Passive House Plus (Sustainable building) issue 40 UK

INSULATION | AIRTIGHTNESS | BUILDING SCIENCE | VENTILATION | GREEN MATERIALS

S U S TA I N A B L E B U I L D I N G

THE BEE’S KNEES Friends collaborate to create Passive college breaks world record

Form & function

Mass timber Enerphit upgrade transforms office

Energy standards discontent Review finds that SAP is not fit for purpose

Issue 40 £5.95 UK EDITION

Learning curves

2009597010-02.eps NBW=80 B=20

Essex passive cohousing

EDITOR’S LETTER

PASSIVE HOUSE+

AERECO

POWERED BY

A NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR HEAT RECOVERY VENTILATION IN THE UK

Combing Aereco's expertise in indoor air quality and its industry leading reputation for outcomes in the sector with class leading technology from Wolf. From January 2022, Aereco will be supplying Wolf's domestic range of Heat Recovery Ventilation Units and a select range of commercial products.

For more information on the products and service please visit: www.aereco.co.uk 2 | passivehouseplus.ie | issue 39

in

w

a

@

EDITOR’S LETTER

PASSIVE HOUSE+

Publishers Temple Media Ltd PO Box 9688, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland t +353 (0)1 210 7513 | t +353 (0)1 210 7512 e info@passivehouseplus.ie www.passivehouseplus.co.uk

Editor

Jeff Colley jeff@passivehouseplus.ie

Deputy Editor

Lenny Antonelli lenny@passivehouseplus.ie

Reporter

John Hearne john@passivehouseplus.ie

Reporter

Kate de Selincourt kate@passivehouseplus.ie

Reporter

John Cradden cradden@passivehouseplus.ie

Reader Response / IT

Dudley Colley dudley@passivehouseplus.ie

Accounts

Oisin Hart oisin@passivehouseplus.ie

Art Director

Lauren Colley lauren@passivehouseplus.ie

Design

Aoife O’Hara aoife@evekudesign.com | evekudesign.com

Contributors

Toby Cambray Greengauge Building Energy Consultants Anthea Lacchia journalist Marc Ó Riain doctor of architecture Peter Rickaby energy & sustainability consultant David W Smith journalist

Print

GPS Colour Graphics www.gpscolour.co.uk | +44 (0) 28 9070 2020

editor’s letter T

here’s a punchline to a joke by the wilfully difficult, Brechtian comedian Stewart Lee that I find myself frequently bringing up in conversation these days, as it seems to sum up where we have arrived at as a species, at least in terms of public discourse. (I use the word punchline advisedly, as Lee’s the kind of comedian who’s not known for telling jokes, and certainly not jokes with punchlines.)

Lee retells a probably fictional conversation with a London taxi driver, who apropos of nothing, launches into a tirade against homosexuality, which he calls immoral. Lee tells the taxi driver he’s not sure morality is a good basis for his argument, as it’s not a fixed thing. He points out that in ancient Greece, the civilisation that formed much of the basis of our conceptions of philosophy, ethics and science, homosexual love was considered to be a higher – if you will more moral – form of love. The taxi drive’s response? “Well, you can prove anything with facts, can’t you?”

At the risk of incurring the wrath of Lee’s copyright lawyers I’ll continue to borrow from him. “That’s the most fantastic way of winning an argument I’ve ever heard,” says Lee, going on to channel the taxi driver. “I’m not interested in facts. I find they tend to cloud my judgement. I prefer to rely on instinct and blind prejudice.”

The substandard retelling of this joke is just a characteristically long-winded way for me to explain the curious recurring feeling I have in my day-to-day work. My colleagues and I seem to be getting pulled deeper into informational rabbit holes in the course of our work, as we try to get to the substance of the issue of how to reconcile the need to construct buildings, with the need to simultaneously prevent and prepare for the converging environmental crises facing the world.

This magazine has become considerably harder to produce than it was in the past, because the devil really is in the detail when

ISSUE 40 it comes to sustainable building. In this way we can subject claims and often untested preconceived notions to scrutiny, such as the common architectural trope that we should be maximising passive solar gains in low energy buildings. (For what it’s worth, optimising is a much better aim). Or the implicit notion that synthetic materials are bad and natural materials are good.

We are increasingly making strides in terms of understanding the environmental impact of buildings in detail. In many cases, we may find that the evidence that emerges from conducting building life cycle assessments supports the things we thought we knew before. So, for instance, it’s clear that shifting from cavity wall construction to I-beam timber frame – and eschewing a blockwork external leaf – can significantly drop the upfront carbon emissions of a building. But engaging in this kind of analysis may also help to foster innovation on the masonry side of the supply chain, such as by integrating high quantities of green cement (and reducing overall cement content) in blocks or structural concrete, and reducing overall concrete thicknesses, etc.

As much as all of this ongoing fact-finding continues to be inordinately time consuming, it is liberating. If we adopt evidence-based approaches to the design, construction and operation of buildings, it turns out that we can establish with increasingly high degrees of certainty how much carbon was spewed into the atmosphere in the construction process, how long the building may last, and how much energy it will take to operate the building across its lifespan. We can therefore have real conviction about whether the decisions we take are right.

It turns out that in this one regard at least the taxi driver was right: by establishing the facts, we can in fact prove anything.

Regards, The editor

Cover

Cannock Mill Cohousing Photo by Adelina Iliev

Publisher’s circulation statement: Passive House Plus (UK edition) has a print run of 9,000 copies, posted to architects, clients, contractors & engineers. This includes the members of the Passivhaus Trust, the AECB & the Green Register of Construction Professionals, as well as thousands of key specifiers involved in current & forthcoming sustainable building projects.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in Passive House Plus are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers.

About Passive House Plus is an official partner magazine of The Association for Environment Conscious Building, The International Passive House Assocation and The Passivhaus Trust.

ph+ | editor’s letter | 3

CONTENTS

PASSIVE HOUSE+

CONTENTS

06

12

20

06

12

17

4 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

INTERNATIONAL This issue features a rural house on New Zealand’s South Island that achieved passive house ‘plus’ status.

NEWS Widespread disappointment at proposed new English building regulations, Passive House Plus publisher presents a TedX talk on passive houses and climate action, and Wales proposes an ambitious new quality and environmental standard for social housing.

COMMENT In his latest column, Dr Marc Ó Riain explores how policy on both side of the Atlantic in the 1980s sabotaged a nascent revolution in renewables and energy conservation; and Dr Peter Rickaby says that the goal of retrofit should be to create beautiful places to live and work, as well as energy efficient ones.

PASSIVE HOUSE+

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

30

20

42

CASE STUDIES Learning curves

Fermanagh college breaks world record with passive house premium status Since Erne Campus opened its doors in September, students of South West College in Enniskillen can now experience one of the world’s most environmentally advanced higher education buildings, and the largest building in the world so far certified to the passive house premium standard, in recognition of both its highly efficient building fabric and the large amount of solar energy it generates.

30

42

52

Form and function

52

Grist to the mill

Friends collaborate to develop passive cohousing scheme The pioneering Cannock Mill development in Colchester is just the second cohousing project in the UK to achieve passive house certification, making it a leader not just in terms of its thermal performance, but in demonstrating the vital role shared living can play in both building vibrant communities, and in mitigating the climate crisis.

62

Measure everything

Award-winning social housing provides crucial baseline data A new housing scheme designed by Coady Architects in Wicklow has achieved the highest green home certification – while suggesting that the convictions of one practice on a single project can help to transform the industry.

66

Deep & elegant Enerphit upgrade transforms old Kerry office space Run-down terraces are an all-too-common sight in towns and villages across Ireland, but an ambitious deep retrofit project in Tralee provides an inspiring blueprint for regeneration, taking a cold 19th century terraced office and turning it into a beautifully designed space with tiny energy bills, fit for the 21st century.

MARKETPLACE Keep up with the latest developments from some of the leading companies in sustainable building, including new product innovations, project updates and more.

Let’s get decarbonisation done While there is much debate about whether we should prioritise retrofitting homes or installing heat pumps, the climate crisis means we may not have a choice but to do both as fast as possible, writes Toby Cambray.

ph+ || contents contents || 55 ph+

IN BRIEF Building: 120 m2 one-off rural dwelling Location: Arrowtown, South Island, New Zealand Building method: Structural insulated panels Standard: Passive house ‘plus’

INTERNATIONAL PASSI VE & ECO BUIL D S F R O M A R O U N D TH E WO R LD

6

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

NEW ZEALAND

Photos by Sam Hartnett

THREEPWOOD PASSIVE HOUSE, NEW ZEALAND

L

ocated in the hills just outside of Arrowtown, on New Zealand’s South Island, this site overlooks a cluster of farm sheds that were built by homeowner and architect Mark Read’s grandfather. Mark’s great grandmother planted many of the larch trees on the site, and though his family left the farm when he was five years old, Mark says that building his own passive house here felt like coming home.

Mark and his partner, architect Siân Taylor, are the duo behind Team Green Architects, and for this project — their own family home — they wanted to cut embodied carbon and achieve passive house ‘plus’ status (which recognises renewable energy production as well as building fabric efficiency).

A limited budget ensured that the scale and form of the building was restricted to just what was needed. For a family of three, this meant two bedrooms, one bathroom, a laundry and an open plan living, kitchen and dining space.

The slope of the site suggested a mono-pitch, angular dwelling. Siân and Mark also designed an upstairs space with its own front door to serve as a bedroom for when Siân’s parents, who live overseas, come to visit. But this space was hastily converted to a home office once the first Covid

lockdown hit in 2020.

Careful placement of the windows and the geometry of the veranda help to optimise solar gain and avoid overheating.

The large north facing glazing (this is the southern hemisphere, remember) allows uninterrupted views of Coronet Peak and the Crown range. A highly insulated and airtight thermal envelope, plus triple glazed windows, leads to a tiny requirement for heating during cold winters on the elevated site, while there is also zero requirement for cooling during the hot summers, the architects say.

The thermal envelope was created with locally made structural insulated panels (SIPs), plus an additional layer of wool insulation. The external pallet is simple, with a dark stained cedar cladding and windows in European larch.

The house beat both the RIBA 2030 climate challenge targets for embodied carbon (at 599 kg of CO2 equivalent per square metre, compared to the target of 625) and for operational carbon (at 29 kg versus a target of 35). It was also a winner at the 2021 New Zealand Architecture Awards, with the New Zealand Institute of Architects describing it as, “a strong example of how responsible and sustainable design can be used to create delightful living environments”.

ph+ | new zealand international | 7

NEW ZEALAND

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

8 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

£ 2021

up to 20,000 kWh per annum

Domestic RHI

You need to feel a heat pump.

Not hear it.

Vitocal 222-A heat pump - extremely quiet thanks to Advanced Acoustic Design.

The modern and economical alternative for new build and renovation.

With a sound pressure level of only 35 dB(A) at a distance of three metres* the new air/water Vitocal 222-A heat pump is one of the quietest available. *Sound pressure level tested in night mode on a single fan outdoor unit.

viessmann.co.uk/products/heat-pumps/vitocal

Viessmann Limited | Hortonwood 30 Telford TF1 7YP | Tel: 01952 675000

WANT TO KNOW MORE? 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

GROUND FLOOR STAGE 1

10

THE SURE CHOICE FOR INDOOR AIR QUALITY INTRODUCING THE NEW 99.9% VOC FREE* DULUX TRADE AIRSURE RANGE

The ultra low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCS) in the new Dulux Trade Airsure range minimise the impact on indoor air quality**, while maintaining professional results.

We promise our paint will give you the perfect colour with a uniform finish and the coverage stated, or we’ll replace it. Visit dulux.co.uk/promise Terms and conditions apply. Claims must be made within 6 months of purchase. Proof of purchase required. Colour claims limited to 10L per customer.

Manufacturer’s tips and instructions must have been followed. UK purchases only.

*Based on in-can VOC content, measured in accordance with ISO 11890-2:2013. ** Respectively, ‘Ultra Low’ as this product is 99.9% VOC Free with ‘MINIMAL’ VOC content (0-0.29%), as defined by the VOC Globe scheme operated by the British Coatings Federation, and minimising impact on indoor air quality as independently tested for emissions, including formaldehyde, TVOC, TSVOC and Cat 1A & 1B carcinogens. Compliant with the emissions limits criteria in BREEAM New Construction 2018. (UK and International), LEED v4 & WELL 2.0.

NEWS

PASSIVE HOUSE+

NEWS

Disappointment at new building energy standards Review finds that SAP is not fit for purpose, by Kate de Selincourt.

T

he latest update to England’s building regulations on energy and ventilation was released in December, and was greeted with widespread disappointment.

The government published the interim Part L and Part F for non-domestic buildings, and the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES) for homes, both of which will come into force in June. The full ‘Future Homes/ Future Buildings’ standards are due to take effect in 2025.

The majority of respondents to spring 2021’s 132-question consultation urged the government to increase its ambition on decarbonisation, but the government stuck to its original proposals in almost every case.

The only real welcome was given to changes in Part F relating to ventilation in larger non-domestic buildings. These proposals, aimed at “reducing the risk of transmission of infection via aerosols in non-domestic buildings”, included designing ventilation systems with 50 per cent “headroom” so that ventilation rates can be increased in times of high infection risk. There is also a requirement for new ventilation systems in offices to have “a means of monitoring the indoor air quality”, for example CO2 monitoring.

These changes were promoted by experts on mitigating Covid infection risk. They were welcomed by Cath Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds, and member of the UK government’s SAGE advisory group, as “the start of a process to make sure we have better buildings going forward.”

But reaction to the proposals for Part L were in stark contrast. There was widespread dismay that calls for stronger action fell on deaf ears. As LETI, the London Energy Transformation Initiative, put it: “The government has largely ignored the advice of built environment professionals in response to its proposed changes to building standards on energy use.”

For example, 78 per cent of respondents selected the option to “go further” than the suggested 27 per cent CO2 reduction relative

12 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

to 2013 standards, but the government stuck with this target nonetheless.

For the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard for homes, around 70 per cent of respondents called for the government to go further than its two specification options. The government nonetheless stuck with one of its proposed standards, choosing ‘full’ FEES rather than option two, which was FEES with a 15 per cent reduction in overall efficiency.

The government also failed to increase its ambition on airtightness. The department stuck with an air permeability backstop of 8 m3/h.m2 at 50 Pascals, despite the fact that “one of the most common comments” was that the permeability requirements should be improved.

The government also introduced primary energy as a new compliance metric for non-domestic buildings alongside emissions (as calculated in SAP). This was a highly unpopular proposal with an absolute majority of respondents rejecting it, including on grounds that it was confusing, and that the primary energy factors set out favoured high-carbon gas over electricity.

SAP under review A review of SAP – the compliance calculation method for domestic buildings — is already underway. In 2021, the government commissioned a “scoping report” from consultancy Etude. The review ‘Making SAP and RdSAP fit for Net Zero’ was drawn up in consultation with a wide field of experts, said Etude.

Etude’s Thomas Lefevre, who led the review, shared the findings at an event hosted by Woodknowledge Wales last November.

Lefevre told the delegates: “The SAP and [in] particular, EPC system is seen by many as a serious obstacle to genuine, effective decarbonisation.

“We need the right metrics and the right tools, but EPCs and SAP are a very poor way to measure energy efficiency. There’s a big problem here, if policymakers simply set EPC targets and think job done.”

High up in the report’s concerns was the

notional dwelling approach. “You can have two buildings with a very different form factor, one atrocious, one really good,” Lefevre said. “If you look at the actual space heating demand you see a huge difference. A building with a poor form factor might need twice as much space heating as another. But if they are built to the same specification SAP gives the impression they perform the same.”

Other problems flagged with SAP include the way carbon factors are out of date before new editions of SAP are even published, which is seen as completely counter-productive if SAP is intended to drive low-carbon design.

“At the moment you are still using a carbon factor of electricity which is more than three times what it is in reality, let alone what it will be in 20 years time. This is a tragic failure of SAP,” Lefevre said.

The Etude report is now being considered by another consortium led by BRE which “is working with stakeholders to consider the Etude recommendations and how to implement them”, according to the government SAP website. •

There is also a requirement for new ventilation systems in offices to have "a means of monitoring the indoor air quality".

PASSIVE HOUSE+

NEWS

Rebuilt Low Energy Buildings Database to become key international resource

L

eading sustainable building association the AECB has secured funding to create an international resource to share detailed information on low energy buildings in the UK, Ireland and, ultimately, internationally, via a rebuild of the Low Energy Buildings Database (LEBD).

Once built the new site – which is being developed in partnership with Passive House Plus and user experience (UX) strategists Everything is User Experience – will enable users to compare detailed information on hundreds of buildings, including various building typologies, build methods, energy performance standards, and – crucially – comparisons of calculated and actual performance data. The project team is working collaboratively with a range of key industry organisations and other stakeholders in the UK and internationally on the rebuild, with the aim of creating a key resource for anyone with an interest in low energy building or retrofit.

The AECB has been awarded a £30,000 grant for the rebuild by the MCS Charitable Foundation, with additional funding secured via two founding sponsors: Gemini Data Loggers, who manufacture the Tinytag range of dataloggers, and Ecology Building Society, who offer mortgages and loans in the UK on low energy new build and retrofit projects.

The AECB developed the LEBD as an education dissemination tool for Innovate UK in the Retrofit for the Future competition in 2010.

In its current form, the LEBD showcases 455 innovative low energy UK building projects including single dwellings, multi-unit private and social housing schemes, schools and offices.

It includes 150 replicable best practice retrofit projects, including projects meeting the passive house, Enerphit and AECB building standards, among others.

The LEBD will also continue to serve as a repository of evidence for projects seeking to attain the unique self-certification AECB Building Standard. The AECB requires that all

self-certification projects are uploaded on the LEBD as evidence for public and professional scrutiny.

The upgraded database will include building performance evaluation – with an approach that encourages users who upload buildings to include data on how low energy build and retrofit projects have actually performed, based on monitoring results.

Led by the expertise of UX strategists Dan Hyde and Alex Blondin of Everything is User Experience and AECB technical reviewer Ian Wild of Lumina, the new design will place the user’s needs front and centre, to ensure the renewed LEBD is as accessible and intuitive as possible for construction industry, technical and consumer audiences alike. The site will capture and present design, performance and construction information related to the entire process of designing and building new buildings and retrofitting existing ones.

AECB chief executive Andy Simmonds said: “The MCS Charitable Foundation funding and support from Tinytag and the Ecology Building Society will allow AECB to create a collaborative, international platform for organisations in the UK, Ireland, Europe, North America, Canada and New Zealand to promote better designed and built, high performance, zero carbon buildings. The upgraded LEBD database will facilitate standardised, efficient data entry, improved sharing and access, consistent project comparison and reporting, enhanced feedback and learning as well as project promotion.”

Simmonds placed particular emphasis on the LEBD’s use in sharing experience on how to tackle existing buildings. “Retrofitting existing housing is an urgent priority. Housing accounts for around 40 per cent of the UK’s carbon emissions,” he said. “Four out of five homes occupied by 2050 have already been built. These households face the greatest challenges in decarbonising and adapting to the changing climate and rising energy costs.” •

TEDx passive house talk now available online

P

assive House Plus editor and publisher Jeff Colley’s TEDx talk on the passive house standard is now available to view online. Colley gave the talk, titled ‘Virtuous luxury: how passive houses can improve your life and help the planet’ at the TEDx Tralee event held in County Kerry, Ireland last October.

