Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research over the last year into sustainable and basically sensible buildings.

Learning about the different principles, and the way you can build either a wooden house with masses of insulation which has low thermal mass, or a brick, stone or concrete house, with masses of insulation resulting in high thermal mass.

The difference is that though both will keep the heat in a similar way, the concrete building will regulate the heat more, taking longer to heat up, but then taking longer to cool down.

It’s a bit like taking the difference between a concrete block and a lump of wood sitting in the sun. The concrete block will feel cooler for longer, but once it’s heated by the sun, the block will stay warm well after the sun passes behind a cloud. But in contrast, the wood heats up more quickly, but then cools almost the moment the sun disappears.

I have just spent a few days in Derbyshire, and when looking around at the old cottages you realise that the principles behind them appear very similar. They have massive thick walls, generally sheltered from the weather. And I don’t know if you’ve spent time in one, but once they are warm they stay warm, but remain very cool in the summer.

Many years ago it was much harder work to heat our houses, so people did not want to let heat escape. It was precious and treasured. But with development we think less of the work, and more of the fact that we can just flick a switch and have that heat. Suddenly we live differently, living how we want in what we want. A friend from Scotland once said that “We used to live where we could, but now we live where we want” that’s so very true.

It’s funny how some basic principles can come round for a second, maybe third time after they have been superseded by something allegedly better. The same thing has happened with some of the rigging technology. We have gone from rope, to heavy but strong metal fittings, and then back to the old rope ways once we had stronger rope! It was amazing that the trimaran’s mast was held up by one piece of string wrapped round a thimble a few times, and finished off with a few half hitches!

Anyway, enough rambling for one day…

Ellen