© Colin Usher practicing as MicroTecture c 2025
News…
on my Projects
Progress at 11 Lang Lane : 3 net zero carbon Homes for rent
The project is complete and the properties are now fully occupied and working well.
All the low energy strategies are proving to be very worthwhile for the occupiers with
very low energy use and comfortable living conditions. You will find a couple of
comments from them in the Comments page of this site.
continued improvement at 19 Lang Lane
Each year we experiment with slightly different ways of running the house to
optimise the carbon footprint and energy costs. We do this without affecting our
comfort! In 2022 we are aimed to generate as much energy as we import and to
have an agregate energy cost of zero. In th end we did much better than that; we
generated 161kWhrs more than we imported and we made a net profit on our total
energy costs of £234! This year (2025) we anticipate a much larger profit as we
have now fitted a battery to our system.
Special Offers
Depending upon the project and
the circumstance (and my
workload) i can offer fee
reduction of up to 15%. Feel free
to ask, but please bear in mind
that i will usually charge the full
fee quoted here.
Start on site in West Kirby
I recently started the
construction phase of a new
project. This is an Eco-retrofit
refurbishment of an existing run
down house on a prominent site
near Ashton Park. The proposals
include External Wall insulation,
triple glazed windows, excellent
air tightness combined with
MVHR, PV solar panels and
Airsource Heat Pump powered
underfloor heating. This house
will not be as low energy as my
recent new- build low energy
projects, but it will be
significantly better than almost
all 100 year old buildings in the
UK, once it is complete.