Juraj Mikurcik
@jurajmikurcik
Architect living in rural Herefordshire. UK support for ecococon.eu straw wall panels and Ecological Building Systems. Rides bikes. Living in a 100% electric bio-based passivhaus with zero energy bills, see the blog: oldholloway.wordpress.com
A mega stack of about 1500 jumbo straw bales. Enough to build about 100 highly efficient healthy homes that wouldn’t cost the earth. Why is this not the norm?
Yes the external condenser unit would need to be located somewhere, ideally close to the external wall where the indoor unit would be mounted. External unit could be loosely concealed by plants or trellis
Our EcoCocon passivhaus in UK in a recent heatwave, running one 2.5kW mini-split for about 50% of the time. Super easy to keep it comfortable with minimal cooling
A lot of new build homes in Slovakia have external shading built in, helping to minimise overheating. UK would do well taking a similar approach as part of climate change adaptation.
A week on and most of the walls are up. At this rate the house will be under the roof by the time I get back from holidays!
Cycled passed 3 young storks yesterday, here's a live cam feed www.kukaj.sk/projekt/204-...
Czechia & Slovakia definitely have the least developed EV charging infrastructure out of the 6 countries I crossed, it was a bit of an ordeal to find working chargers at one point. Final stats: Distance: 1807km // 1123miles Efficiency: 4.4m/kWh // 14.1kWh/100km Average speed 91.1km/h // 56.6mph
Guten morgen from northern Bavaria 🇩🇪 Frühstück for me and some electrons ⚡️ for Bob 🚙 and we’ll be on our way to Czechia 🇨🇿 Btw ny bluesky is unusually upbeat this morning - has someone kicked a ball well?
Just noticed these belong to the B-mine hotel. The concept of taking a lift to the hotel room *in your car* seems a bit insane 🤯
If you need a car in a city, this Microlino is all the car you need
Good progress through the rest of Belgium and well into Germany. I’m going to appreciate these triple glazed windows tonight 😴
Uneventful drive to Folkestone, France was just a quick blur and now stopped for a Belgian custard tart & a small strong coffee. Sunny day so Bob 🚙 is getting some 95% Carbon free electric drink ⚡️
Early start for another EU roadtrip Listening to Susie Mccabe on Mark Steel’s ‘What the f*ck is going on’ pod - hilarious
Panels were delivered this week and the assembly has started, taking advantage of the dry sunny weather. Shouldn’t take too long to get the walls up
40C / 104F external temp in the shade at my parents’ place in Slovakia. Predicted night time temp 26C / 79F Grim
🫠 It's difficult to do night time cooling when the outside temperature doesn't drop below 26.3C / 79.3F
🫠 Tarmac is melting, trains are cancelled and people & animals are seeking refuge where they can. We feel very lucky that our home can provide that refuge. Over the last few days, when outside temperatures peaked at 32.5C here in Herefordshire, our house remained comfortably below 22C.
Thread 🧵 🔥 It's Friday, early morning and it's 23C outside. We’re right at the end of another record breaking heatwave. Until the next one that is. #passivhaus #summer #comfort
🔥 Today's been the hottest June day on record in UK 🔥 Many more temperature records broken across Europe Unless we stop burning stuff this is only going to get worse
Anyway, things have gone surprisingly smoothly and I’m now on the return air-conditioned train. Water dripping from the ceiling but no one minds as long as it’s moving.
A bit of fine London brutalism on this hot day - The Embassy of Slovakia in Kensington Palace Gardens. Designed by Bočan, Šrámek and Štěpánský in 1965 & awarded by RIBA in 1971.
I made it! A fine collection of bikes at Paddington train station 🤩
This is why cities need trees. Hard surfaces and parked cars can reach extreme temperatures, while shaded grass and tree-covered areas stay dramatically cooler. This is the urban heat island effect in one image: hard surfaces absorb and radiate heat, while vegetation and shade reduce it.
On my way to London, one train has already been cancelled. Wish me luck #UKheatwave
I liked this home made external fabric shade on a small west facing window. Simple & effective.
A combination of different strategies: external roller blinds, large roof overhang and additional temporary shading sail