Colley said: “The message was that climate action doesn't have to involve sacrifice — it can actually improve your life. And there is no better example of this than passive house, as some of the surprising stories I share from those living in passive houses demonstrate.

“The default assumption that climate

action is necessarily hard and expensive, and is going to make our lives worse, must be challenged. We need to get better at telling positive stories about climate action, so that we can reframe the debate, and show how profoundly beneficial it can be to make meaningful, environmentally-friendly decisions.”

The full talk is available to view at tinyurl. com/passivetedx. •

Advertise with us.

94% say the adverts in Passive House Plus are relevant to them*

Contact us for more information on how your brand can feature in our next issue.

To enquire about advertising, contact Jeff Colley on +353 (0)1 2107513 or email jeff@passivehouseplus.ie

www.passivehouseplus.ie *source, Passive House Plus Irish edition 2019 reader survey

ph+ | news | 13

NEWS

PASSIVE HOUSE+

UK sustainable building groups become UN centres of excellence

(above) Exemplar sustainable building projects promoted by the Sustainable Development Foundation, which has become one of several UK organisations recognised by the UNECE, include the Marmalade Lane co-housing project in London, and the Virido housing scheme in Cambridge, both of which were designed using passive house principles and feature a wide range of sustainability features.

Marmalade Lane photo: David Butler | Virido photo: Tim Crocker

A

t COP26, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) recognised the UK’s Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), along with South West College in Northern Ireland and the Construction Innovation Scotland Centre, as international centres of excellence for high performance buildings.

The Association for Environment Conscious Building (AECB) and York City Council are among 35 other centres around the world that are in the process of joining.

“The time for talking is over. We haven’t delivered on the promises made in the Paris climate accord, agreed back in 2015,” said Jon Bootland, director of the Sustainable Development Foundation.

“This is a big problem for the UK because our building stock is the oldest in Europe, and 80 per cent of the homes we’ll live in by 2050 are already built. Our homes and buildings need an urgent rethink to meet the climate and ecological emergencies.

“What was different about COP26 was that today’s leaders have the evidence showing how to do this. Pioneers of building exemplars are sharing their evidence. Not only is this good news for the environment, it’s also great news for the people who live and work in these buildings because they promote health and wellbeing.

“Knowledge is one thing, but we need to act now. Actions bring about change and we must change how we tackle the climate and ecological emergency and meet our goals. The UNECE centre of excellence status will help us to achieve the transformation needed,” Bootland said.

Organisations holding the UNECE accolade are spread across the globe, with centres also found in Ireland, Bulgaria, New York, Canada, Washington DC, Pittsburgh and Maine.

“It is fantastic to see Construction Scotland Innovation Centre 14 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

(CSIC) recognised as a centre of excellence” said Stephen Good, chief executive of CSIC. “We look forward to working with the wider network to put the built environment commitments made at COP26 into practice.”

Barry McCarron, acting head of business development at South West College, added: “The announcement of the Erne Campus as the first building in Northern Ireland to join this global network is a significant show of faith from the international community in the work that has been undertaken by the college over the past ten years.”

(The building is profiled elsewhere in this issue of Passive House Plus).

The AECB’s chief executive Andy Simmonds also welcomed the initiative. “The AECB has long championed a fabric-first first whole-buildings and whole-system approach identified as the number one policy focus in the UK government’s strategy,” he said.

“The AECB has developed a set of building standards and guidance including the unique self-certification AECB retrofit standard, published in March 2021.”

Jon Bootland of the Sustainable Development Foundation added: “At COP26 we launched a collection of real-world exemplar projects, to inspire the transformation needed to create a new era of buildings that are fit for the future. On our website [sdfoundation.org.uk], you can see these pioneering projects which demonstrate cross-cutting sustainability performance, designed and built to deliver whole-life net zero, promote occupant health and wellbeing, and enable sustainable communities.

“We have the knowledge to deliver exemplary sustainable buildings; we believe these projects are the most sustainable in the UK. What’s needed now are credible plans for widespread adoption of these approaches.” •

PASSIVE HOUSE+

NEWS

Welsh social housing to embrace passive house, timber & life cycle assessment

by Kate de Selincourt

T

he Welsh government has issued a new standard for social housing that requires an embodied carbon assessment, favours timber-based offsite construction, and bans fossil fuel boilers.

Homes built under the Welsh Development Quality Requirements (WDQR) 2021 have to be highly energy efficient, with efficiency equivalent to an energy performance certificate (EPC) of A, using a fabric first approach. But they do not have to use SAP: other energy demand metrics, such as passive house certification, are also permitted.

The requirements apply to all publicly funded affordable housing. But the hope is that a version of this standard will go on to apply to all new housing in Wales.

The requirements were welcomed by Gary Newman, chief executive of forestry and timber campaign group Woodknowledge Wales, as “quite an incredible standard”.

At the Woodbuild 2021 event organised

by Woodknowledge Wales, Welsh government architect Campbell Lammie, a lead author of the requirements, said they were intended to favour the use of local timber “while still being as open and non-prescriptive as possible”.

Modern methods of construction (MMC) are a preferred delivery solution, and developers are asked to maximise the efficient use of timber in construction to increase carbon storage in harvested wood products in Wales. There is also a requirement to assess embodied impact. This encourages the use of timber, without dictating how homes should be built, Lammie said (see below).

The standard looks beyond SAP and EPCs for setting energy and carbon targets, with passive house certification being one

acceptable alternative. “We do recognise that EPC A is at times at odds with low carbon. EPC does gravitate towards use of gas,” Lammie said.

He added that the Welsh Government team was continuing to examine the best metrics to demonstrate building performance. “We will consider other metrics going forward and [it is] highly likely they will form part of updated standards.” The standard is also intended to evolve in collaboration with the construction industry, with learning and feedback from designers, manufacturers and developers central to the process.

“We are up for being challenged on what we have said, and recognise the requirements will need updating more regularly than has happened in the past,” said Lammie. The first revision may take place as soon as 2023.

The “signs are on the wall” that the standard may be extended to all housing development in the country, Lammie said, but this is a matter for minsters, as it would require changes to the planning and building regulations.

Lammie noted that some housebuilders are already reconsidering their standard designs, so that if the requirements come in for all housing, they will be ready. “We have had quite a lot of dialogue with one major housebuilder already — they are changing many of their house types to make sure they comply.”

A win for timber The Welsh Development Quality Requirements were launched with enthusiastic political backing for the homegrown timber industry in Wales. Speaking at the Woodbuild event, Lee Waters, deputy climate

change minister, said: “For too long Welsh resources have been subject to exploitation from outside forces. The wood economy makes a real contribution to addressing the nature and climate emergencies. It also provides us with a way of creating jobs and skills and livelihoods in our rural areas.

Housing is a big part of this.”

Several of the new requirements point strongly towards timber-based construction, including the requirement to assess and reduce upfront and embodied carbon.

Lammie added that the promotion of buildings which “can be adapted, reused or deconstructed and recovered/recycled” is also timber-friendly. “Timber stands above many other materials as it is very recyclable,” he said.

Neil Barber, executive director of Swansea-based housing association Pobl, was enthusiastic about the new standard. He welcomed the fact that the requirements – and the associated financial support — have moved from pilot programmes into the mainstream. “We need to embed this approach, to learn, and to learn quickly, and bring the timber industry along, so the supply chain can survive and thrive,” he said.

“We are working with excellent local companies, to evolve these products together. There is plenty of scope for standardisation of systems that work with the new standards — including inbuilt ducting for new technologies for example.”

Current supply chain pressures are also bringing home the urgency of the situation: “Materials and components [are] scarce, and we have seen some eye-watering price increases. It sends a big message to us: if we can get on top of timber supply this will give us some hedging against global impacts. Hopefully, this is another gift we can give [to] future generations.”

(above) Gwynfean is a 144-home mixedtenure joint development to be built by Pobl Group and Coastal Housing near Swansea. It uses an insulated timber frame system constructed off-site. Pobl’s Neil Barber described it as: “The first scheme at this scale where we’ve really focused on Welsh timber and focused on the embodied carbon of all the materials.”

Photo: Stride Treglown

ph+ | news | 15

NEWS

PASSIVE HOUSE+

UNPARALLELED CHOICE OF PASSIVE CERTIFIED PRODUCTS – OUTWARD OPENING, INWARD OPENING, UPVC, ALUMINIUM, ALUCLAD

GROUND BREAKING U-VALUES FROM AS LOW AS 0.47W/M²K We cannot reach carbon neutrality without addressing whole life carbon emissions.

T. 0845 3098007 E. info@munsterjoinery.co.uk

www.munsterjoinery.co.uk WINDOWS & DOORS 16 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

C O LPUAMSN S I V EDH R OM UAS R EC + Ó N RE I AWI N S

The 1980s: A renewable revolution undermined Marc O Riain explores how policy on both side of the Atlantic in the 1980s sabotaged a nascent revolution in renewables and energy conservation.

I

magine a time when oil prices were rocketing due to an international existential threat, not today… but the mid-late 1970s, when there could have been a real, transitional shift from oil to renewable energy globally.

After the first oil crisis in 1973, western government policies centred around energy exploration, strategic reserves and investment in both renewables and energy conservation.

Government departments of energy were established in most countries.

Ireland created non statutory ‘draft building standards’ with U-value performances in line with Scotland, and the UK improved statutory standards in 1976, along with grants for energy retrofit.

The UK adopted an energy policy around coal, conservation and nuclear energy (CoCoNuke) and formed the Energy Technology Support Unit (ETSU) to manage government funding of ‘alternative sources of energy’, but this was subverted through its control and dominance by the UK Atomic Energy Authority. For military defence reasons, UK energy policy became dominated by nuclear and not renewable energy.

At the same time scientists across the world were turning to solar, wind and geothermal as

Reagan gradually shifted public policy away from fuel conservation.

renewable solutions to energy independence.

These technologies were still largely unproven or commercially unscalable. Denmark would prove wind turbines viable with tax reliefs for investing in community renewable wind energy, and a biofuel revolution occurred in the mid-1970s when fuels like ethanol, made from corn or sugar cane, became economically viable through higher oil prices.

Because other renewable technologies could not establish economic viability at scale, US policy instead promoted nuclear power. However, this policy was critically damaged in pub-

lic opinion by the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in March 1979, which resulted in the release of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment. With a new oil crisis sparked by the Iranian revolution in January 1979, oil prices rose again and President Jimmy Carter turned towards renewable energy. Carter signed the Energy Security Act, which consisted of six separate acts covering synthetic fuels, biofuels, solar energy, geothermal energy, marine energy, and other renewable technologies. Carter very publicly endorsed solar power by installing thirty-two solar water panels on the White House during the summer of 1979.

However new charismatic leaders in Thatcher and Reagan came to power in 1979 and 1981, in the UK and the US respectively, and they had very different outlooks on energy security. Thatcher was elected following the ‘winter of discontent’ in 1978-1979, when unions held widespread strikes for improved pay and conditions against the backdrop of the coldest winter in 16 years.

Thatcher set out to break the power of the National Union of Mineworkers, and moved policy towards the expansion of the nuclear industry after the second oil crisis in 1979, away from coal and away from renewables.

President Reagan gradually shifted public policy away from fuel conservation and back to increasing domestic oil production. “Conservation, of course, is a most helpful thing, and we should be practicing it, but I truly believe the answer to our energy problem is an energetic program of increasing our own supply, and this we have not done,” he said.

Reagan’s policy changes featured deregulation, the removal of supports for renewable energy research and the very public removal of solar panels from the White House in 1986 which he saw as “a joke” according to his chief of staff. Reagan’s position undermined the fledging renewable sector, seeing many solar industries go out of business, as the technology proved economically unsustainable in a cheap oil market. Market demand for low energy buildings also decreased as oil prices fell. Thatcher and Reagan saw eye to eye on deregulation, believing the market would be the answer to the energy problem, and set out to end oil price controls and regulations.

Reagan rolled back product energy labelling, federal building energy standards, and funding for schemes promoting minimum energy performance standards in new homes.

The early 1980s became a desert for renewable energy and low energy building as deregulation and increased oil supply saw a collapse in oil prices, and by extension consumer demand. However seminal events like the Home World Exhibition in Milton Keynes in 1981 would bring together international low energy housing exemplars for the first time, which I will explore in my next article. n

(above) Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan at the G7 Ottawa Summit in July 1981.

Photo: Levan Ramishvili

A fully referenced version of this article is online at www.passivehouseplus.ie Dr Marc Ó Riain is a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Munster Technological University (MTU). He has a PhD in zero energy retrofit and has delivered both residential and commercial NZEB retrofits In Ireland. He is a director of RUA Architects and has a passion for the environment both built and natural.

ph+ | dr marc ph+ ó riain | news column | 17 | 17

Ecomerchant are proud to be partners, sponsors and suppliers N E Wto S the COP26 P A S SHouse.

IVE HOUSE+ The COP26 House stores (sequesters) two times more carbon than emitted to practical completion.

Beats the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge target by a substantial 22%.

Panelised system using natural materials, constructed in less than 8 weeks.

Alliance for Sustainable Building Products(ASBP) 2022 Awards Finalist Innovation Category.

Chosen by Grand Designs as host venue to the next series of Grand Designs: The Street.

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING MATERIALS FROM FOUNDATION TO RIDGE

www.ecomerchant.co.uk info@ecomerchant.co.uk +44 1793 847 444 | issue 40 18 (0) | passivehouseplus.co.uk

The COP26 house goes beyond zero carbon to demonstrate how beautiful, affordable, healthy and comfortable homes can be developed with minimal impact on the environment throughout their lifecycle. Ecomerchant’s support, expertise and product range was key to delivering the ultra-low carbon levels required using natural and sustainable building materials.

Peter Smith RIAS Roderick James Architects LLP Designer of the COP26 House Passivhaus Designer

C O L UP MANS S I VDER HPOEUT SEER+ R I CNKEAW BS Y

Lifting retrofit

out of its silo There has been a sleuth of recent reports on how to retrofit Britain’s existing homes, but we must think deeper than the practical matter of reducing energy and carbon, to how we create beautiful places to live, writes Peter Rickaby.

T

he run-up to the recent COP26 climate conference saw publication of a plethora of reports and strategies for retrofitting the UK’s buildings. They vary in scope, but most of them say the same thing: to get to zero carbon we need energy demand reduction, i.e., retrofit. The energy supply industry has a part to play in decarbonising heat and power, but without demand reduction we will not succeed. I have been reading five of those reports.

The Construction Leadership Council’s ‘Greening Our Existing Homes’ (May 2021) makes the case for the UK government, in partnership with industry, finance and community bodies, to adopt a strategy for making existing homes more energy efficient. The report describes the economic, social and environmental benefits of retrofit, sets out a fourstage implementation plan, and suggests that the UK needs 500,000 new professionals and tradespersons to deliver it by 2040.

The UK Green Building Council’s ‘Net Zero Whole Life Carbon Roadmap’ (November

The regeneration approach should be applied to every home we retrofit.

2021) adopts a broader approach embracing new and existing domestic and non-domestic buildings, and whole-life emissions. The publication has four parts: a pathway summary for stakeholders, a technical report, a summary for policy makers and action plans for key stakeholders. The ‘net zero trajectory 2018-2050’ section covers operational and construction/ retrofit emissions, identifies milestones and illustrates the scale and complexity of the challenge. Nationwide retrofitting of homes is one of five key priorities.

The London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) has published a ‘Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide’ (October 2021). This excellent document is the work of a consortium of a hundred building professionals, and it is exactly the guide that the industry needs. It

combines a comprehensive description of retrofit with explanation of technical complexities, performance standards and guidance about strategies and how to plan and implement projects. Now that we have this guide there is no excuse for the building industry not to rise to the challenge of climate change and get on with retrofitting our buildings.

The long-awaited Heat & Buildings Strategy published by the UK’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy department (BEIS, November 2021) is disappointing. It catalogues the options, but there is no critical synthesis, no clear direction of travel, and the important strategic decisions (for example about heat networks and hydrogen) are postponed. The suggestion that offshore wind generation capacity will be quadrupled provides a hint of where the balance between low carbon electricity generation and retrofit may lie: it implies that we must retrofit to reduce current heat demand by 60 per cent if we are to meet our heating needs through wind power (see my previous column in issue 39 for more on these figures).

A proposed obligation on the boiler industry to promote the installation of domestic heat pumps outside the PAS 2035 quality assurance framework has HM Treasury’s fingerprints all over it and will certainly result in heat pumps being installed in poorly insulated homes, leading to higher fuel costs and increased fuel poverty.

The Sustainable Traditional Buildings Alliance (STBA) report ‘From Retrofit to Regeneration’ (2021) reminds us that retrofitting is only one of the tasks we face in creating sustainable communities. The report recommends that the UK replaces its retrofit programmes (merely to improve energy efficiency) with strategies based on wider objectives also covering health, heritage, community cohesion, local employment, re-greening the environment, transport and flood alleviation. Retrofit cannot be delivered in a silo: if we simply focus on insulating our homes and installing heat pumps, but leave everything else untouched, we will not achieve sustainability. If we survive this century we will live, work, learn, socialise and travel in new ways, and our homes and other buildings will be key components of sustainable communities.

Reading the STBA report reminded me of a

project with which I recently assisted a housing organisation. The focus was a dilapidated, uninspiring, mid-20th century semi-detached house, although it has a substantial south-facing garden. The brief was to insulate, install a heat pump and demonstrate a path to zero carbon, but that narrow definition of retrofit is necessary but not sufficient. If we are to invest significantly in energy efficiency why not also make it a better home?

By opening the two ground-floor rooms into one open-plan space, relocating the kitchen, and replacing the rear door and kitchen window with glazed doors opening via a terrace to the garden, we could have transformed the relationship between the house and the garden.

And why not also create comfortable, well-lit zones throughout the house for sitting, cooking, eating, gaming, home working and home schooling, making it fit for the 21st century?

The client embraced those suggestions, but when the cost of the retrofit came in over budget they were the first things to be cut, and the opportunity was lost.

I think the regeneration approach should be applied to every home we consider for retrofit, and regeneration applies to the interior as well as to the surroundings and the socio-economic context. With thirty years of investment in deep retrofit ahead of us, not to lift retrofit out of its current, restricted silo and integrate it with a broader, regenerative approach would be not only be a missed opportunity but also a failure of imagination. n

Dr Peter Rickaby is technical director of The Retrofit Academy and helps to run the UK Centre for Moisture in Buildings (UKCMB) and the Building Envelope Research Network (UCL BERN), both at University College London. He also chairs the BSI Retrofit Standards Task Group.

ph+ | dr peter rickaby ph+ | news column | 19 | 19

ERNE CAMPUS

CASE STUDY

LEARNING CURVES FERMANAGH COLLEGE BREAKS WORLD RECORD WITH PASSIVE HOUSE PREMIUM STATUS Since Erne Campus opened its doors in September, students of South West College in Enniskillen can now experience one of the world’s most environmentally advanced higher education buildings, and the largest building in the world so far certified to the passive house premium standard, in recognition of both its highly efficient building fabric and the large amount of solar energy it generates.

By Anthea Lacchia

20 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

ERNE CAMPUS

IN BRIEF Building: 7,950 m² four-storey educational building Method: Steel frame with timber frame & masonry infill Location: Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh Standard: Passive house premium

ph+ | erne campus case study | 21

ERNE CAMPUS

CASE STUDY

mullarkey pedersen architects

Incoming fresh air is delivered through an earth pipe system.

