Cooling the suburbs: air-to-air heat pumps

John Greengrass MCIBSE specified reversible air-to-air heat pumps for his 1930s semi-detached house, to supplement his solar heating – but the cooling function is now proving its worth, writes Alex Smith

Retrofit reality: achieving a 5.5 Star NABERS UK rating

The star performer in the NABERS UK ratings scheme is not a gleaming new office scheme, but the 1960s office of consultant engineer Watkins Payne, which has a forensic approach to energy efficiency. Alex Smith highlights its approach

A new chapter on solar heat at the British Library

The British Library’s ambitious decarbonisation strategy starts with energy reduction at its Grade I-listed archive in King’s Cross. Alex Smith looks at a solar heating and power project that generated more than 200MWh of renewable energy in 12 months