passivehouse+ | Issue 4
News
Photo: Passivhaus Trust
Devon, Lancashire and Wales win at UK Passivhaus Awards
The winners of the 2013 UK Passivhaus Awards were announced at a ceremony at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador in London on 4 July. The Totnes passive house B&B emerged as the winner in the private housing category. This deep retrofit and extension to a modernist cavity wall house in Devon achieved the seemingly impossible: full passive house certification for an upgraded building. The project predated the creation of the Passive House Institute’s standard for upgrade projects, Enerphit. The Lancaster Cohousing project in Lancashire won in the social/group housing category. This development features 41 certified passive dwellings, 35 of which are part of a cohousing community that shares facilities including com-
munal kitchen, dining area, and outdoor spaces. In the non-domestic category, the Canolfan Hyddgen local authority office building and IT training facility in Machynlleth, Wales, was victorious. All three projects are the subject of detailed case study articles in this issue of Passive House Plus. Other shortlisted projects such as Plummerswood, Ditchingham and Green Base have featured in previous issues. The full list of shortlisted projects for this year’s awards were: Private Housing (sponsored by Ecology Building Society): Crossway, Hawkes Architecture Ltd; Plummerswood, Gaia Research; Totnes Passivhaus, Passivhaus Homes Ltd.
Social Housing (sponsored by Kingspan Insulation Ltd): Ditchingham Passivhaus, Parsons & Whittley; Lancaster Cohousing Project, Eco Arc Architects; Racecourse Passivhaus Bungalows, by Gentoo. Non-domestic (sponsored by Munster Joinery): Canolfan Hyddgen, JPW Construction; Green Base, Simmonds Mills Architects; Interserve Office, Interserve.
Pictured (l-r) are private housing finalists Prof Sandy Halliday, Gaia Architects; Richard Hawkes, Hawkes Architecture; Jon Lee, Ecology Building Society; award winners Adam Dadeby & Janet Cotterell, Passivhaus Homes Ltd along with Bouke Martinot of the Totnes passive house build team; and Jon Bootland, Passivhaus Trust
ProAir gets high marks on Sap Appendix Q Irish manufacturer ProAir has just had its PA600 LI heat recovery ventilation unit listed on the Sap Appendix Q database with some of the best results on the market. In independent tests carried out by BRE, the unit achieved a specific fan power of 0.57, and heat recovery efficiency of 94%. "We're up there with the best," said ProAir's David McHugh. “Only one other unit on the list is above this at 95% and that is a Paul unit, but this same unit has a lower SFP rating, so if one takes the combined high thermal and electrical efficiency in combination the PA600 LI could be described as the most efficient on the market.” McHugh explained that the PA600 LI is made
from high density polyethylene foam. "The advantage of that is that it makes for a very wellsealed unit and this contributes to its high efficiency. In addition, this is also one of the quietest on the market as all the components are suspended within the foam," he said. McHugh said that the high insulation value of the foam means that it’s ideal for use within the thermal envelope, but can also tolerate being in a cold attic space if necessary. At a weight of only 27kg it can be installed by just one person, he said.
(right) ProAir’s PA600 LI MVHR system has achieved a Sap Appendix Q rated heat recovery efficiency rate of 94%
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