O

n the banks of the River Erne, in the heart of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, a brand-new passive house campus is pushing the boundaries of sustainable design and energy efficient building.

In a series of record-breaking achievements, the newly completed Erne Campus, part of South West College, is both the largest building and the first educational building in the world to achieve passive house premium certification. It is also the first building in the UK to achieve both passive house premium and BREEAM Outstanding accreditations.

Passive house premium is awarded to buildings that not only meet the passive house standard for fabric efficiency and ven-

22 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

tilation, but that also generate a significant amount of renewable energy on site. Erne Campus, designed and constructed with meticulous attention to the building fabric, features nearly 1,600 photovoltaic panels on the roof, capable of generating 116 kWh per square metre of floor area, with excess energy stored in Tesla batteries.

The £30 million project (including £19.4 million in direct construction costs for the building) was funded by the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland. It recently opened its doors to students, offering 85 part-time and full-time courses ranging from accounting to creative media, cyber security, and visual media. Erne campus, which replaces the existing campus building at Fairview in Enniskillen, will accommodate more than 800 full-time students, 2,000 part-time students and 120 staff.

“It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in a project like this and everyone involved feels a huge sense of pride,” says Eimear Grugan, project sponsor in South West College. “The college has always had a great interest in sustainability and has been a provider of passive house courses for the past number of years,” she says.

Having developed the CREST (Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies) Pavilion to passive house and BREEAM Excellent standards in 2016, South West College was ready to take its sustainability journey one step further with the

Erne Campus project, which went to tender in 2017.

The college and integrated consultancy teams decided to aim for passive house premium and BREEAM Outstanding before the project went to tender, explains Grugan.

“We felt we were doing something new and ground-breaking, and there’s an excitement in that, but the flip side is the risk, because it was unchartered territory for all of us,” she says.

“The college had tremendous aspirations for the building,” says Karl Pedersen, a partner in Mullarkey Pedersen Architects and project architect for the Tracey Brothers design and build team. Although it was a “huge challenge,” he says, “teamwork was one of the key elements in achieving those aspirations.”

“That everyone buys in is so crucial, because you’re only as strong as your weakest link,” he says. Pedersen recalls the “constant pressure” and intensity of work that accompanied the design, assessments and calculations, both pre-construction and once on site. “There were a few sleepless nights!” he jokes, but “we are delighted to have achieved passive house premium,” he says.

Located on the former site of a hospital, the campus has a large, multi-storey atrium all along one side, and is built in an elongated crescent shape that is 20 metres high, with a south-facing, triple-glazed façade designed to capture passive solar gain. The rear of the building has a timber framed struc-

CASE STUDY

ture, which is externally clad in brickwork and panels, and there was an emphasis on minimising thermal bridging throughout the design.

Technical details aside, says Pedersen, “we always come back to those fundamental issues” of how to heat and cool the building, how to get fresh air into it, and how to retain heat. “Those are key environmental issues that humans have been struggling with for thousands and thousands of years.

With a treated floor area of 7,167 m2, a length of 200 m, and four storeys of elevation, the size and shape of the building were one of the many hurdles the project team had to overcome. One easy way to monitor and record the construction process on a site as large as the Erne Campus was to use photographic evidence, says Pedersen.

“A lot of passive house [teachings] are geared towards the domestic market and traditional house building,” says Donal McGloin of Tracey Brothers. “Airtightness, on a building of that scale, was a huge, huge challenge,” he says.

The main frame of the building is made of steel, combined with timber framed wall elements and solid concrete flooring across all levels. The removal of cold bridging in the structural steel frame was a primary concern for the project team, particularly where the steel frame connects to the foundation or floor, and the external shell of the building.

“We had to design and model all details to ensure we overcame that challenge,” says McGloin.

Thermal 3D modelling was crucial in allowing the team to “identify exactly where

Airtightness, on a building of that scale, was a huge, huge challenge.

cold passages were happening,” says Pedersen “and we used this to modify our design details to eliminate the cold bridge(s).”

A number of trial airtightness tests were carried out on site during construction, to test design and workmanship at various interfaces, and these provided positive results.

The building ultimately achieved an overall airtightness test result of 0.36 air changes per hour (ACH), comfortably inside the passive house standard of 0.6 ACH (never mind the building control requirement of 10 m3/h/ m2).

Overheating was a concern for the team from early on. At the design stage, 3D modelling using a Sketch Up helped to avoid excess summer heat, says Pedersen. In addition, key features of the building that help to prevent summer overheating include the selection of glass, the shading provided by brise soleil on the external walls, a five-metre roof overhang and the presence of maintenance walkways, which provide shading, as well as automatic opening vents in the façade for cooling. Exposed concrete soffits internally also help to absorb temperature peaks. “Since the façade

Photos: Hamilton Architects & Padraig McAllister

ERNE CAMPUS

was completed, we have worked through winter and through summer,” McGloin says, adding that it was “a very comfortable environment to work in temperature-wise.”

The south-facing atrium also acts as a thermal buffer to the low north-facing teaching spaces. Heat can either be mechanically dumped into the atrium from the teaching spaces, or taken from the atrium by the teaching spaces, to heat and cool them. The heat in the atrium space, meanwhile, can be purged in the summer by stack ventilation, with automatically opening windows at low level and roof level within the atrium.

The site-based control by Tracey Brothers also helped to ensure that the entire construction team bought into the concept of passive house design, says Pedersen. “If you’ve got a couple of hundred men on site, each one of them has to buy in to the project, because they could be opening up airtightness issues that no one actually would know about.”

Early planning and coordination were vital ingredients to the success of the project, according to McGloin. “Early involvement in the design, before getting to the site, was ab-

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The digital version of this magazine includes access to exclusive galleries of architectural drawings.

The digital magazine is available to subscribers on passivehouseplus.ie & passivehouseplus.co.uk

ph+ | erne campus case study | 23

ERNE CAMPUS

CASE STUDY

solutely essential in achieving the airtightness result that we got,” he says.

Three members of the design and construction team were qualified passive house designers, and training in passive house principles was provided to everyone on site.

A workshop delivered by the passive house certifier at the pre-construction stage ensured everyone was aware of what was being fed through the passive house software, PHPP. “Everybody knew what we had to achieve and how difficult it was going to be, but the training and the workshops all paid dividend for us,” McGloin says.

“As we did come up against issues, we were able to resolve those through design recalculation,” says Pedersen, also noting that “the treated floor area calculation was critical” to the overall achievements. When it came to design calculations, other key factors for balancing heat gains and losses included the overall volume of the building, the number of students that would use the building, and the amount of electronic equipment they would use. Installing the correct amount of glazing was another important consideration in avoiding overheating and achieving the required U-values, says McGloin.

The two renewable energy systems in place for the building are: solar powered battery storage, provided by the nearly 1,600 photovoltaic panels on the roof of the building, and a combined heat and power (CHP) biofuel unit. Gas boilers in the building are intended to act as back-up.

The solar panels provide energy to the mechanical heat recovery units that circulate air around the building, explains McGloin.

Incoming fresh air is first drawn through an earth pipe system, whereby three ground pipes temper the air from outside – boosting its temperature in winter, and reducing it in the summer, before being delivered to the mechanical ventilation systems, allowing them to operate more efficiently. In addition, a small number of windows can be opened in the building to provide natural ventilation.

For Pedersen, one take-away from this project is to “try to use as many passive house certified products as possible,” as the alternative is to get uncertified products tested and proven compliant, which takes time.

It feels like a once-in-alifetime opportunity to be involved in a project like this.

24 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

ERNE CAMPUS

EG04 Server rm 24 m²

EG01 IT Store rm.

EG05 Stair Lobby

16 m²

EG02 Workshop rm.

EG09 Stairwell 3

71 m²

EG38 Outside Plant

Occupancy 6no

UP UP

A

EG19 Classroom tourism rm.

EG10 Atrium

EG34 Boiler Plant rm

64 m²

75 m²

Occupancy 21no

EG22 Classroom catering rm.

12

65 m²

EG26 Lecture theatre rm.

EG24 Central hall rm.

Occupancy 21no

161 m²

215 m²

13

Occupancy 326no

Occupancy 432no

UP

B-B SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0930

EG25 Atrium

14

C D

33 m²

EG25b Exhibition Space 50 m²

A-A -

15

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0940 ---

16

F 20

17

Not only have you fulfilled the functional aspect, but you’ve transcended beyond that.

G

18

mullarkey pedersen architects

1

2

3

4

5

19

Level 1

10

14 7

0

B

A

C

E

F G 4

EF54 External Plant 50 m²

EF59 Plant Room 6 m²

5 EF01 Demo rm.

27 m²

EF02 Healthcare rm.

51 m²

EF03 Project Base Learning rm.

50 m²

UP

6

EF05 General Class rm.

EF06 Atrium

60 m²

23 m²

EF07 Stairwell 2 27 m²

EF08 Stair Lobby 6 m²

EF09 Escape Lobby Stair 2 40 m²

EF10 Changing Places rm.

EF13 General class rm.

8 m²

59 m²

7

EF15 Life skills rm.

45 m²

C-C SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0920 ---

EF14 Atrium

EF18 General class rm.

EF16 Corridor

142 m²

60 m²

10 m²

8

EF19 Child Care rm 56 m²

EF18a Corridor

9

10 m²

EF20 Science lab 1 rm.

111 m²

EF21 Lab Class rm.

60 m²

EF22a Corridor

20

EF55 External Plant Lightwell

7 m²

49 m²

EF22 Prep rm.

19 m²

EF23 Archive rm.

10 m²

EF27 Acc. Toilet 5 m²

EF26 Science lab 2 rm.

109 m²

EF28 WC 26 m²

EF25 Union office rm.

10 m²

EF14 Corridor

10

EF30 Stair 3

32 m²

EF34 Student support rm.

22 m²

EF29 Stair Landing

15 m²

EF39 First aid rm.

12 m²

32 m²

EF35a Lobby EF57 Print Hub Rm

UP

EF41 IT class rm

2 m²

EF36 Meeting rm.

40 m²

13 m²

EF31 Lift Shaft

UP

11

3 m²

DN

UP

EF38 Office for 2 rm.

EF32 Lift Shaft

3 m²

EF35 Corridor/waiting area

A

15 m²

13 m²

3 m²

EF14a Lift Lobby 28 m²

EF40 Cleaners Store rm.

EF37 Open plan office rm.

EF42 Lobby

7 m²

8 m²

303 m²

EF46 Student changing rm.

EF43 Staff social area rm.

12

73 m²

52 m²

B

EF56 Accessible Change rm.

7 m²

EF47 EF49 Cleaners Store Stair rm. Lobby

13

4 m²

5 m²

EF50 Lift Lobby 5 m²

EF48 Props Store rm.

B-B -

UP

25 m²

EF52 Lift Shaft 3 m²

EF53 Riser 4 m²

EF51 Stairwell 4 24 m²

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0930 ---

C D

14

EG37 Collaborative learning rm.

30 m²

15 16

E

A-A SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0940 ---

17 18

mullarkey pedersen architects

5

10 m

20 m

14 7

0

20

19

Level 2

F

E

1

B

ES05 Stair Lobby

A

EG01a M&E Cupboard

ES03 Stairwell 1

5 m²

24 m²

ES01 Studio/class rm.

56 m²

ES06 Corridor 3 m²

ES07 Riser 3 m²

ES02 Class rm

2

48 m²

ES16 Atrium 114 m²

D-D

ES15 Fitness suite rm.

ES08 Corridor

119 m²

29 m²

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0910 ES04 Class rm 48 m²

3 ES18 Acc. change Rm

ES19 Changing Rm

5 m²

28 m²

ES21 Acc. WC

ES20 WC

3 m²

19 m²

ES23 Printing Hub rm.

4 m² ES24 Laundry rm.

4

10 m²

ES25 Hair rm. 1 100 m²

EF27a EF Atrium Half Landing 31 m²

5

ES26 Corridor

ES28 Hair rm. 2

ES29 Project learning rm.

25 m²

93 m²

41 m²

ES32 Dispensary rm.

25 m²

ES33 Corridor

6

17 m²

ES34 Stairwell 2

ES35 Lobby Stair 2

27 m²

4 m²

ES38 Corridor

ES38a Atrium Balcony

16 m²

37 m²

ES36 Acc. Toilet 4 m²

ES39 Beauty rm.1

36.5M/SQ.

83 m²

ES37 Riser 3 m²

7 C-C

ES46b Corridor

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0920

ES40 Beauty rm. 2

29 m²

ES41 Open plan office Area rm

64 m²

60 m²

8

ES44 HR interview rm.

11 m²

ES42 Collaborative learning rm.

ES48 Exams rm.

26 m²

ES45 HR office rm.

11 m²

ES49 Safe rm.

13 m²

4 m²

ES53 Technology rm.

9

17 m²

ES55 HLS rm.

ES47 Campus office rm.

16 m²

15 m²

ES50 1 to 1 teaching rm.

11 m²

ES57 Estates rm.

ES52 Store rm.

ES51 Managers rm.

16 m²

3 m²

12 m²

ES46 Corridor

20

56 m²

ES54 Student support rm.

ES61 Reception Area rm

25 m²

14 m²

ES60 Reprographics rm.

11 m²

ES56 Student social rm.

89 m²

ES63 Entrance Lobby

ES62 Stair Landing

15 m²

67 m²

10

ES64 Stair 3

ES68a Cleaners store rm.

22 m²

2 m²

ES68 WC 19 m²

ES72 Ess. skills IT rm.

DN

37 m²

UP

ES71a Corridor 9 m²

ES65 Lift Shaft ES66 Lift Shaft

11

ES74 Ess. skills lit. rm.

ES60e Protected Corridor

3 m²

ES77 ILR rm .

39 m²

A

15 m²

ES83 Store Rm.

7 m²

ES69 Bistro/Canteen Area rm

5 m²

ES85 Audio rm.

56 m²

13 m²

ES73 Kitchen rm.

ES84 Reception rm.

ES78 Study rm.

31 m²

ES58 Breakout Space

3 m²

8 m²

ES87 Technology rm. 7

ES75 Corridor

50 m²

61 m²

9 m²

ES79 Study rm.

12

7 m²

EG25a Coffee dock

ES76 IT Hub rm.

105 m²

B

ES86 Office Area rm

4 m²

35 m²

ES80 Study rm.

ES81 Open learning centre rm.

13 m²

268 m²

13

ES92 Lift Shaft

ES89 Lift Lobby

3 m²

4 m²

ES93 Riser 4 m²

B-B

ES91 Stair 4 24 m²

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0930

14

C D

ES82 Casual seating rm.

69 m² 68.35m/sq.

15 A-A -

16

G

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0940 ---

17 18

mullarkey pedersen architects

5

10 m

19

Level 3

20 m

14 7

0

F

E

B

A

1 ET04 Stair Lobby

ET03 Stairwell 1

7 m²

ET01 Office Area

24 m²

12 m²

ET02 Office Area rm 34 m²

ET05 Meeting rm.

13 m²

ET06 Casual Seating Area rm

ET06b Corridor

17.10m/sq.

37 m²

18 m²

2

ET08 WC 15 m²

void

ET09 Acc. WC 3 m²

ET13a Corridor 20 m²

D-D

ET10 Multifunction rm. 1

ET11 Multifunction rm. 2

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0910

56 m²

37 m²

ET15 Atrium

3

ET13 Multifunction rm. 4

Redundant Room 10.51m/sq

29 m²

ET12 Multifunction rm. 3 40 m²

ET14 Multifunction rm. 5 36 m²

ET16 Art classroom rm. 2

4

104 m²

ET18 CAD/CAM rm.

ES07b Corridor

33 m²

32 m²

void ET19 Kilin rm.

14 m²

ET22 Cleaners store rm.

5

ET21 HUB rm.

ET20 Art Classroom rm. 1

4 m²

59 m²

4 m²

ET07 Corridor 225 m²

ET24 Technology rm. 2 50 m²

ET23 Technology rm. 1 37 m²

ET26 Corridor

6

16 m²

ET27 Technology rm. 3 54 m²

ET29 Stair Lobby

ET28 Stairwell 2 27 m²

3 m²

ET29a Cleaners Store rm.

1 m²

ET31 Acc. Toilet 3 m²

ET32 Riser 2 3 m²

ET34 Technology rm. 4 37 m²

ET33 Technology rm. 5

7

48 m²

ET36 Technology rm. 6 31 m²

C-C SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0920

void ET37 Corridor

ET39 Networking lab rm.

40 m²

8

28 m²

ET38 Cyber security rm.

54 m²

ET30 Corridor

ET42 Teaching space rm. 2

50 m²

40 m²

9 ET44 Presentation space rm

ET43 Teaching space rm. 1

66 m²

51 m²

ET45a Charger & Store rm 4 m²

20

ET49 Teaching space rm. 3

ET46 Control rm.

ET41 Atrium 492 m² 17.311m/sq

43 m²

10 m²

ET30 Corridor

ET47 Sound/motion capture rm.

23 m²

50 m²

ET50 Teaching space rm. 4

10

ET52 Stair 3

52 m²

22 m²

ET30b Lobby

ET56 WC

4 m²

19 m²

DN

ET56 WC 19 m²

3 m²

ET30a Lift Lobby

ET59 Acc. WC

ET61 Private Dining rm.

36 m²

3 m²

ET53 Lift Shaft

void

11

ET60 Bar rm. Area

30 m²

ET54 Lift Shaft

A

ET62 Production kitchen rm.

3 m²

129 m²

27 m²

ET57 Restaurant Area rm

ET66 Student changing rm.

83 m²

10 m²

ET64 Training kitchen Area rm

12

ET82 Store Rm.

ET79 Office rm.

12 m²

13 m²

ET74 Open plan office Area rm

ET67 Staff Change rm.

2 m² ET85 Lobby 9 m²

132 m²

57 m²

ET71 Acc. Change rm

ET80 Meeting rm.

6 m²

B

14 m²

ET84 Corridor

ET72 Laundry/Cleaners St.rm.

5 m²

15 m²

13

ET63 Cleaners & Chair Store rm.

ET58 Restaurant Atrium balcony

8 m²

89 m²

46.671m/sq

ET65 Corridor

ET73 Kitchen store rm.

14 m²

ET69 Corridor

ET76 Lift Lobby

ET78 Lift Shaft

5 m²

3 m²

11 m²

ET77 Stairwell 4

ET65 Corridor

13 m²

ET81 Riser 4 4 m²

UP

32 m²

32 m²

14

B-B

C D

?

roof to balcony below

SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0930

9.04m/sq

void

ET75 Board rm.

52 m²

15 16

G

A-A SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0940 ---

17 18

0

5

10 m

19

Level 4

20 m

14 7

mullarkey pedersen architects

G

F

1

2

D-D SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0910

3

4

5

6

7

9

C-C SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0920 ---

10

8

12

48

14

13

15 16

17 18

19

A

B

C D

S

PA2AA

B-B SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0930

An enormous amount of time was spent on supply chains to deal with the specification of the materials, says Pedersen.

It is important that “buildings are treated holistically,” he comments. “Sustainability isn’t its own little chapter, or its own little element. It has to be seen in combination with everything else that’s going on in the building. We’re working with the materials and the people that are available around us.”

Overall, the project demonstrates that “in a rural town in the northwest of Ireland, you can create a world class, environmental building. And that’s through the application of knowledge of how you go about detailing things, but also the diligence of the locally based contractor’s team and their willingness to rise to the challenge. I found that very satisfying throughout the whole project,” says Pedersen.

