30cm thick, for the walls. Special thermal blocks are used where the floor and ceiling meet, to avoid creating a "cold bridge". 
Also this week, work started on the Common House walls. Here are the recycled aggregate blocks arriving. They were due to be sourced from the Aggregate Industries plant just one village away in Nether Kellet - must double check with the contractors that they have actually been able to obtain blocks that were manufactured there.
The recycled aggregate blocks have indeed come from Nether Kellet as planned, Whittle Construction have confirmed.
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