I wasn’t expecting Ecobuild to be quite so large. Ecobuild is a whole Earl’s Court-full exhibition devoted to green building. And a surprising amount of it was about windows.
I was hoping that I would be blown away by some new developments, but I can’t say I was. However, there was a lot of practical and useful stuff on show. There were lots of efficient windows, boilers, heat pumps, solar panels and a few wind turbines (including a small scale version of Quiet Revolution’s cool looking turbine - but I’d rather have seen the real thing up close). There were lots of stands about different types of micro-generation. I was looking for transparent solar panels, but couldn’t find them anywhere. I did find the guys behind BedZed, with their new pre-made/designed easy to assemble eco- home concepts. I liked the LandArk - a little bungalow that can be used as an office or a home (possibly a holiday home). All you need is a bit of land.
The Green Building Store was there too. I wanted to tell them that the toilets they supplied me are great - but they were one of the busier stands - although one elderly person did seem to be recounting his life story to them (starting from his adoption by a family that owned a fish and chip shop). I decided not to interrupt.
There were also various building materials companies there to demonstrate their products and give them some eco gleam. Plasterboards, paints, woods, toilets, showers. Pretty much everything you might expect from a building show, but with everyone trying to demonstrate their green credentials. I wish I’d gone to this event last year, before going through all the building work on our attempted eco flat. It would have made the research a lot easier.