The uncertainty brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic presented additional challenges, notes Grugan. The site had to close for several weeks, moving the completion date back from spring 2020 to April 2021, she recalls.

Now that college staff have moved into the new campus, everyone is still learning how the building works, especially during this summer’s heatwave, and evaluation is ongoing, but feedback has been very positive, says Grugan.

“People talk about the feel of the building, the light, the freshness of the air,” she says. “I think that’s a huge testament to the design, because something that can evoke a feeling, an emotional reaction, means that you’ve touched somebody.

Not only have you fulfilled the functional aspect, but you’ve also transcended beyond that,” she says.

The building offers many different learning spaces and experiences for students, says Grugan, including the large atrium, socialisation and breakout spaces, and staff rooms.

“You’re struck by the calmness of the building,” says McGloin. “Because of the high level of airtightness and insulation, acoustically, you’re in a very quiet space. You also have a comfortable building temperature-wise.”

The inception of the CREST Pavilion back in 2015 was the start of a journey that has led to the college becoming an international passive house hub, says the college’s active head of business development, Barry McCarron, who is also the current chairperson of the Passive House Association of Ireland.

“We have in that time supported industry with 70 research and development projects in sustainable construction to the value of one million euro and directly trained over 250 construction professionals in both passive house designer and trades courses,” he says. The college has also been invited to

G

A-A SWC-MPA-01-ZZ-DR-A-0940 ---

20

0

5

10 m

20 m

Upper Roof

14 7

mullarkey pedersen architects

ph+ | erne campus case study | 25

ERNE CAMPUS

CASE STUDY

ECD Architects ECD Architects is an award winning practice specialising in the design of low energy, low environmental impact buildings, cost effectively and to the highest quality standards. Our offices are filled with incredibly talented people from Architects to BIM and Sustainability professionals.

Due to our company’s continued growth we are currently recruiting for the following vacancies:

REGIONAL DIRECTOR

(London) The Regional Director post is a newly created role and the post holder will have overall responsibility for leadership and operational performance of ECD’s London Office.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR

(London) Associate Directors will be entrusted with day to day contact with key clients.

SENIOR ARCHITECTURAL TECHNOLOGIST

(Glasgow) Qualified Technologist (CIAT or equivalent) with 10+ years’ experience of post RIBA stage 3 services capable of taking day-to-day responsibility for at least two major projects.

PASSIVHAUS DESIGNER / CONSULTANT

(London or Glasgow) Certified Passivhaus Designer / Consultant (CEPHD/ CEPHC) with at least 1-year post-certification experience and proven delivery of at least one Passivhaus/EnerPHit Project on site.

ARCHITECT

(London) Qualified Pt 3 Architect with experience of all stages of the design process, capable of taking day-to-day responsibility for at least one major project.

For more information please download the job descriptions from our website careers page: https://ecda.co.uk/careers/ and email recruitment@ecda.co.uk to apply.

26 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

ERNE CAMPUS

SELECTED PROJECT DETAILS

1 2

3

5

7

4

6

8

9 1 Erection of the steel frame; 2 pipework for the earth pipe system, which tempers fresh air that is delivered to the building; 3 laying the 250 mm hollowcore concrete slabs; 4 OSB infill panels to the steel frame; 5 the top floor of the building during construction with timber frame elements and sub floor visible, housing various services; 6 installation of Xtratherm Thin-R insulation to floor; 7 with underfloor heating pipes and 75 mm screed above this; 8 middle floor during construction showing ventilation pipework, and with floating floor in place; 9 service corridor outside the building with ducting for earth tube system visible.

Client: South West College Main contractor (design & build): Tracey Brothers Ltd Design stage architects: Hamilton Architects Construction stage architects & passive house design: Mullarkey Pedersen Architects Client-side quantity surveyors: ESC Construction Consultants Ltd Design stage structural engineers & BREEAM assessors: Tetra Tech Contractor’s structural engineers: Albert Fry Associates Design stage M&E consultants: Bennett Freehill Contractor’s M&E consultants: Semple McKillop Post construction BREEAM assessors: Tracey Brothers Ltd Passive house certification: Passive House Academy M&E contactors: AEM Ltd Curtain walling & window installers: D & K Architectural Systems Curtain walling system: Metal Technology Primary insulation supplier: Xtratherm Airtightness products: Glidevale Protect CHP units: Fleetsolve Earth pipe: Rehau Radiators: Versatile Heat recovery ventilation systems: GDL Air conditioning: Zircon Boilers: Elf Combustion Underfloor heating: Alternative Heat Rainwater harvesting: Rainwater Harvesting Ireland Solar PV: Solmatix

become a United Nations Centre for Excellence for High Performance Buildings, and recently hosted a workshop at COP26 on how buildings can mitigate climate change.

Students will now have another a real, cutting-edge passive-certified building to learn from. Karl Pedersen says: “I think having the opportunity to learn in a building which is what they’re learning about is going to be a great benefit. […] Hopefully they will realize that the world is your oyster, and whatever decisions you make fashion how the world is going to change, and everyone can do that.”

“It’s wonderful for students to have this facility on their doorstep,” says Grugan, adding that the new campus “should give them a huge sense of pride in their surroundings, and confidence in the courses that are being offered to them. Hopefully that leads to greater confidence and self-belief in the students themselves, so they can feel they can compete with anybody and go out into the world and make their mark, and know that the building and their education prepared them for life. What more could you ask for?”

ph+ | erne campus case study | 27

ERNE CAMPUS

CASE STUDY

Supplier of windows and curtain walling for Erne Campus metaltechnology.com

The original liquid applied airtight system

Over 1000 passive house projects completed

THE MOST AIRTIGHT SPACE IN THE WORLD 17 5410

LIQUID APPLIED AIRTIGHT MEMBRANES 28 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

Comprehensively tested and certified

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM ARCHIVE 0.03ach Passivhaus Certified Achieved using Blowerproof liquid airtight membranes Full warrantied installation by our Achilles registered applicator

info@blowerproof.co.uk www.blowerproof.co.uk

CASE STUDY

ERNE CAMPUS

IN DETAIL Building type: 7,950 m² four-storey steel frame third-level educational building Location: Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh Completion date: April 2021 Budget: £19.4 million direct construction costs Passive house certification: Certified passive house premium Space heating demand (PHPP): 8 kWh/m²/yr Heat load (PHPP): 9 W/m² Primary energy demand (PHPP): 41 kWh/m²/yr Primary energy renewable demand (PER demand): 27 kWh/m²/yr Renewable energy generation: 116 kWh/m²/yr Heat loss form factor (PHPP): 1.65 Overheating (PHPP): Frequency of overheating less than 5 per cent over 25 C. This will mostly be during the height of the summer, when the college is in low use.

Number of occupants: 480 (PHPP) Environmental assessment method: BREEAM Outstanding Airtightness (at 50 Pascals): 0.36 ACH Energy performance certificate (EPC): B 86 Measured energy consumption & costs: Not available yet Thermal bridging: Thermally broken window frames centred on wall insulation layer, insulated reveals. Bespoke details that were confirmed by thermal calculations. Steel frame within thermal envelope as far as possible. Insulated timber framed walls to north, east and west elevations: externally hung off steel structure, then brickwork facing. In the curtain walling elevation on south façade, balcony supports penetrating envelope reduced to minimum, and thermally stopped. First course of Mannok blocks. Y-value (based on ACDs and numerical simulations): 0.08 W/mK Ground floor: 150 mm compacted base followed above by 25 mm sand blinding, 250 mm thick hollow core slabs, 1 mm DPM, 90 mm Xtratherm XT/ UF insulation, 75 mm screed, floor finishes (mix of tiled flooring, sprung timber floor, vinyl flooring). U-value: 0.11 W/m²K Walls: Brick outer skin followed inside by 50 mm air gap, then breather membrane/wind barrier

on 9 mm OSB board sheathing, on 150 mm Xtratherm Xtroliner XO/FB insulation between timber studwork; then airtightness barrier on 100 x 38 mm battens (service zone) with 100 mm Xtratherm Xtroliner XO/FB insulation (0.021 W/mK) between timber studwork. Finished internally with 13 mm plasterboard. U-value: 0.13 W/m²K Roof: Single Ply Sika-Trocal membrane roof on 140 mm insulation (Xtratherm FR- ALU) with thermal conductivity of 0.022 W/mK, on vapour control layer (S-VAP 5000E SA), on profiled metal deck. U-value: 0.15 W/m²K Glazing: Metal Technology triple glazed powder coated aluminium windows, with argon filling and a project U-value of 0.7 W/m²K Heating: The ground floor auditorium and atrium spaces are heated via underfloor heating from an air source heat pump. The remainder of the building is heated via low water content radiators served with hot water from a Fleetsolve bio fuelled CHP plant which feeds a 3,000-litre buffer vessel. Gas boilers are for back up only in case of CHP failure. Water is distributed through multi-layer composite pipework insulated with phenolic foam. The only active cooling is in the fitness suite which has a 14 kW fan coil powered by the solar PV. Hot water: Generated via indirect cylinders with a coil served from the CHP buffer vessel and also large 6 kW immersion to avail of electricity generated by the solar PV array. Water distributed through multi-layer composite pipework that is insulated with phenolic foam.

Lighting: The entire building’s lighting system is comprised of high efficiency LED light fittings.

Automatic lighting controls are incorporated to switch off lighting in areas that are not in use.

In many of the teaching/office spaces, the light fittings can be dimmed to allow for prevailing daylight conditions.

Ventilation & cooling: Mixed mode ventilation employing both mechanical and natural systems.

The mechanical ventilation design strategy includes a low-carbon displacement ventilation system in open plan spaces such as auditoria and classrooms as an alternative to conventional air conditioning. This delivers air at low velocity at 19-21 C directly to the occupied zone and

air warmed by occupation of the space rises through buoyancy to the return air points at high level. But before entering the building, incoming air is first drawn through an earth pipe system, which consists of large tubes placed in the earth approx 1.5 metres deep. At this depth the ground temperature will range between 7-13 C throughout the year. This system can cool the air by up to 14 K in the summer and heat it by 9 K in the winter. The atrium also employs an automatic stack effect natural ventilation system using opening rooflights. At a design rate of approximately 30 m3/h per person the ventilation will ensure good indoor air quality (approximately 1,000 ppm/CO2).

Building management system: The building energy management system (BEMS) is set up to control airflow throughout the occupied spaces via monitoring of the CO2 levels within these areas, thus ensuring optimum power usage of the air handling, heat recovery and variable refrigerant volume (gym only) units to ventilate these spaces efficiently. There are a large number of sub-meters throughout the building. These are linked to the site wide BEMS system, which allows the energy usage of each of the sub systems that are metered to be monitored.

Electricity: 2,667 m2 of solar PV, generating 380,782 kWh/yr. Approx peak generation of 520 kWp (kilowatts at peak generation). A Tesvolt battery storage system has also been designed to capture some of the peak PV generated electricity during the day and prolong its use into the evening times when the college is still running. The Tesvolt battery storage system has an instantaneous rating of 180 kWp and battery storage capacity of 460 kWh. The building also benefits from the inclusion of the CHP unit which provides 65 kilowatts electrical generation during operation. These two complementary systems are expected to generate 800,000 kWh of renewable electricity per annum between them, with the biofuel CHP also generating circa 560,000 kWh of high-grade heat for space heating and hot water generation.

Green materials: Products have generally been selected that are A-rated in the BRE Green Guide.

AAA rated white goods specified.

ph+ | erne campus case study | 29

CANNOCK MILL

CASE STUDY

GRIST TO THE MILL FRIENDS COLLABORATE TO DEVELOP PASSIVE COHOUSING SCHEME The pioneering Cannock Mill development in Colchester is just the second cohousing project in the UK to achieve passive house certification, making it a leader not just in terms of its thermal performance, but in demonstrating the vital role shared living can play in both building vibrant communities, and in mitigating the climate crisis.

By David W Smith

30 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

IN BRIEF

CASE STUDY

CANNOCK MILL

Building: 23-unit cohousing scheme across three buildings Method: Timber frame Location: Colchester, Essex Standard: Passive house classic certified Energy bills: £9 per month for space heating & hot water (excluding standing charges).

See ‘In detail’ for more.

£9

per month

ph+ | cannock mill case study | 31

CANNOCK MILL

CASE STUDY

We were concerned about being isolated in our houses in London.

C

ohousing developments, where a group of people lives in a supportive community, are still quite rare in the UK. Even more unusual are cohousing projects with passive house certification like Cannock Mill Cohousing, in Colchester, Essex.

It is only the second such project to earn the distinction following Lancaster Cohousing, in northwest England.

The new Colchester community of thirty people has twenty-three properties, a mix of one, two and three-bedroom dwellings, some with garages. The age profile is on the older side. “One of the reasons there are only over 50s living here is because so few young people can afford to buy a house in the southeast,” says project architect, and Cannock Mill resident, Anne Thorne.

32 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

The profile of Cannock Mill’s residents, however, is also connected to how the idea was born. Anne and her friends in London began discussing the idea of cohousing 15 years ago. One of the major considerations was avoiding isolation as they aged. “We were concerned about being isolated in our houses in London,” Anne said. “But we also liked the idea of sharing a lot of things which reduces expenditure and carbon emissions and makes it more sustainable. Most of the residents gave up larger houses when they moved.”

The friends gathered up more enthusiasts and drew a map of potential locations within 90 minutes of London. Colchester emerged as a likely candidate. It had relatively affordable local land values and offered a balance

of local amenities and access to countryside.

The avoidance of rural isolation was an important consideration. Anne says the history and attractiveness of Colchester, Britain’s oldest town, gave it a “wow factor” that many other locations lacked.

The group purchased the Cannock Mill site for £1.2 million in 2014. It was just a 15-minute walk to the town centre, from where regular trains depart for London’s Liverpool Street station and the seaside, a journey of about 45 minutes either way.

Anne’s architectural practice, Anne Thorne Architects LLP, had designed both individual passive houses and larger housing developments for London authorities, such as Lambeth Council. “Over the years we designed the buildings to higher and higher insulation

CASE STUDY

standards until it eventually made sense for them to be passive houses. Then some of the people in the practice qualified as passive house designers,” she said.

Anne had always wanted to design the Cannock Mill cohousing scheme, and it was clear she had the skills required. But the group still had to officially appoint her at a meeting in accordance with their democratic principles. She set about drawing up plans for a development of twenty-three homes because the site already had outline planning permission for that number. The homes were split across three buildings: one with twelve houses, one with five houses, and one with six flats.

To help create a sense of community, the properties are built around the existing 19th century mill building, and its pond. The mill became a communal space for guest bedrooms, a laundry and shared kitchen. “The common building is a focal point for the community, where we participate in sharing meals. You don’t have to eat them if you don’t want to, but you are expected to help out in

Photos: Adelina Iliev

making meals when it’s your turn. It’s a basic principle of cohousing that you act sustainably and share things,” she says.

The cohousing group always intended to convert a second building on the site, the mill house, into flats. But they delayed doing so in case it turned out to be difficult to sell all the homes in the first three blocks. “If it had come to the worst, we could have sold the mill house to help pay for the development.

But in the end, we sold all twenty-three well before the contractor finished, and we’re now developing the mill house. There’s a waiting list for the new homes,” Anne says.

Anne worked closely with landscape architects who designed a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) that takes rainwater from the green roofs down into tanks under the road and rain gardens, which store it temporarily. It then goes into the mill pond and from there, it flows into the river.

“The drainage scheme is a fundamental part of the project as it prevents flooding from heavy rainfall,” she says. The design also had to consider an 11-metre north-facing slope

CANNOCK MILL

from the top of the site to the bottom. As a passive house development, the scheme needed to be south facing. “Our solution was to turn the houses upside down and put the balconies and living rooms on the top floor.

It means you get the sun coming in through the windows,” she says.

The unusual design, however, discombobulated the local planners. They had originally given permission for twenty-three standard houses on the site, and they dug their heels in. “It took a long time to persuade them as they wanted a more conventional development, but they changed their minds when we persuaded them to visit the site. They could see why we couldn’t just have traditional cul-de-sacs because of the slope, as well as the type of community we were creating.

The concept of cohousing is still so new.”

The scheme reached practical completion in October 2020. The total cost, including the £1.2 million fee for the site, came to around £10 million. All homes were sold at cost according to the non-profit principles of the community-led cohousing movement.

ph+ | cannock mill case study | 33

CANNOCK MILL

CASE STUDY

The new owners began to move into their homes in December 2019. The homes were all sold with 999-year leases and whenever a new owner buys a lease from the Cannock Mill Cohousing Company, they become directors. “It means we’re all leasing to each other, so we’re responsible for managing ourselves and everything else on the site, including the land,” she said.

The houses have living green roofs and are constructed in timber frame cassettes with cellulose (recycled newspaper) insulation, wood fibre and sheep wool insulation, while the flooring is made from renewable bamboo. On the outside, the dwellings are finished with ‘self-coloured’ lime render in different natural mineral colours that won’t need to be repainted. They are designed to Lifetime Homes space standards, meaning they can be made accessible at any stage, for example with the installation of lifts, or stairlifts.

From the start, the residents shared gardening, e-bikes, cars, a “library of things”, and shopping. Unfortunately, the pandemic struck only a few months after the residents moved in. Although the virus stunted the development of community life, it also meant people were less isolated than they might have been elsewhere. “During the lockdowns we collectively bought vegetables from local suppliers and shared them out. And we’ve met outside and done things together like maintaining the grounds, which has been a lot of fun because you can dig together and spend time chatting. There have also been a lot of zoom meetings with neighbours.”

With restrictions having eased, some of the community’s nervousness has diminished.

And while the Covid situation was looking less certain at the time of writing with the emergence of the Omicron variant, as of mid-November Anne said that residents had begun to feel more comfortable with each other in smaller gatherings. “That’s especially true when there is plenty of fresh air. One of the good things about passive houses is they have a constant flow of fresh air. A lot of people have been happier to meet indoors in recent weeks and the meals in the common house are better attended now,” she says.

Increasingly, the spontaneous interactions

Most of the residents gave up larger houses when they moved.

34 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

1 2

3

5

7

4

6

8

9 1 A single course of Airtec 7 blocks helps minimise thermal bridging at the floor-to-wall junction; 2 & 3 erection of the timber frame, to be insulated with Warmcel cellulose insulation; 4 Steico wood fibre insulation to the outside of the timber frame; 5 Compacfoam high strength insulation under the door threshold; 6 steel frame of the balustrade has a minimum number of fixing points to be tied back to the timber frame above the bedroom; 7 external wall build-up showing oak cladding over insect mesh and battening 8 an airtightness test underway; 9 installation of external blind for shading.

CANNOCK MILL

that are part of the cohousing spirit are becoming a way of life. “If you see someone having a cup of tea on the common house deck overlooking the pond, you go and join them. Designing the terrace of the housing around the pond makes it a more sociable environment. Just this afternoon, the fish man arrived in his van, and everyone rushed out to buy some,” she said. “The intermediary spaces are important in encouraging the sense of community when you’re chatting by the coffee machine, or the pond.”

As time goes on, the community, which advocates a policy of “active ageing”, hopes to take advantage of everyone’s skills. Anne says the residents enjoy many hobbies, though they were temporarily frustrated during the lockdowns. These include artistic activities, such as carving, ceramics, textiles and painting, music and singing, gardening, cooking, walking, cycling and swimming.

