I thought it might be useful to have a thread where we could collect details of free or nearly free training, and in time, reviews by members who attended.
I’ll start the ball rolling with this free online introduction to Passivhaus.
Nice idea @Tim_Gilbert… Chris Brookman of Back to Earth has set this up:
a good resource and canny marketing asset
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The AECB has webinar recordings.
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As a reminder to other forum members, AECB membership is free to Carbon Coop members and therefore access to those AECB member only webinars is also free.
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A free introduction to Passivhaus and EnerPHit.
Members must log in prior to check out to receive a free ticket.
Remember that membership of AECB is free to Carbon Coop members.
A course of free webinars from Green Building Stores. Their advice is usually very good but maybe simplistic for some people. Listen, watch, learn and remember they are trying to sell to you!
I’ve heard Sarah Price speak before. This is going to be a good experience.
Log in to your (free) AECB account for a free ticket or buy a ticket for £25
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I have just attended this webinar and found it very interesting. If you want to view it later it will be available at
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Passivhaus Trust have a range of podcasts, some of which are free to non-members and have also referenced other podcasts that may be of interest:
I just listened to an interesting podcast loosely about how the One Stop Shops for retrofit work in Ireland. They have a much better approach than here, with a much higher take up for retrofit as a result. Also assisted by better financial backing from and through the state.
PS. There are references to SEAI. By way of explanation, that is The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.
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This free course from Passivhaus Trust covers overheating in buildings and how to avoid it. Module 1 should make sense to most forum members. Module 2 is far more technical and aimed at users of PHPP.
I just followed module 1.
Hi Tim, are there any more recent events like this going?
I am into planning my retrofit at the moment and have an architect and I am starting to look for builders that would be able to help me do the first phase this year, which would be starting with underfloor insulation for both a suspended timber floor and a concrete floor in the 1980s kitchen extension. The kitchen extension will also need some roof work, get some EWI and the soil pipe will be moved inside etc.
I am trying to make a whole house plan, although I won’t have a budget for a whole EnerPhit project, but I want to try to make a real difference and do what I do well.
I have signed up here and with the AECB and try to find some more people to talk about this in the area. I am based in Crewe.
Is there anywhere to start here in the forum?
Thank you very much.
Hello and welcome to the forum @Christian_Unger,
It’s good to see that you have also joined the AECB. They have a lot of webinars and a library of old webinars to view. See the link above.
I only re post the ones that I think will appeal most to Carbon Co-op members, without having surveyed members on their interests.
Have you looked through another thread I created with useful reference documents?
Other webinars are available from various interested parties. The Passivhaus Trust have a few free webinars but most are chargeable, even for their own members. A number of companies sometimes run webinars but of course the recommended solutions to problems always seem to be their products. What a coincidence!
My general advice is to get any advice you can on reaching EnerPHit. Using that knowledge might get you nearer than you think. I’m told that it is impossible to achieve EnerPHit without Passivhaus certified windows and I have no intention to change my almost new non-Passivhaus ones (they lack insulated frames). Be encouraged by what you can achieve and leave the things you can’t until later, when maybe you will after all.
You have an architect. Is (s)he also a Passivhaus certified designer? For the best fabric first advice they need to be.
Last year I felt I had reached the limit of my abilities. I knew what needed doing but not how. I now have a Passivhaus certified designer/architect. He had plans for my house which I then haggled a little over to break down jobs into smaller steps that better fitted my budget and (in)convenience for the family.
Good luck with your venture.
Thanks for the super quick replies. Much appreciated.
I think I have a good architect, Dan Bilton, who actually lives in an EnerPhit certified house he himself built. https://www.biltondesign.uk It is just around the corner of my partners house in Sheffield and I knew him through a friend. He has made the trip to Crewe, but doesn’t really know any people around here.
Anyway, with regards to builders I also noticed the guys you are suggesting in your Services ‘People Powered Retrofit’ (Retrofit Coop) with the Home Retrofit Planner and they seem to be based in Manchester. That wouldn’t be too far from Crewe and I wonder how they connect to you here? They seem to offer some relevant services, and appear to offer a network of builders if they can’t fix it.
Would that be a good starting point?
Btw, with regards to Passivhaus, I have signed up. I have organised some of these events before as I was a founder of the Carbon Neutral University Network at Sheffield University many years ago. We ran an event about retrofit then with the Green Building Store and other, which got me into the building side of things. You may have seen some of these and I think they are still relevant although this was 7 years ago - i.e. https://youtu.be/0WhzrzRlBm0?si=wjAm_od4pSi2pbYz
Thanks a lot.
I just watched your video with Chris Herring. It is a very good introduction to deep retrofit.
Another area worth searching is Ireland. The retrofit market is far more advanced over there and the climate is similar to ours, particularly if you live in one of the wetter parts of the UK.
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