new build SELECTED PROJECT DETAILS Client: Eamonn Fleming Architect: Quentin Keohane Passive house consultant: Passive House Design Civil & structural engineer: Donal Moynihan Consulting Engineers Project management: Eamonn Fleming Electrical contractor: E-Smart Electrical Contractor Airtightness tester: Clean Energy Ireland Cavity wall insulation: McHugh Insulation Thermal breaks: Quinnlite, Perinsul Cellulose insulation: McHugh Insulation Ground floor insulation: Xtratherm Airtightness products: Siga Windows & doors: Munster Joinery Roof window: Velux Heat pump: Renewable Energy Centre Ventilation: Flynn Heat Recovery Systems
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The digital version of this magazine includes access to exclusive galleries of architectural drawings. The digital magazine is available to subscribers on www.passive.ie (anti clockwise from top left) the ground floor is insulated with 300mm of Xtratherm Hytherm expanded polystyrene insulation; construction of the cavity-wall ground floor, with two rows of Quinn Lite low thermal conductivity lightweight concrete blocks at the wall-floor junction; the ultra-wide 300mm wall cavity, which was fully insulated with Envirobead; a suspended ceiling system to house building services inside the Siga airtight layer; MVHR ducting in the roof, with airtightness taping where the ducting penetrates the airtightness layer.
happy with that, whereas normally you’d motor away, you’d make your breakthroughs and whatever they wanted to do afterwards, they would do afterwards.” The house also scored a BER of 38.5 kWh/ m2/yr – slap bang in the middle of the A2 band. That also meant it surpasses the targets of the Irish government’s proposed national definition for nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) set to come into building regulations for new homes this year under the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The house hit an energy performance coefficient (EPC) of 0.29, meaning it needs just 29% of the energy of the same house design if built to 2005 minimum standards. The family moved in to the house in February 2015 and are delighted with how comfortable – and cheap to run – their new home is. Total running costs for the twelve months to March of 2016, for a family of two adults and three children, came to €326 for heating and hot water. The total electricity bill over that same period was €1,244. “We had a quote from a builder for €265,400 to finish to a very high spec,” says Fleming, “but it was outside our budget so we decided to go the self-build route and ended up going passive and finishing the house for roughly the same money.” “But you do have to throw yourself into it,” he adds. “You kind of put life on hold.”
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