Everyone in the development belongs to at least two subgroups, working on areas such as building, finance, communications, membership and social activities. The executive, which includes a chair, secretary, treasurer and subgroup chairs, plus a ‘lay member’, reports to the monthly board meetings at which subgroups also present reports. Members attend meetings in person or by video conferencing and cooperate through email.

The community has set up an “ever after” subgroup to think up creative ideas for the future management of the site.

Anne worked on the project with Japanese-born passive house designer Junko Suetake, who she has collaborated with for many years. “We worked closely as a team, with Anne and several very talented architectural assistants. I was in charge of all three PHPPs [passive house design files], which was the same as applying the principles to other passive houses I’ve worked on, but on a massive scale,” Junko says.

The scheme was certified as three separate buildings. Junko says one challenging aspect of the project from a passive house point of view was the requirement for garages. The planners insisted on a minimum number of car parking spaces, and due to the nature of the site, the most efficient option was to install some of these as garages within the thermal envelope of the houses.

“That was really challenging, because normally garage doors are not airtight and perform poorly from a thermal point of view,” says Junko. The solution was to install Lacuna triple glazed bifold doors across the garage openings, and now, because car ownership on the site is low, residents tend to use these large open spaces as workshops or studios rather than for car parking. “It’s quite nice, if you walk in front of the houses you can see all the various activities going on,” she says.

Each dwelling has heat recovery ventilation, and there is a solar PV array that pro-

ph+ | cannock mill case study | 35

CANNOCK MILL

CASE STUDY

Quick, easy airtight solutions The Pro Clima Aerofixx applicator takes the stress out of those tricky airtight junctions.

Making spray application of the Pro Clima Aerosana Visconn liquid range easy by rapidly sealing specific junctions, to form a seamless, elastic, airtight and humidity variable membrane.

Discover our solutions online at

ecologicalbuildingsystems.com

36 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

CANNOCK MILL

vides electricity for the communal spaces.

There has been no embodied carbon assessment of the project to date, and while the timber frame walls and natural insulation material should reduce the whole life carbon footprint, on the sloping site there was also a structural need for higher carbon materials like reinforced concrete in the foundations, and a steel frame for the balcony.

At first, Junko was sceptical about the cohousing approach. She says it seemed like such a lot of effort with meetings every weekend, tight budgets, and endless decision-making. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to bear it myself. But I’m now a total convert. I have seen the many fantastic things they’re doing on site and the strong sense of community that’s developing. They have a lot of people from different backgrounds and they’re great at problem solving together. And now I think what they’ve achieved is a triumph.”

SELECTED PROJECT DETAILS

Client: Cannock Mill Cohousing Colchester Ltd Architect/passive house design: Anne Thorne Architects LLP M&E engineer: Alan Clarke Civil & structural engineering: Ellis & Moore Consulting Engineers Main contractor: Jerram Falkus Construction PH consultant to contractor: Etude Thermal bridging calculations: Elemental Solutions Quantity surveyor: Peter W Gittins Airtightness tester: Paul Jennings Passive house certifier: WARM Landscape planning: Studio Engleback Landscape architect & SUDS: Robert Bray Associates Render system with wood fibre board: Lime Green Products Wall & roof insulation: Warmcel, via PYC Systems Recycled jute insulation & airtightness products: Ecological Building Systems Sheepwool insulation: Thermafleece MVHR, windows and doors: Green Building Store Bi-folding doors: Lacuna, via Passivhaus Store European Oak cladding: Vincent Timber Kitchens: Falkus Joinery Flooring: Simply Bamboo Green roof: Bauder, via the Urban Greening Company Green roof design: Green Infrastructure Consultancy Zinc roof: Nedzinc

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The digital version of this magazine includes access to exclusive galleries of architectural drawings.

The digital magazine is available to subscribers on passivehouseplus.ie & passivehouseplus.co.uk

ph+ | cannock mill case study | 37

CANNOCK MILL

CASE STUDY

Build by www.pycconstruction.co.uk

Warmcel cellulose fibre insulation offers industry-leading thermal performance, easily meeting Passive House standards.

Provides thermal comfort in summer and winter E: info@pycgroup.co.uk

High sound absorption properties T: 01938 500 797

38 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

W: www.warmcel.co.uk

CASE STUDY

CANNOCK MILL

IN DETAIL Building type: 23 homes — a mixture of one, two and three-bed houses and flats — across three buildings: 316 m2 (six-flat block), 655 m2 (five-house block) and 1,200 m2 (12-house block).

Figures are treated floor areas. Gross internal floor area of dwellings ranges from 52 m2 to 144 m2. There is also a common house, in the existing listed mill building.

Location & site: Cannock Mill Rise, Colchester, Essex Completion date: December 2019 Budget: £7 million approx Passive house certification: All three blocks are passive house classic certified.

Space heating demand (PHPP): Five-house block: 15.3 kWh/m2/yr; 12-house block: 10.6 kWh/ m2/yr; six-flat block: 14.3 kWh/m2/yr Heat load (PHPP): Five-house block: 10.4 W/ m2; 12-house block: 10.2 W/m2; six-flat block: 10.2 W/m2 Primary energy non-renewable (PHPP): Five-house block: 83 kWh/m2/yr ; 12-house block: 81 kWh/m2/yr; six-flat block: 108 kWh/m2/yr Primary energy renewable (PHPP): Five-house block: 72 kWh/m2/yr; 12-house block: 74 kWh/m2/ yr; six-flat block: 97 kWh/m2/yr Heat loss form factor (PHPP): Five-house block: 2.63; 12-house block: 2.33; six-flat block: 3.53 Overheating (PHPP): Five-house block: 0 per cent; 12-house block: 2 per cent; six-flat block: 4 per cent Number of occupants: 30 Airtightness (at 50 Pascals): Each dwelling was individually tested to be under 0.6 air changes per hour; for the purposes of passive house certification each of the three buildings was submitted at 0.6 ACH. Energy performance certificate (EPC): B 82-89 Measured energy consumption: Based on monitored electricity and gas bills during 2020, the total energy consumption of the three blocks was: 41.28 kWh/m2 (five-house block); 40.85 kWh/ m2 (12-house block); 65.51 kWh/m2 (six-flat block).

All of these are within the figures projected within PHPP. Thermal bridging: Ground wall junction: +0.023

W/mK. Achieved using one course of AAC block Airtec 7 lined with XPS insulation to the bottom of the wall. Floor insulation PIR is above the concrete slab and below screed. Threshold: 0.047 Wm/K with single AAC block Airtec 7 in line of door. Separating wall bottom: +0.08 W/mK using one course of AAC block Airtec 7. Floor insulation PIR is above the concrete slab and below screed.

Balcony wall bottom: + 0.076 W/mK, separating the steel connection from the timber structure and the insulation zone.

Energy bills (estimated): We estimated energy bills for a hypothetical average dwelling at Cannock Mill by taking the average electricity and gas consumption per m2 across the 23 units, and multiplying it by a hypothetical average sized dwelling for the scheme of 94.6 m2. We then fed the electricity and gas consumption figures for this dwelling into uSwitch.com, and the cheapest available tariff projected an annual gas bill of £113 or £9 per month (for space heating and hot water) and an annual electricity bill of £398. Both figures include VAT but not standing charges.

Ground floor: 10 mm bamboo flooring on 65 mm screed, on 150 mm PIR insulation (houses) or 150 mm phenolic insulation (flats), on 250 mm reinforced concrete, on 225 mm Cellcore HX S9/13 board. U-Values: 0.135 W/m2K (houses) and 0.108 W/m2K (flats) Walls (flats): 20 mm fire retardant treated European Oak cladding over insect mesh (flats) or zinc cladding on underlay and 18 mm WPB plywood externally, on 25 mm ventilation void, on Solitex Fronta Quattro membrane, on 22 mm wood fibre insulation, on 400 mm Warmcel cellulose insulation between structural timber frame and sub-frame, on 12 mm Smartply Propassiv airtight OSB, on 25 mm services zone insulated with Thermo Hemp Combi Jute, on plasterboard and paint finish. U-values: 0.092 W/ m2K (flats) Walls (houses): Lime render on 40 mm Steico Protect wood fibre insulation, on 350 mm Warmcel cellulose insulation between structural timber frame and sub-frame, on 12 mm Smartply Propassiv OSB, on 25 mm service zone, on plasterboard and paint finish. U-value: 0.108 W/m2K Roof (houses): Vegetation externally, followed

underneath by 120 mm growing medium & drainage layers, on Bauder waterproof protection, on 18 mm OSB3, on 125 mm ventilation zone, on Solitex Plus membrane, on 18 mm OSB3, on 360 mm Warmcel cellulose insulation between 360 mm I-joists, on Intello Plus airtightness membrane, on 50 mm battens, on plasterboard and paint finish. U-Value: 0.111 W/m2K Roof (flats): Corrugated steel sheet galvanised or zinc standing seam on underlay externally, followed underneath by 18 mm WBP plywood, on 50 mm ventilation layer, on weather tight membrane, on 18 mm OSB3, on Warmcel cellulose insulation between 400 mm I-joists, on Intello Plus airtightness membrane, on 96 mm sheepwool insulation, on plasterboard and finish.

U-value: 0.079 W/m2K Windows & external doors: Green Building Store Progression timber frame internally, no frame externally, triple glazed argon-filled. Whole window U-value: 0.77 W/m2K. Green Building Store ULTRA timber frame windows and doors, triple glazed argon-filled. Whole window U-value: 0.94 W/m2K. Lacuna timber frame triple glazed argon-filled bi-fold doors. U-value: 0.95 W/m2K Heating system: Worcester Bosch Greenstar 28 and 36 CDi Compact gas boilers to each dwelling, distributing heat via radiators.

Ventilation: Zehnder Comfoair 160 heat recovery ventilation system for smaller dwellings — Passive House Institute certified to have heat recovery rate of 89 per cent. Zehnder Comfoair Q350 heat recovery ventilation system to larger dwellings — Passive House Institute certified to have heat recovery rate of 90 per cent.

Water: Water saving models of WC and taps.

Sustainable urban drainage system across the whole site. Rainwater gardens.

Electricity: Solar PV array with 16 x 250 W modules.

Green materials: Timber frame lightweight structure except foundation and ground slab.

The main insulation materials to the dry part of the construction are natural materials: Warmcel, wood fibre board, sheep wool, Jute insulation.

The main external finish is timber or lime render.

ph+ | cannock mill case study | 39

KILBRIDE COURT

CASE STUDY

IN BRIEF Project: 40-unit social housing scheme Method: Cavity wall on strip foundations Location: Bray, Co Wicklow Standard: HPI Gold Embodied carbon: 687.5 kg CO2e/m2 (50-year design life) BER: A2 (30 – 48 kWh/m2/yr) Energy costs: €65 per month for 2 & 3 bedroom units (estimate of total energy costs, HPI assessment)

€65

per month

In many ways, this housing scheme is far from ordinary.

42 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

KILBRIDE COURT

MEASURE EVERYTHING AWARD-WINNING SOCIAL HOUSING PROVIDES CRUCIAL BASELINE DATA A new housing scheme designed by Coady Architects in Wicklow has achieved the highest green home certification – while suggesting that the convictions of one practice on a single project can help to transform the industry.

Reporting by Anthea Lacchia | Additional reporting by Jeff Colley

ph+ | kilbride court case study | 43

KILBRIDE COURT

CASE STUDY

T

his is a normal housing development – built using block cavity wall on strip foundations – meeting the minimum building regulations brief from the local authority, Simon Keogh, senior project architect, is keen to stress. But, in many ways, this housing scheme is far from ordinary. Kilbride Court in Bray, County Wicklow, is the first multi-unit development to be awarded gold certification under the Home Performance Index (HPI), a certification system developed by the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) to assess quality and sustainability in new residential developments.

The social housing scheme, completed in July, is the result of a three-year journey, and comprises 40 residences in Kilbride Court and two on Clover Hill. It includes terrace houses, duplexes, apartments and two single house units, the latter at Clover Hill which did not form part of the HPI application.

Throughout the project Keogh was passionate about gathering as much data on environmental impact as possible. Within the architectural profession, he says an “inherent problem lies in the inadequacy of our training specifically relating to the scientific performance of buildings”. He argues that there has been a systemic conflict within the education system and the architectural profession that places intangible artistic merit over measurable scientific performance.

“As a result, architecture has claimed for itself an elevated and near unaccountable position within society,” he says. “Architecture should not solely operate within a subjective

44 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

sphere. The preference of art over science which our Anthropocene society has inherently consumed, has led us to face the still unresolved impact of climate change as identified as early as 1990.”

The irony, Keogh says, is that architectural ethics state that architects are obliged to protect and enhance the environment yet, so far, the profession has been seen enjoying its own intrinsic intangibleness. “There has been a long-neglected need to create science-based, tangible solutions. Part of good practice should have addressed the need to substantially reduce the 39 per cent of carbon dioxide emitted from the built environment.”

Keogh points out that this objective has been laid out again in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and in Ireland’s Climate Action Plan 2021, which calls for a substantial reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. “If we continue to ignore the fundamental principles of good building practice the consequences experienced by society will be dire,” he says.

For Keogh, it was postgraduate training through courses in BIM (building information modelling) and professional energy skills in NZEB at the Dublin Institute of Technology — including a module on the passive house software, PHPP — that helped him “see the world from a scientific perspective”. He applied this expertise, and a healthy dose of steely determination, to Wicklow County Council’s housing scheme.

The Kilbride project wasn’t subject to the 2019 version of technical guidance document L. Planning was obtained long before

the new regulations came into force, and the dwellings were up to wall plate level before the November 2020 deadline. But the scheme still comfortably exceeds the headline targets of Ireland’s nearly zero energy building (NZEB) standard. The 40 units achieved average energy performance coefficients of between 0.19 and 0.21, representing between 79 and 81 per cent reductions in calculated energy demand compared to Ireland’s 2005 regulations. This was not because of improved U-values but due to a modulating heat pump, improved airtightness and thermal modelling junctions delivering a Y-factor of 0.03 W/m2K. But the HPI certification is a measure of sustainability that goes well beyond energy performance, explains Keogh. It is based on five categories of verifiable indicators and a point scoring system. The indicators are: environment, economy, health and wellbeing, quality assurance and sustainable location.

“The HPI is intended as a very holistic evaluation of the sustainability of new housing,” says Pat Barry, chief executive of the IGBC who, with environmental engineer Neoma Lira, developed the HPI. “The idea is to apply measurable indicators to a whole range of areas, including not only carbon emissions of energy, but also embodied carbon, biodiversity, land use, density, water use, design team skills and others,” he says.

The HPI also assesses the sustainability of the location of housing, based on accessibility measurements relating to public transport, schools and amenities.

Achieving gold in the HPI requires an

CASE STUDY

overall score equal to or greater than 70 per cent under version 1.1 (or 65 per cent under current version two). Some of the key scores for Kilbride Court were: • 8 7 per cent in sustainable location • 76 per cent in universal design • calculated embodied carbon of 687.5 kg CO2 equivalent per square metre (CO2e/m2) • used 81 per cent FSC timber • used 68 products with EPDs or PEPs (see below) • thermally modelled junctions to achieve an average Y-factor of 0.03 W/m2K. But this task was far from easy, says Keogh.

While it involved a lot of early planning, the greater challenge was the time required to ensure records were maintained and to complete the calculations. However, there are simple and free or low-cost actions that can be taken on a site to score points. For example, recording how sustainable the location is, logging construction waste to input into any life cycle assessments (LCAs), specifying restrictors on taps, implementing biodiversity measures or using products with environmental product declarations (EPDs) or product environmental passports (PEPs) to provide more accurate life cycle assessments.

10 STEPS TO

ENHANCE BIODIVERSITY This list, provided by Brendan Vaughan of Mitchell & Associates landscape architects, includes examples of measures which are achievable in most cases with minimal cost uplift and little or no maintenance uplift.

1

1 x insect hotel

2

Some nectar rich vegetation and food for butterflies

3

No more than 10 trees or shrubs of same species/ha

4

All plants should have some household use

5

Food for birds all year

6

2 x old food fruit crops per 100 m2

7

2 x swallow boxes

8

All trees/bushes should bear fruit/berries

9

Small section for natural succession

10

50 x flowering Irish wild plants

Photos: Fionn McCann

“There are so many things that can be done on any site to start the journey. […] We are only starting to have the conversation now, but at least we are starting,” he says.

Embodied carbon Thirty-nine per cent of global carbon emissions are related to building and construction. Of that figure, 28 per cent comes from operational carbon in the running of buildings, and 11 per cent from embodied carbon, which is all the CO2 emitted in producing buildings. With new buildings making substantial reductions in operational energy demand and associated carbon emissions, embodied carbon becomes increasingly important – and the HPI reflects this by awarding points for embodied carbon calculation and life cycle assessment.

Embodied carbon starts at the quarrying, mining, procurement or harvesting stage for raw materials, and continues as they are transformed into construction products, and transported and installed in buildings. It also includes the maintaining, replacing, removing and disposing of the materials throughout their life cycle.

Although the subject of embodied carbon has long been neglected, the signs are that this is set to change, and rapidly: Ireland’s recently published Climate Action Plan seeks to cut the embodied carbon of construction materials by 10 per cent as a core measure,

KILBRIDE COURT

with a further measure of up to 60 per cent reductions. A leaked draft of the next version of the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive includes proposals to mandate whole life carbon calculation in energy performance certificates for large buildings from 2027 and all buildings by 2030.

Meanwhile the RIAI has just followed the lead of RIBA in the UK by including embodied carbon targets in its own 2030 Climate Challenge – including a target of 625 kg CO2e/m2, and a higher target of 450 kg CO2e/m2 for dwellings over 133 square metres. Given the relative dearth of information on the embodied carbon of Irish buildings, one immediate priority is to start calculating embodied carbon, in order to benchmark existing buildings.

To produce the most accurate calculations possible, manufacturers need to step up to the plate by obtaining independently validated EPDs for their products. EPDs are a standardised way of providing data about seven key environmental impacts of a product through its life cycle. In Ireland, verified EPDs can be published on the EPD Ireland programme (www.igbc.ie/epd-home), developed by the IGBC, although it is important to note that an embodied carbon calculation can include data from EPDs published elsewhere – and EPDs are becoming common among European manufacturers.

“There is a perception in the industry that

See water calculator at www.thewatercalculator.org.uk.

Sanitaryware

Restrictor

Wash hand basin monobloc

2 litres/minute (l/m)

Shower

5 l/m

Comments Needle restrictor providing fine larger spray of water.

Provided water is pumped the low flow provides adequate consistent flow for users and is the lowest entry credited in DEAP.

Kitchen monobloc

Up to 12 l/m

You can stay under 80 litres per day provided the kitchen tap does not go over 12 l/m. The kitchen flow rate is important due to high use and high flow rate demand.

WC

4/2.6

Ensure you carry out a CCTV and levels survey of as built to ensure proper unobstructed discharge.

Bath

None

Inclusion of even a low volume bath would add over nine litres per person per day.

Litres per person /day (LPD)

79.83

Note: There are no contributions from grey and green water accounted for.

ph+ | kilbride court case study | 45

KILBRIDE COURT

CASE STUDY

there are not many EPDs available in Ireland and that they are extremely expensive.

