Baxi Group

John and Joan Barnes have built a contemporary, energy efficient house for retirement in their own back garden that includes a large glazed solar collector, which stretches over all three storeys.

With the end in sight for traditional fossil fuels, Tim Pullen takes a look at cost-effective alternatives for the future, including biomass, biofuel, biogas and hydrogen.

With fuel prices at an all-time high and grants now available for microgeneration, many self-builders are keen to look at alternative strategies for home heating. Mark Brinkley explores the options, including ground source heat pumps, combined heat and power, solar panels and biomass boilers.

Many people think that combined heat and power units are the future of home energy generation — problem is, they’ve been saying that for a while. Tim Pullen reports on the latest developments in combined heat and power.

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is a technology that produces heat and electricity at the same time, this dual function would suggest that CHP is the best green feature available, but is this really the case?