That’s not always the case,” says Keogh. For Kilbride, he was able to accrue a total of 60 EPDs from product manufacturers and suppliers – the list of which is published in full at www.passivehouseplus.co.uk/KilbrideEPDs. By encouraging suppliers to get independently validated audits of the overall environmental impacts of their products through EPDs, Keogh has had a big impact on the supply chain. It is crucial, he says, for architects and everyone in the industry to “ask for EPDs. Don’t specify a product until it has an EPD would be an ideal scenario.”

For instance, he notes a growing number of Irish manufacturers leading the way with EPDs for a range of products. These include: Mannok for precast concrete slabs, blocks, roof tiles and insulation, Kilsaran for paving, Dulux for low VOC/SVOC (volatile and semi volatile organic compounds) paints, Medite Smartply for wood panel products, Gyproc for plasterboards, Ecocel, Kore and Xtratherm for insulation, Ecocem for green cement, Munster Joinery for windows, Passive Sills for thermally broken window sills, McGrath’s of Cong for screed, Techrete for precast concrete cladding, Tegral for slates and IMS for recycled aggregate, with Partel set to publish an EPD for their membranes in the new year.

Going against the construction industry culture where the architect’s specification may be broken on site by contractors or subcontractors substituting an alternative non-approved product, Keogh was a stickler for evidence that the specified performance was adhered to, conducting regular site inspections to protect the specification, EPDs and all. On one occasion, this led to a surprising finding. Low VOC/SVOC paints with EPDs were specified internally, and the contractor submitted Dulux paints, which were approved by Keogh. But when Keogh visited the site, he had reason to suspect Dulux paints weren’t being used, even though the subcontractors produced Dulux cans for inspection, because other empty cans of an alternative paint were found in the skips, indicating the painters had gone to the length of decanting the substitute paint into a Dulux can to avoid detection.

According to Pat Barry, the dogged determinism exhibited by practices like Coady Architects is already starting to have impacts far beyond specific projects, and is now driving verification of sustainability credentials across the supply chain. “This project shows there has been a real sea change in the level of transparency that manufacturers are now engaging at,” says Barry. “It’s projects like this which have made it possible. Now all the main manufacturers are developing EPDs. We now have over 100 products with EPDs. Hopefully we will see more really going for broke and really targeting high levels of sus-

46 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

1 2

3

5

4

6

7

8

9

10

1 Icopal Necoflex RMB 400 Radon membrane dressed around soil vent pipe & over Mannok AAC perimeter thermal blocks to ensure membrane is below slab level and not liable to damage during powerfloating; 2 Necoflex RMB 400 radon membrane preformed corners ensured proper overlapping; 3 & 4 modular door thresholds developed by Partel with Alma Vert recycled PET structural insulation; 5 residual cavity required to be 50 mm but minimum 40 mm in very limited circumstances; 6 prefabricated stub end truss provide a robust thermal line between cavity and attic insulations. Note in this picture the truss oversailed the wall plate due to poor site measuring and together with the 12 mm OSB 3 board (see photo 7) a perspex card was required to contain the loose insulation; 7 junction showing 60 mm Rockwool fire barrier at top of party wall meeting the polythene encapsulated Rockwool vertical cavity barrier; 8 Partel Exoperm Mono Duro 200 breather underlay; 9 Intello Plus airtight layer at ceiling level; 10 300 mm Dämmstatt cellulose insulation to attic floor.

CASE STUDY

Recording ecological change on a residential site is far from common.

tainability,” he says. “[In Ireland] we have to build half a million homes over the next 20 years,” notes Barry. “That’s where most of the environmental impacts from construction will come from. That’s why it’s so important to measure the full impact of building ordinary housing.

That’s where we really have to target embodied carbon reductions,” he says.

With projects like Kilbride Court helping to create a benchmark for construction, Keogh’s focus is now shifting to delivering embodied carbon reductions.

“Concrete is responsible for eight per cent of global carbon emissions. We need to reduce the amount of concrete in our buildings,” says Keogh. For future housing projects, where cement products are required Coady will look for ways to reduce the embodied carbon of concrete, until alternatives to concrete become more mainstream.

This will include looking for higher quantities of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) where possible, especially in dry concrete products where curing times are less critical, such as blocks, precast slabs, precast stairs, paving, lintols, and sills. GGBS is a by-product of steel manufacturing which offer reductions of up to 96 per cent in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions compared to ordinary Portland cement (OPC).

Keogh said that, in advance of a rumoured national technology centre for construction being formed shortly, with a remit to include holding data on building performance, the life cycle assessment results for Kilbride Court will be available on www.shareyourgreendesign.com.

litres, leaving the kitchen sinks at 12 litres.

This “is an easy win for the industry,” and the tool on www.watercalculator.co.uk is “a great simple method to calculate water use,” he says. This also reduces energy use – and not just in terms of the hidden energy costs of supplying sanitary water to the site. With the exception of the WCs, all of the water saving measures reduce domestic hot water use.

Assessing biodiversity change One of the environmental indicators used in the HPI is ecology, which is assessed by measuring the ecological footprint of the development, explains Nick Marchant, ecological consultant at NM Ecology, who prepared a biodiversity management plan for Kilbride Court. This involved assessing the ecology of the area before and after the development.

In 2016, before construction, Marchant did a general ecological assessment of the site, recording the habitats and species present, as well as species of note or likely to occur on the site but not easily observed during the day, such as bats. This was followed by recommendations to minimise the ecological impacts of the development and enhance biodiversity, such as installing bird boxes to provide nesting opportunities for common species such as robins and tits, and including native trees in the landscaping. For example, rowan, a tree species which produces berries eaten by birds in autumn and winter, was used, says Marchant, adding that herbs were

KILBRIDE COURT

also included in the plan.

At the end of the project, Marchant did another assessment, counting the number of species and ensuring enhancement measures were put in place. The HPI asks whether there is a change in ecological value of the site before and after the development, based on the number of species recorded in each habitat and the area of each habitat. This change is calculated using IGBC’s ecology calculator and, in the case of Kilbride Court, there was a decrease in ecological value, resulting in a negative value of -11.2 in the HPI scheme.

Recording ecological change on a residential site is far from common, and Kilbride Court provides an important baseline for future schemes. “It is important to declare these values and to consider biodiversity in all construction and design, including passive houses,” says Keogh. “Now we have a measurement to go with. The key is to make it better and improve on it,” he says.

Marchant notes that the latest version of the HPI technical manual – version 2.0 on homeperformanceindex.ie – provides an additional way of assessing ecology, as well as the change in ecological value. “As an alternative, you can choose from a list of optional ecological enhancements,” such as including bat boxes and bird boxes, he says.

In new developments, says Marchant, simple, low-cost measures, such as planting native trees, inserting linear landscape fea-

Controlling the flow The Kilbride homes were designed to have exemplary levels of water efficiency, with an internal water flow rate of 79.8 litres per person per day, meeting the recently published RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland) climate targets for 2025 and just short of the 2030 target of less than 75 litres per person per day.

Flow restrictors are a simple and cost-effective way of controlling the water flow, notes Keogh, and they can be pre-installed by the manufacturers. Using restrictors at Kilbride, the wash hand basins achieved a flow rate of two litres per minute (l/m), the showers achieved five litres, and the WCs 4 to 2.6

ph+ | kilbride court case study | 47

KILBRIDE COURT

CASE STUDY

physics to work out how a building acts in real life – with real weather data and real thermal simulation – the project team recreated the Kilbride buildings. The models are then compared to the BER tool which was used in the design, to see how the buildings are performing and what elements of the BER methodology can be improved to be more representative of real-life buildings.

The aim is to provide guidelines to minimise the performance gap in A-rated buildings. “We want [to] see how our software models predict energy consumption, and feed that information back to the architects,” Pyburn says.

tures for animals to move and feed alongside, leaving dark areas for bats to feed, or putting in small water features, can enhance biodiversity. “But it’s also beneficial for the people who live in the houses. I think it’s a win-win,” he says.

Other low cost or free measures include adding an insect hotel, nectar-rich vegetation, swallow boxes, mixed species of trees or bushes, berry or fruit-bearing trees and bushes, and year-round bird food.

Energy and environmental monitoring The measurements did not stop when the homes were built. Data is being collected and analysed remotely since the residents moved into the homes in July.

Ian Pyburn, innovation consultant with Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), has been monitoring environmental and energy-related data in Kilbride as part of the AMBER (Assessment Methodology for Building Energy Rating) project. AMBER, which has been running since 2018 and is funded by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, is analysing BER and sensor data from 100 domestic and 25 to 40 non-domestic A-rated buildings.

The project is examining the indoor environmental quality of the Kilbride homes by gathering data on CO2, relative humidity and internal temperature, says Pyburn. Data from the homes is collected using an internet of things network called Lorawan, which relies on four or five environmental sensors in each home feeding data from individual rooms to a gateway, and then on to a data analytics platform. The sensors do not require Wi-Fi, and use a radio frequency instead.

Once the results are analysed, the goal is to provide recommendations to the tenants in Kilbride on how to improve health and well-being in their homes.

In parallel, energy consumption is being assessed using IES’s well known software, IES Virtual Environment. Using digitised

48 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

A pioneering project “I applaud the diligence of the design team in sticking with the level of work that they put into achieving [HPI] gold. It’s a case of one person driving something single-mindedly and achieving it,” says Pat Barry. Ultimately, he says, “we need to move to low-carbon forms of construction, and walkable or cyclable communities. That’s the only way we’re going to actually achieve a world where we stay under 1.5 degrees [centigrade] of warming. We have to slash the number of cars on the road and move towards zero carbon homes built with zero carbon products, zero carbon operations and shared car ownership,” he says.

In the wake of the climate and biodiversity emergencies, the key achievement of the Kilbride housing scheme lies in the environmental impact data and metrics it can now hand over to future projects. In including metrics such as embodied carbon, ecological value and construction waste, which are still rarely considered, it delivers baseline data for a typical housing scheme in Ireland, says Keogh.

“If we don’t measure something, we cannot improve it. Developing high quality data is a critical first step in building more sustainable homes,” he says. Going forward, he believes there is a “dire” need for legislation in embodied carbon and in biodiversity, and to think about “how different methods of construction impact on emissions now, to prepare for the mammoth tasks of net zero by 2050 in line with the Climate Action Plan 2021”.

But it’s empowering to think that “everyone can do something right now,” says Keogh. And the Kilbride Court project demonstrates just that.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The digital version of this magazine includes access to exclusive galleries of architectural drawings.

The digital magazine is available to subscribers on passivehouseplus.ie & passivehouseplus.co.uk

Don’t specify a product until it has an EPD would be an ideal scenario.

SELECTED PROJECT DETAILS

Client: Wicklow County Council Architects/project management: Coady Architects M & E/structural engineer/energy consultant: Hayes Higgins Partnership Landscape architects: Mitchell & Associates Ecologist: NM Ecology Ireland Main contractors/quantity surveyors: MDY Construction Airtightness tester/consultant/ BER assessor: Building Envelope Technologies Post occupancy evaluation: IES Building life cycle assessment: John Butler Sustainable Building Consultancy Mechanical contractor: Ashgrove Mechanical Electrical contractor: HAL Electrical Thermal blocks, hollow core, concrete roof tiles, insulation: Mannok Wall insulation: Xtratherm Thermally broken thresholds & roof membrane: Partel Roof insulation & airtightness products: Ecological Building Systems Mineral wool, plaster board, plaster & suspended ceilings: Saint-Gobain Fire breaks & stone wool insulation: Rockwool Windows and doors: Munster Joinery Screeds: Smet Permeable paving: Kilsaran Paints: Akzonobel Wood panel products: Medite Smartply Heat pumps: Daikin Mechanical ventilation: Aerhaus Water conserving fittings & sanitaryware: Sonas Bathrooms Water testing: Fitz Scientific

CASE STUDY

External walls

KILBRIDE COURT

Building services

Internal walls, partitions & doors

Substructure

Windows & external doors

Finishes (walls, floor & ceiling)

Roof

FF&E (fixed)

Upper floors including balconies

Embodied Carbon by building element

EMBODIED CARBON CALCULATION

A

n end-of-terrace unit, House Type A, was selected for an embodied carbon calculation conducted by John Butler Sustainable Building Consultancy, in an effort to compare the spec at Kilbride Court against the targets in the 2030 RIAI Climate Challenge. Butler conducted two separate analyses – one using One Click LCA, and the other using PHribbon.

As the RIAI challenge is measured against the EU’s Level(s) sustainable buildings framework, the building’s design lifespan was assumed to be 50 years as specified within Level(s), as opposed to 60 years in the 2017 RICS paper (‘Whole life carbon assessment for the built environment’) which underpins the RIBA targets.

Butler also assessed the buildings against the 60-year design life targets in both software tools to enable comparison, leading to some stark differences.

In PHribbon, House Type A posted cradle to grave scores of 687.5 kg CO2e/ m2 of gross internal area with a 50-year lifespan, or 782 kg CO2e/m2 with a 60year lifespan. This means that the project would fail to comply with the RIAI 2030

target of 625 kg CO2e/m2 (when 50 years is assumed), and would fail by a greater extent to meet the seemingly identical RIBA 2030 target of 625 kg CO2e/m2 (when 60 years is assumed).

The difference in totals was mainly down to replacement cycles for heat pumps and windows. The EPD for the Munster Joinery windows include a service life of 50 years, while the PEPs for the heat pumps and ventilation system estimate a 17-year life span, meaning three replacements within sixty years, rather than two within fifty years. Meanwhile in One Click LCA, House Type A posted scores of 718.1 kg CO2e/m2 (50 years) and 816.7 kg CO2e/ m2 (60 years).

An estimated 38.5 kg CO2e of the totals in PHribbon were attributed to transporting excavated soil and stone from the site – a total of 3.4 tonnes of CO2e attributed to this house type. In total, 30,274 tonnes of earth were excavated and transported from the site for disposal – plus a further 583 tonnes of mixed waste, totalling 1,497 journeys, including 930 to Roadstone’s Huntstown site in North Dublin, with other trips to

facilities in Wicklow, Meath and Louth.

Analysis by Passive House Plus estimated the average journey distance to be 42.6 km. In the vast majority of cases return trips were made to the site on the same day.

Taking a conservative approach, and allowing for an empty return journey in each case, the total distance travelled reached 127,431 km – over three times the circumference of the earth. This was estimated – based on UK government emissions factors for heavy arctic trucks – at 128.9 tonnes of CO2e for the whole development, with 3.45 tonnes attributed to the house type in this analysis based on its fraction of the total scheme’s gross internal area.

A separate analysis conducted by Irish transport emissions expert Conor Molloy of AEMS, based on Irish emissions factors for heavy arctics and an average load factor of 60 per cent (effectively meaning 40 per cent of journeys are assumed to be empty running) came in at 125 to 135 tonnes CO2e, depending on whether Irish or Global Logistics Emissions Council fuel economy factors are used.

ph+ | kilbride court case study | 49

KILBRIDE COURT

CASE STUDY

Specify Specify responsibly responsibly

Wraptite Wraptite® ® Construction Construction membranes membranes maymay be be hidden hidden after after thethe project project is complete, is complete, butbut their their rolerole in in ensuring ensuring proper proper heat, heat, andand moisture moisture movement movement through through thethe building building envelope envelope andand ® air ® air Wraptite Wraptite safeguarding safeguarding thethe health health of the of the building building andand occupants occupants is essential. is essential.

Construction Construction membranes membranes may may be be hidden hidden after after thethe project project is complete, is complete, butbut their their rolerole in in Wraptite Wraptite is proper ais unique a heat, unique BBA-certified BBA-certified external external airtightness airtightness solution solution for forwalls walls andandroofs. roofs. ensuring ensuring proper heat, air air andand moisture moisture movement movement through through the the building building envelope envelope and and safeguarding safeguarding thethe health of the of provides the building building andand occupants occupants is vapour-permeability, essential. is essential.

This This membrane membrane nothealth not only only provides airtightness airtightness andand vapour-permeability, its its self-adhering self-adhering

installation installation method method reduces reduces programme programme length, length, installation installation costs costs andand material material waste. waste.

Wraptite Wraptite is ais unique a unique BBA-certified BBA-certified external external airtightness airtightness solution solution forfor walls walls andand roofs. roofs.

This This membrane membrane notnot only only provides provides airtightness airtightness andand vapour-permeability, vapour-permeability, its its self-adhering self-adhering installation installation method method reduces reduces programme programme length, length, installation installation costs costs andand material material waste. waste.

Specify Specify responsibly: responsibly:

It’sIt’swhat’s what’sononthetheinside insidethat thatcounts. counts.

Specify Specify responsibly: responsibly:

It’sIt’s what’s what’s onon thethe inside inside that that counts. counts.

01250 01250 872261 872261

01250 01250 872261 872261 50 | passivehouseplus.co.uk

| issue 40

www.proctorgroup.com www.proctorgroup.com

www.proctorgroup.com www.proctorgroup.com

CASE STUDY

KILBRIDE COURT

IN DETAIL Building type: 40 x one, two, three & four-bed terrace houses, duplexes and apartments, totalling 3,320 m2

CO2 levels: 29 units being monitored, with results due in Oct 2022

Location: Kilbride Lane, Bray, County Wicklow

VOC/SVOC: HPI not passed as polyurethane to handrails did not meet Ecolabel standard

Completion date: July 2021

Formaldehyde: Not tested

Budget: €9m contract costs excluding VAT but including landscaping

Radon: Target of 200 Bq/m3 per EPA standard (testing to be carried out)

Primary energy demand (DEAP, so regulated loads only): 37 kWh/m2/yr

Measured energy consumption: Pending (29 units only under SEAI AMBER project)

Space heating demand (DEAP): 23 kWh/m2/yr (average)

Airtightness: Average result across all units of 1.64 m3/m2/hr at 50 Pa

Energy performance coefficient (EPC): 0.19 – 0.21 Carbon performance coefficient (CPC): 0.18 – 0.20 BER: A2 (30 – 48 kWh/m2/yr, or 37 kWh/m2/yr average) Environmental assessment method: Home Performance Index Gold certified Embodied carbon (based on house type A): 687.5 kg CO2e/m2 (when measured using PHribbon, assuming 50 year design life) Density: 51.6 units per hectare Change in ecological value: -11.2 Sustainable location: 87 per cent Universal design: 76 per cent Internal water flow rate: 79.8 litres per person per day Overheating: Not significant (DEAP) Daylighting: (35 units) living spaces with 3 per cent daylight factor and bedrooms at 1.5 per cent, (5 units) living spaces at 2 per cent and bedrooms 1.5 per cent

Energy costs: HPI assessment report estimates monthly total energy bills of €46 (1 bed units), €64 (2 bed), €65 (3 bed) and €95 (4 bed). Figures based on SEAI price data and include VAT but not standing charges.

Thermal bridging: 0.03 W/m2K (average) with reduction measures. Standard construction with first course of Mannok Aircrete blocks, and stubb truss only. Modular door thresholds developed by Partel with Alma Vert recycled PET structural insulation.

Energy bills (estimated in line with Home Performance Index): 1 bed: €48.00/month 2 bed: €63.00/month 3 bed: €65.00/month 2 bed: €95.00/month Ground floor: Strip foundation and 150 mm in-situ concrete ground bearing slab with Mannok Therm Floor / MF 150 mm PIR insulation (lambda: 0.022 W/mK). U-value: 0.12 W/m2K Walls: 102 mm facing brick / 18 mm render on 100 mm concrete block outer leaf with 80 mm PIR partial fill insulation (0.021 W/mK), 100

mm concrete block inner and 12.5 mm sand cement base coat with 2.5 gypsum plaster finish coat leaf. U-value: 0.21 W/m2K Roof: Mannok Rathmore concrete interlocking tiles externally, followed inside by 37 mm sw batten, on Partel Exoperm Mono Duro 200 breather underlay, on sw prefabricated stubb trusses with 300 mm Dämmstatt cellulose (0.037 W/mK), on pro clima Intello Plus, on 12.5 mm Gyproc plasterboard with 2.5 mm gypsum skim finish plaster. U-value: 0.13 W/m2K Windows: Munster Joinery double glazed, argon-filled aluclad timber windows. U-value of 1.2 W/m2K Heating system: Daikin Altherma 3 air-to-water heat pump supplying low temp rads and 230 litre buffer tank.

Ventilation: Aldes Compact Micro-Watt SP centralised mechanical extract ventilation.

Internal water flow rate: 79.8 litres per person per day (calculated using www. thewatercalculator.org.uk) using restrictors. 5 litres per minute (showers), 2 l/m (wash hand basin taps), 12 l/m (kitchen mixer taps), and 4/2.4 litres (WC dual flush).

External water: 270 litre water butts FSC/PEFC certified timber: 81 per cent Environmental product declarations: 66 products (including 64 product specific EPDs, 2 industry association EPDs, and 2 industry association Product Environmental Passports, which are analogous to EPDs. Water testing: Passed Construction waste: Mixed waste: 583 tons Muck away waste: 30,274 tons

ph+ | kilbride court case study | 51

KERRY ENERPHIT

CASE STUDY

The measured performance is testament to the fact that the building simply works.

52 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

FORM AND FUNCTION DEEP & ELEGANT ENERPHIT UPGRADE TRANSFORMS OLD KERRY OFFICE SPACE Run-down terraces are an all-too-common sight in towns and villages across Ireland, but an ambitious deep retrofit project in Tralee provides an inspiring blueprint for regeneration, taking a cold 19th century terraced office and turning it into a beautifully designed space with tiny energy bills, fit for the 21st century.

KERRY ENERPHIT

IN BRIEF Building: 129 m2 mid-terrace, 19th century office building Method: Deep retrofit with internal insulation, plus extension Location: Tralee, County Kerry Standard: Enerphit Classic (passive retrofit standard) Energy bills: €14 per month for spacing heating & ventilation. Estimate.

See ‘in detail’ for more.

€14

per month

By John Cradden

ph+ | kerry enerphit case study | 53

KERRY ENERPHIT

CASE STUDY

5LGJH P IURP )) OHYHO

2SHQ VSDFH

Pitched

: ))

: ))

2SHQ 2IILFH $UHD P &HLOLQJ +HLJKW P :

:

:

)LUVW )ORRU 3ODQ P FIRST FLOOR PLAN 36.6m 2

$OO )ORRUV WLPEHU IORRUERDUGV All floors; timber floorboards. :DOOV ILQLVKHG ZLWK 3O\ZRRG VKHHWV &HLOLQJ )LQLVKHG ZLWK SHUIRUDWHG SO\ZRRG Walls finished with plywood sheets.

VKHHWV Ceiling finished with perforated

plywood sheets.

Jeremy Walsh Project Management This document is issued for the party which commissioned it and for specific purposes connected with the captioned project only. It should not be relied upon by any other party or used for any other purpose.

We accept no responsibility for the consequences of this document being relied upon by any other party, or being used for any purpose, or containing any error or omission which is due to an error or omission in data supplied to us by other parties.

2SHQ VSDFH

Rev Date

Drawn

Description

A

30/06/2020

B Mc

Order

B

08/07/2020

BMc

Order

Ch'k'd

J Walsh J Walsh

-HUHP\ :DOVK Tel: 066 7126090 Web: jeremywalsh.ie

10 Gas Terrace, Tralee, Co Kerry

App'd

J Walsh J Walsh

Title:

Drawn

B McAuliffe

First Floor Plan

Checked

J Walsh

Plywood Sheet Order

Scale:

Drawing Number:

+DOO .LWFKHQ P

*OXODP %HDP

Approved

&21

PROJECT - TYPE - NUMBER

5HFHSWLRQ 2IILFH $UHD P

J Walsh

1:50 (A3)

Status

3/<

' *)

Client:

5RRIOLJKW [ +HLJKW P

%

c

'

' *) ' *)

6KRZHU P

:

' *) : :

&RXUW\DUG P

$ ' *)

6WRUDJH 5RRP P

' *)

$

: *)

0HHWLQJ 5RRP P

%DWKURRP P

:

&HLOLQJ )LQLVKHV

%

' *)

' *)

*URXQG )ORRU 3ODQ P GROUND FLOOR PLAN 93m 2 $OO )ORRUV WLPEHU IORRUERDUGV

All floors; timber floorboards. $OO FHLOLQJ +HLJKWV P All ceiling heights; 2.8m. :DOOV ILQLVKHG ZLWK 3O\ZRRG VKHHWV Walls finished with plywood sheets.

c

Jeremy Walsh Project Management This document is issued for the party which commissioned it and for specific purposes connected with the captioned project only. It should not be relied upon by any other party or used for any other purpose.

We accept no responsibility for the consequences of this document being relied upon by any other party, or being used for any purpose, or containing any error or omission which is due to an error or omission in data supplied to us by other parties.

Client:

A

19th century two-storey, mid-ter-HUHP\ :DOVK raced commercial building with decidedly wonky party walls might not strike you as the most natural choice for a passive house retrofit, not least because external insulation was not an option, and access to the site was poor.

However, as the offices for a company that specialises in high-quality building fabric design and project management, it is not surprising that owner Jeremy Walsh — along with his architect Douglas Carson — successfully deployed a fabric-first approach to transform this exceptionally hard-to-treat building into one that meets the Enerphit standard for retrofit.

Bought in 2016 by Jeremy Walsh Project Management, number 10 Gas Terrace in

10 Gas Terrace, Tralee, Co Kerry

Tel: 066 7126090 Web: jeremywalsh.ie

54 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

Rev Date

Drawn

Description

A

30/06/2020

B Mc

Order

J Walsh J Walsh

B

08/07/2020

BMc

Order

J Walsh J Walsh

Tralee did have at least a few things going for it: it was structurally sound, there was space to extend out the back, and it is located right in the commercial heart of Kerry’s bustling capital town.

Mid-terraced buildings are usually not the worst offenders when it comes to retaining heat, but this building was “freezing, absolutely freezing” for its occupants for the three odd years they had used it, Walsh says.

However, his intention was always to renovate and having overseen a major renovation and extension to his own home, also to the Enerphit standard, this project finally commenced in 2019. Walsh was first exposed to the passive house concept as far back as 2011 by a client for a project that never got off the ground, but “it kind of stuck with

Ch'k'd

App'd

Title:

Drawn

B McAuliffe

Groundfloor Plan

Checked

J Walsh

Approved

J Walsh

Plywood Sheet Order me ever since then”, he says, particularly for 1:50 (A3) its close adherence to the science of building physics. &21 % In 2013 Walsh went on a two-week passive house course in Germany with an eye to implementing the standard on his home, a job which he completed in 2015. Living day-to-day with high levels of comfort and low energy bills, and the monitoring of two Netatmo sensors that confirm the excellent indoor air quality, swept away any lingering doubts he had about the passive house concept, and in particular mechanical ventilation. “Conceptually, I got it as an engineer, but it was living in it that really drove it home.”

With his feet firmly in the passive house standard and all the detailing that it entails, Scale:

Drawing Number:

3/< PROJECT - TYPE - NUMBER

Status

Rev

Rev

%

CASE STUDY

You design it thinking about the person who’s coming up the street.

it was a much shorter hop and skip to doing the same again with 10 Gas Terrace. The project was also intended to be something of a shopfront for Walsh’s business. “Essentially I wanted an office that I’d be proud of and that our company and all the staff will be proud to work in, and a by-product of that is that it would be a nice place to show off to our clients,” he says.

More specifically, he wanted a light-filled space that would allow his team to collaborate as much as possible. “I wanted a space that was going to be open plan, a space that we could collaborate, work together well and produce a good team atmosphere in the place.”

For the renovation of his own home, Walsh had worked with Douglas Carson, a family friend who runs a Dublin-based practice with his wife, Rosaleen Crushell, and opted to hire him again for Gas Terrace.

Walsh naturally assumed the role of project manager and main contractor, which included looking after the civil and structural engineering, and fabric design and detailing.

Carson has worked on low-energy building projects before, but appears to have relished working for Walsh because there was no large team of consultants to engage with, and because their working relationship in terms of responsibility for the passive house design was fairly fluid, although Walsh took the lead. “That’s the best way to work, I think, when you’re working with somebody; that things are blurry in terms of who is what and who does what,” Carson says.

He liked the fact that the building was in the centre of Tralee town, but not on a busy street, so access to the front was easier.

Furthermore, a co-operative neighbour facilitated access to the rear, enabling the team to crane-lift in large items like the glulam beams. But with restrictions on what could be done with the front and the very back, as the footprint of the building took up the entire site, most of the focus of the project works had to be on the “in-between stuff”.

That said, the design of the facade is intriguing and something that Carson is quite proud of. Gas Terrace is a narrow lane that used to face onto the former Denny sausage factory in the town and, while this has now been demolished - a new commercial de-

Photos: Douglas Carson & Mike Kelly

KERRY ENERPHIT

velopment is on the way - the front of the building will still only ever be approached from its left or right side. This inspired what Carson terms an oblique design approach for the facade. “That means you design it thinking about the person who’s coming up the street, as opposed to somebody who’s approaching it from the front.”

The result is achieved by sills that are incredibly deep, and an expanse of Velfac aluclad windows that are set well back into the openings. “That’s not always necessarily the optimum place to put [the windows] in terms of thermal performance, but it was kind of our response to designing it obliquely,” explains Carson. “So, when you approach the building, you don’t see any glass; it appears more like a monolithic mass of render and paint. The joinery of the doors and windows also gets to be protected from the rain.”

With no room to use external insulation on the front walls or at the rear, it had to be internal. So having the windows flush with the internal insulation also facilitated the desire not to have internal wooden sills at the upper floor level, which Carson insists “would just gather dust and never be cleaned”.

The biggest challenge with the building fabric was dealing with a hodgepodge of boundary conditions. The original stone walls made up the front facade and extended about a third of the way back, but there were other party walls and neighbouring extensions of various construction types. “Each boundary condition required a slightly different treatment but faithful to the overall insulation strategy,” Walsh says.

“Most of the existing rear walls had to be demolished as either they did not follow the boundary or were not structurally sound.”

These were rebuilt with thermal blocks at ground level, and timber frame at the rear of the first floor. The original stone walls were preserved, however, and insulated internally with Isover Metac mineral wool.

Insulating internally always carries a risk of condensation, particularly against older solid wall structures, because of the risk of creating a dew point — a sudden drop in temperature where water vapour condenses to liquid — between the new insulation and the old wall. In this case, there is an air gap behind the insulation to drain away any moisture that might collect. A dynamic condensation analysis by passive house certifier Earth Cycle Technologies, using the WUFI software, also confirmed that the build-up was safe.

As a two-storey office with a long footprint, getting sufficient light was always going to be a priority, and this was achieved partly using generous roof lights. But the issue of creating sufficient ventilation for the downstairs toilet was a challenge that called

ph+ | kerry enerphit case study | 55

KERRY ENERPHIT

CASE STUDY

for an inventive solution.

“In our mind, it’s not really acceptable that you’d have a toilet and you can’t open a window to get fresh air,” says Carson. There was also no lobby to separate the WC or the adjoining shower room from the corridor outside, which extends into the kitchen.

And even though the building would be mechanically ventilated, the team still wanted to be able to get fresh air into the bathroom quickly.

The clever solution was to create a tiny courtyard, with large doors making up three of the four sides of its rectangular shape: one leading into the shower room, one into the toilet and one into the meeting room. “The challenge was to keep that in as a kind of a device to get indirect sunlight into those three spaces but, more importantly, to get fresh air very quickly when it needs to be despite the [MVHR] machines doing a lot of the ventilation work,” Carson says.

Being an open-plan office with space for eight staff, but also fairly small at 140 square metres, acoustic design was another element that informed the choice of materials for the finishes, while also creating its distinctly warm northern European interior.

“What I was looking to create was a great atmosphere that people can work well together and collaborate and yet not put each other off, and so acoustics are a major part of that,” says Walsh. Previous experience of working with Brian Johnston of CLV Consulting on an office building in Killorglin reinforced the value of making this a priority.

“Even before the finishes were chosen, there were acoustic treatments on the ceilings and you could really tell the difference between something that had considered acoustics and something that hadn’t.”

Johnston performed a desktop analysis of the two open-plan floors and the meeting room (complete with polished concrete floors downstairs) and recommended the correct amount and spacing of holes in the birch plywood on the walls and ceilings as a Class C absorber. The design and the spacing of the holes had been chosen especially to achieve this effect. “There’s 50 mm mineral wool behind the perforated plywood which acts as both thermal and acoustic insulation within the service cavity, and so it is an overall neat solution,” says Walsh.

Both Carson and Walsh are delighted with the finished result, with Carson especially pleased with the exposed tongue and groove timber on some of the walls and the balustrades, creating a nice textual corduroy effect, one that is likely to remain a permanent part of the décor.

The measured performance is also testament to the fact the building simply works as it is designed to. The building’s energy demand is so small, Walsh estimates that during 2021, its solar PV array and battery will have supplied 64 per cent of its total

56 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

1 2

3

5

4

6

7

8

9

10

1 Front façade alteration works; 2 foundations for internal loadbearing timber stud walls; 3 insulated ground floor prior to the installation of the floor slab; 4 rear first floor wall construction; 5 rear first floor wall viewed from inside with the curved ply beams to the meeting room visible; 6 internal perimeter timber stud walls with Isover Metac insulation installed; 7 airtight membrane applied to the same walls, along with battens for the service cavity; 8 Isover Metac insulation visible inside the service cavity with the birch plywood finish underway, with slots for extract vents visible; 9 airtightness membrane and taping to the rooflight which connects to the vapour control layer on top of the flat roof; 10 front façade nearing completion.

CASE STUDY

KERRY ENERPHIT

energy needs. Indoor environmental monitoring also indicates that carbon dioxide, humidity and temperature rarely exceed comfortable levels (see ‘In detail’ for a breakdown of the figures).

Walsh says: “It’s a very calming place to work actually, and I think that’s a combination of the wood and the acoustics, so it’s just a nice place to work… it’s kind of everything I could have hoped for really.”

He struggles to pick out one favourite feature “but it’s probably the curved plywood beams on the meeting room ceiling, which is an example of what is achievable by combining great architecture, structural design and onsite workmanship”.

“We may add more splashes of colour over time, with bits and pieces of art or something like that, but for the moment, I’m just happy to be here.”

It’s kind of everything I could have hoped for.

T2

Uwall = 0.166

Neighbour 215mm Block, λ = 1.33 W/mK 50mm Air Cavity 150mm Thermal Block, λ = 0.33 W/mK 150mm Metac Insulation, λ = 0.034 W/mK & Timber Frame Stud Softwood, λ = 0.13 W/mK 100mm Thermal Block, λ = 0.33 W/mK Airtight Membrane, λ = 0.17 W/mK, t = 0.001m 50mm Metac Insulation, λ = 0.034 W/mK

Detail 2A

18mm Plywood Sheet, λ = 0.17 W/mK Concrete (125mm in floor slab): 1.15 W/mK 150mm XT/UF Insulation, λ = 0.023 W/mK Radon Barrier, λ = 0.2 W/mK, t = 4m

Floor-to-wall junction detail

ph+ | kerry enerphit case study | 57

KERRY ENERPHIT

CASE STUDY

H E A T I N G I S S O Y E S T E R D A Y. . .

T H E F U T U R E I S H E AT P U M P V E N T I L AT I O N Ÿ MVHR Ÿ heating Ÿ cooling Ÿ hot water Ÿ COP: 3-12 Ÿ for super-

insulated & airtight homes

all you need is the air that you breathe...

The strength to hang from external wall.

ETICS systems maintain integrity, drive performance and target near zero-energy building objectives.

POWER-BLOC

Because their depth is insulation material, EJOT developed a family of fixing products for medium to heavy loads that add strength to the system’s components, or utilise the anchoring properties of the substrate. Very often both.

All are designed to maintain the thermal performance and bridging criteria set out by PAS 2035.

SPIRAL ANCHOR

To know more about EJOT’s EWI fixing solutions contact our ETICS sales engineer Mark Newell m.newell@ejot.co.uk

EJOT® the quality connection (+44) 1977 687040 email: info@ejot.co.uk

58 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

www.ejot.co.uk

PRECISE RESPONSIVE CONVENIENT

info@totalhome.co.uk

0345 260 0123 | totalhome.co.uk

CERTIFIED COMPONENT

ISO-DART

H E AT P U M P V E N T I L AT I O N

send us floorplans for a quote

AS SEEN ON

ISO-CORNER

hpv series

THE STREET

CASE STUDY

KERRY ENERPHIT

EMBODIED CARBON

An embodied carbon calculation was conducted by Tim Martel using PHribbon. The analysis assumed a 50-year design life for the building, as per the EU’s Level(s) scope, as this is required in assessments against the RIAI 2030 Climate Challenge. The calculation assumed one replacement of the building’s heating and ventilation system – a perhaps optimistic decision, given the reference to 17-year design life in Product Environmental Passports for heat pumps and ventilation systems, but one which takes account of previous research on the performance of a 25-year-old heat recovery ventilation system in the first passive house. The building’s large PV array was also assumed to be replaced once, as was the building’s cement render, the asphalt roof system, the carpet and vinyl

flooring, with bathroom fittings assumed to require two replacements. CEM I was assumed for the concrete floor – when in reality 30 per cent GGBS substitution occurred, which would have reduced the figure for this element.

The building posted a score of 374.1 kg CO2e/m2 – 111 kg of which was solely related to the building’s large solar PV array.

While this does not take account of the substantial contribution the array will make to displace emissions from grid electricity, this remarkable finding places the PV array as by far the biggest single source of embodied CO2 in the building –- higher than the entirety of the substructure, or the walls, the roof, the windows, or all other building services combined.

SELECTED PROJECT DETAILS

Clients, passive house design, civil & structural engineering: Jeremy Walsh Project Management Architect: Carson and Crushell Main contractor: O’Mahony Builders Passive house certification & dynamic condensation analysis: Earth Cycle Technologies Plumbing contractor: Diarmuid Walsh Electrical contractor: Garrett Walsh Electrical Airtightness test: Air Matters Carpentry: Dan O’Keefe Airtightness products: South West Radon Windows and doors: Velfac, via Teroco Windows & Doors Roof windows: Reynaers, via the Folding Door Company Fit out: Harris Carpentry Flooring: Concrete Creations Carpets: Lovett Carpets Roofing: Gleasure Roofing Space heating & ventilation system: Nilan Ireland Solar PV: Gilroy Solar Lighting: Thorn Lighting Acoustic consultants: CLV Consulting

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The digital version of this magazine includes access to exclusive galleries of architectural drawings.

The digital magazine is available to subscribers on passivehouseplus.ie & passivehouseplus.co.uk

ph+ | kerry enerphit case study | 59

KERRY ENERPHIT

CASE STUDY

Putting people and the planet first Environmentally friendly building products from renewable resources Insulation

Sealing

Construction

CERTIFIED SAFETY

STEICO Building System

Sheathing and sarking boards for new-build and refurbishement

Flexible insulation batts made from natural wood fibres

Air injected insulation made from wood fibres or cellulose fibres

Insulation systems for rendered facades or curtain walls

Light and efficient I-joists for wall, floor, and roof constructions

Laminated veneer lumber with high load-bearing capacity

STEICO are the worlds largest producer of integrated construction and insulation systems made from wood.

We have been manufacturing ecological and environmentally-friendly construction materials for over 30 years.

Supported by our UK insulation distributors:

Find out more about how you can make a difference at: www.steico.com Sealing system for the building shell

60 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

CASE STUDY

KERRY ENERPHIT

IN DETAIL Building type: 145 m2 mid terrace 1800s stone building (129 m2). Enerphit retrofit with a new extension to the rear.

Location: 10 Gas Terrace, Tralee, Co Kerry Completion date: December 2020 Enerphit certification: Certified (All below figures post-retrofit) BER Before: Not available After: B1 BER (126.59 kWh/m2/yr) Space heating demand: 9 kWh/m2/yr Heat load: 8 W/m2 Primary energy demand (PHPP): 73 kWh/m2/yr Heat loss form factor (PHPP): 2.67 Overheating (PHPP): 8 per cent Number of occupants: 6-7 Energy performance coefficient (EPC): 0.61 Carbon performance coefficient (CPC): 0.63 Measured energy consumption: Before: Assumed annual electric consumption based on full occupancy, the pre-existing condition is 13,900 kWh (107 kWh/m2/yr) however this is probably an overestimate.

After: Estimated delivered annual electric use is 4,300 kWh (from PHPP). Based on the data available for 2021 as of 16 November and extrapolating to the end of the year, Jeremy Walsh Project Management estimates the following energy use: Total expected electrical use: 4,654 kWh; expected imported electricity from the grid: 1,670 kWh (approx. 35 per cent). This indicates the on-site solar photovoltaic system and battery supplied approximately 64 per cent of energy use during 2021. Projected total electricity use is broken down as follows. Lighting: 945 kWh; heating and ventilation: 1,317 kWh; general plug points and other: 2,392 kWh. However, the solar system had software issues in early 2021 and the occupants were still getting used to heating settings, so these figures may improve further in 2022.

Energy bills: Using the above projected energy consumption figures for 2021, and the 35c per kWh rate (including VAT) that JWPM is paying for electricity, the total cost of imported grid electricity for 2021 is estimated at €585. If it is assumed that the same proportion of grid electricity is used for heating and ventilation as for all energy use in the building (e.g., 36 per cent), then this could be expected to require just 474 kWh of

imported electricity all year, at a cost of just €166, or approximately €14 per month. These figures include VAT but not standing charges or PSO levy.

Airtightness (at 50 Pascals): 0.8 air changes per hour Thermal Bridging: Thermal bridges calculated using Dartwin Mold Pro v5 software. 37 details modelled. See images.

Ground floor: Before: Uninsulated concrete floor.

U-value: 0.6 W/m2K After: 125 mm concrete floor on 150 mm Xtratherm XT/UF Polysio insulation. U-value: 0.150 W/m2K Original stone walls: Before: Approx 600 mm stone walls. U-value: 0.9 W/m2K After: 600 mm stone wall, followed inside by 40 mm air cavity, 125 mm timber studs at 400 mm c/c filled with 125 mm Isover Metac insulation (lambda=0.034 W/mK), Siga Majpell vapour control & airtight membrane, 50 x 50 softwood horizontal battens at 600 mm centres with 50 mm Isover Metac, 18 mm birch plywood sheeting. U-value: 0.188 W/m2K Rear extension walls (party walls): Before: Neighbour’s block wall, air cavity, 215 mm concrete block. U-value: 0.4 W/m2K After: Neighbour’s block wall, 50 mm air cavity, 150 mm Roadstone Thermalite block, 150 mm timber stud walls with 150 mm Isover Metac between the studs, Siga Majpell vapour control & airtight membrane, 50 x 50 timber battens with 50 mm Isover Metac between the studs, 18 mm birch plywood sheeting. U-value: 0.166 W/m2K Rear first floor wall: 10 mm cement board on 50 x 32 treated timber battens and counter-battens, breathable membrane, 75 mm Polyiso sarking insulation, 18 mm plywood sheeting, 175 mm timber studs at 400 mm centres with 180 mm Isover Metac between the studs, Siga Majpell vapour control & airtight membrane, 50 x 50 timber battens at 600 mm centres with 50 mm Isover Metac between the battens, 18 mm plywood sheeting. U-value: 0.130 W/m2K Pitched roof (over original building): New roof slates on treated timber battens, followed underneath by breathable roofing felt, timber roof rafters, ventilated air space, with lower timber ceiling rafters with a combined thickness of 220 mm with Isover Metac insulation between the rafters, Siga Majpell vapour control & airtight membrane, 50 x 50 timber battens at 600 mm centres filled with 50 mm Isover Metac, 18 mm

birch plywood sheeting. U-value: 0.134 W/m2K Extension roof: 2-ply mineral felt cap sheet and underlay, on 150 mm Polyiso insulation, vapour control layer, on 38 mm solid timber decking.

U-value: 0.143 W/m2K Windows & doors: Velfac triple glazed, argon-filled, Ribo alu 2 windows and doors to front façade. Velfac 200 Energy aluclad windows and doors to the rear.

Overall U-value of 0.80 W/m2K Roof windows: Reynaers CS/CP fixed rooflight system with triple glazing (argon-filled). Overall U-value: 0.50 W/m2K Heating system: Before: Direct electric heating and electric storage heater.

After: Nilan Combi 302 Polar provides ventilation with highly efficient heat recovery and comfort heating and cooling. Combi 302 Polar combines two heat recovery techniques, where the unit first recovers 85 per cent of the heat via the highly efficient counter flow exchanger. The residual energy is recovered via the unit’s heat pump, which is able to both heat and cool the supply air.

Ventilation: See heating system above. NilAir ducting system used.

Hot Water: Joule 300 L hot water cylinder is heated by excess electricity generated from the solar PV array, particularly over the weekend when the office is unoccupied. This provides most of the hot water needs for the week. A back-up electric boost option is available if required.

Green materials: All timber furniture, structural timber, birch plywood, timber decking from PEFC certified sources; concrete floor has GGBS content of 30 per cent. Flat roof to the rear is designed to take sedum roof (to be installed later).

Electricity: 6 kWp Solax solar photovoltaic array c/w inverter and 6.3 kWh battery with expected annual output of 5,302 kW. Once the battery is full the solar array next heats the hot water cylinder before discharging to the grid.

Lighting: Thorn Equiline and Katona LED lighting controlled by occupancy sensors and daylight dimming sensors.

IAQ monitoring: Nuwave CaDi sensor recently installed. For the 2.5 months for which data is available the CO2 levels exceed 999 parts per million for just 23 seconds and the humidity was outside the recommended range (45-65 per cent) for 1,194 seconds (19.9 minutes).

ph+ | kerry enerphit case study | 61

MARKETPLACE

PASSIVE HOUSE+

Marketplace News Ecological welcomes new internal insulation guidance E cological Building Systems has welcomed the publication of new guidance from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy on internally insulating the external walls of existing buildings.

The guidance provides advice on how to undertake such upgrades without creating a moisture or fire risk, while safeguarding indoor air quality.

“It is encouraging from the outset that the document refers to a term we regularly use when referring to appropriate solutions for retrofit — moisture open,” said Neil Turner, technical sales manager with Ecological Building Systems. “The document emphasises the benefits of vapour diffusion open insulating materials and of ensuring full contact between the insulation and the internal face of the wall with no still air gaps.

It also outlines the need to avoid unventilated air gaps and of using, in certain cases, Intelligent airtightness membranes and lime plaster finishes as opposed to vapour barriers.

“It also states that dynamic hygrothermal modelling (using software such as WUFI or Delphin) in accordance with EN15026 should be carried out in order to assess the potential for moisture risks with any proposed upgrade.”

The new guidance document highlights that for the insulation to function as designed, the risk of air convection induced thermal bypass must be addressed by ensuring an airtight building. For enhancing indoor air quality sufficient mechanical ventilation should be employed.

The document also explains the required measures to be taken on the external side of the wall (rainwater goods, water pooling at the ground, pointing of the external masonry etc.), as well the importance of workmanship and the use of trained installers and builders.

Ecological Building Systems has

62 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

provided extensive training and technical solutions with a range of vapour diffusion open insulation and airtightness products for almost two decades, which are in line with the new BEIS guidelines for internal wall insulation.

These solutions include pro clima Intelligent membranes, Diasen lime thermal plaster, Calsitherm climate boards and Gutex woodfibre. Ecological Building Systems also works closely with architects and specifiers (including WUFI moisture calculations and thermal bridge modelling) and is actively involved in training contractors in the installation of these products.

Turner concluded: “In conclusion I believe that the new guidance document is a highly valuable addition in terms of assisting the construction industry to design, to specify and implement internal wall insulation retrofit, and help our industry to achieve the goal of reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy use, and improved thermal comfort combined with good indoor air quality, whilst at the same time eliminating the risk of moisture issues.” •

Retrofit Internal Wall Insulation Guide to Best Practice Technical authors from Enhabit: Dr Sarah Price (lead), Elena Andreou, Tim Wilcockson, Konstantinos Megagiannis, Nuria Lopez

September 2021

Recycled building board now available from Ecomerchant

A

M Ecoboard, an Irish-manufactured construction board made from one hundred per cent recycled cardboard, is now available in the UK exclusively from Ecomerchant.

AM Ecoboard is manufactured in County Wicklow

by Acoustic Materials. It is produced entirely from packaging material that has been deemed non-recyclable, because of the difficulty of separating its components.

Though to date AM Ecoboard’s main use has been as a high performing soundproofing board, it has numerous certifications, and most recently has been certified for use as a structural racking board according to IS EN 594:2011. Acoustic Materials is also pursuing full CE marking and certification to BS-EN 13986:2004 so it can be used it in place of OSB and plywood, in structural applications, as well as in place of plasterboard.

“We’re delighted to be teaming up with Ecomerchant to supply our product into the UK,” said Stephen Stratton of Acoustic Materials. “Ecomerchant have set the bar in the supply of sustainable building materials.”

Stratton said that Ecoboard is fire-rated, sound-rated, mould and mildew resistant, and has excellent impact resistance. It is also air and vapour tight, and free of formaldehyde. “Every 100 square metres of Ecoboard diverts 510 kg of paper and 340 kg of plastic from landfill,” Stratton said.

“We’re excited to be working with Acoustic Materials, who are manufacturing their product entirely from recycled materials, and just on the other side of the Irish Sea,” said Ecomerchant’s Will Kirkman. “AM Ecoboard will perfectly complement our existing range of ecological building products.”

For more information see www.ecomerchant.co.uk and www.acousticmaterials.ie. •

PASSIVE HOUSE+

Manhattan modular apartments feature Wraptite membrane A

new modular apartment building in New York has been fitted out with Wraptite airtight membrane. East Broadway Residences is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The building has been designed by Brooklynbased Think! Architects, and comprises sixty-three volumetric modules, manufactured in Turkey by OCCA Offsite.

“The superior airtightness performance of Wraptite from the A Proctor Group is an ideal solution for offsite developments, delivering huge benefits to the combination of in-factory manufacture and on-site construction,” said Keira Proctor, managing director of the A Proctor Group. “One key benefit of Wraptite concerning offsite is that it is designed to ensure that the performance of the factory fitted membrane is not compromised during transportation from factory to site. Wraptite offers a simplified system and provides a fully self-adhered vapour permeable air barrier certified by the BBA and combines the important properties of vapour permeability and airtightness in one self-adhering membrane.”

The self-adhesive membrane was applied in the factory, bonded externally to the exterior walls and roof. Ensuring the membrane was held firmly in place was critical to maintaining the quality of the system during ocean transportation and stacking at the construction site.

“Applied externally on the outside of the structural frame, Wraptite simplifies the process of maintaining the envelope’s integrity, as there are fewer building services and structural penetrations to be sealed,” said Proctor.

Window frames were installed offsite and detailed with the Wraptite self-adhesive membrane to attain a watertight window and facade system. Each of the volumetric modules was fully furnished with bathrooms and kitchens, including mechanical electrical and plumbing systems, as well as fire sprinkler systems. A rainscreen façade made from natural stone was mechanically installed on site.

“The installation of Wraptite was a rapid process due to its advanced, easy to apply self-adhesive design and ensured complete water tightness during all phases of manufacturing and the final installation on-site,” added Proctor.

“The high vapour permeability of Wraptite allows the substrate beneath to dry quickly and moisture vapour to escape, and reduces the likelihood of mould, mildew, condensation, timber distortion and metal corrosion.” •

MARKETPLACE

ECD Architects recruiting for new English office

(above) Diagram showing the path of the sun around James Riley Point, which is being retrofitted to the Enerphit standard by ECD Architects.

E

CD Architects, based in London and Glasgow and established in 1980, is planning to open an office in the north west of England later this year, and is now advertising for several new roles (see advert on page 26).

The practice was a founding member of the Passivhaus Trust and has several passive house projects across the UK. Practice managing director James Traynor is the author of ‘Enerphit: a step-by-step guide to low energy retrofit’, published by RIBA. ECD recently submitted a planning application for the refurbishment of James Riley Point, a 23-storey 1960s tower on the Carpenters Estate adjacent to the Olympic Park in London. The tower is being refurbished to the Enerphit standard and incorporates a community centre at ground floor. It is the first phase of a wider masterplan recently approved overwhelmingly by residents.

The project is estimated to save approximately 7.2 tonnes of embodied carbon (CO2e) compared to demolition and rebuild. Operational carbon emissions will be approximately 90 per cent lower than existing, and fuel poverty will be eradicated. The scheme will have zero onsite fossil fuel consumption, utilising exhaust air heat pumps to provide space heating and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery to all dwellings. Roof areas will be optimised to provide PV panels and to improve and retain existing biodiversity and habitat.

This project builds on the learnings from another ECD project at Wilmcote House, Portsmouth (completed in 2018), which was the UK case study for the Europhit programme (step by step approach to Enerphit) and is featured in the LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide. James Traynor was also recently interviewed about Wilmcote House and the Enerphit standard in the Zero Ambitions podcast. •

(above) East Broadway Residences features Wraptite airtight membrane.

ph+ | marketplace | 63

MARKETPLACE

PASSIVE HOUSE+

Ecomerchant now stocking Herschel Infrared heating products L

(above) Herschel Infrared heating panels have a sleek and subtle design.

eading sustainable building product supplier Ecomerchant is now supplying Herschel Infrared heating panels, and Ecomerchant’s Will Kirkman says they are an ideal heating solution for passive house projects.

“Radiant infrared heating excels in home designs featuring ultra-low heat loss and so it naturally complements passive house living,” he said.

He said that increasingly, and particularly with growing concerns about overheating, passive houses may rely less on solar gain for space heating, and look towards low carbon sources of electric heating.

“Future-proofing the M&E design to include dedicated electric heating circuits is relatively low cost, and minimises disruption of the envelope if radiant infrared heating is added at a later stage. We have even helped passive house customers solve heating issues that weren’t envisaged at design stage by installing infrared heating.”

Kirkman said that the Herschel Select XLS and premium Inspire range of panel heaters are ideal where per room heat losses are ultra-low, enabling “low energy consumption and supreme comfort”.

“Radiant heat feels wonderfully natural, as the internal fabric readily absorbs and then gently radiates back into the room with minimal losses. Enhanced comfort at a lower air temperature is genuinely achievable with Herschel Infrared heating.”

Kirkman said that surfaces warmed by radiant infrared heater panels lose heat at a far slower rate than air warmed by convection-based heating. This enables heating to be primed using off-peak tariffs for morning heating, and also to avoid periods of peak electricity demand. The addition of battery storage enables off-peak charging of infrared panels, in addition to daytime charging from surplus solar power.

“Almost every part of a Herschel Infrared heater panel is fully recyclable,” said Kirkman.

“Herschel are exploring the concept of a lifetime product based on user and/or factory replacement parts. Herschel Infrared heating powered by solar and one hundred per cent renewable electricity supply is a simple, clean and elegant heat and power system.” •

Viessmann expands its electric heating range

V

iessmann has launched a range of electric heating products to the UK to complement its established line of heat pumps. These include a new 4 to 24 kW Vitotron electric system boiler, three Vitotherm direct hot water heaters and three Vitoplanar electric space heaters.

“Centralised electricity generation is becoming more sustainable [as more renewables power the electricity grid] and in line with that, it is expected that the cost of electricity will reduce to be closer with gas and oil, making electric heating a more attractive proposition for an increasing number of UK homes,” says Viessmann marketing director, Darren McMahon.

“Heat pumps are not suited to every property, particularly apartments and smaller properties that have low heat losses and require a small system with just a few radiators. Here, Viessmann’s compact Vitotron electric boiler can deliver the desired comfort for a significantly lower installed cost. We expect electric boilers to be popular with housebuilders, as well as electricians, in the face of the 2035 fossil fuel boiler ban. They will also benefit from lower installation costs compared to conventional boilers,” McMahon added.

Viessmann’s Vitotron 100 boiler system

64 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

is equipped with a five-litre expansion vessel. It is available as a 4-8 kW model for single phase power and up to 24 kW with three phase, and has 99.4 per cent efficiency. Advanced controls bring a range of functionalities designed to keep operating costs down, including: regulation of water temperature in the heating circuit from 20 to 85 C; automatic heater power modulation when fitted with the weather compensated control option; temperature programming; and a ‘time of use’ tariff for reduced overnight charges, or in conjunction with new smart energy tariffs.

Viessmann is also introducing three Vitotherm hot water heaters that only consume electricity when hot water is needed. The ES4 model is available as an under or over sink heater in five or 10-litre versions, while the Vitotherm EI5 is tankless.

Meanwhile, the Vitoplanar range of space heaters includes the EC4 model, a slimline wall-mounted convector heater with 500 to 2000 W output; the EI2 and EI6 infrared panel heaters, available in mirrored glass or white steel finishes with outputs from 325 to 900 W; and the Vitoplanar EF2 electric underfloor heating mats with outputs from 150 to 1275 W. These products come with a standard

two-year warranty and are available now from merchants nationally, including Viessmann Direct. Viessmann plans to offer remote training in the future.

In 2019, Viessmann acquired KOSPEL, a Polish manufacturer of instantaneous water heaters, electric boilers and DHW cylinders and in 2020 it bought shares in Etherma, an Austrian manufacturer of direct and infrared electric heating systems. •

(above) The Viessmann Vitoplanar EI2 electric infrared heater is available with a mirrored glass finish.

PASSIVE HOUSE+

MARKETPLACE

AECB CARBONLITE RETROFIT COURSE

TM

THE COURSE TO LEARN ABOUT LOW CARBON RETROFIT

• •

• •

• Understand how to reduce, avoid and repair common retrofit defects.

• Learn to reduce the performance gap and implement energy efficiency measures and reduce heat loss in buildings.

Develop technical knowledge for designing, assessing and project managing domestic retrofit projects.

• All material is presented on-line. Access to a speaker and microphone is useful to join AECB and industry wide webinars. Multiple choice, numerical calculations, and scenario-based exercises.

• Access to the AECB Knowledgebase, webinars, links to national and international reading material and networking opportunities. Access to the LEBD containing hundreds of low energy, high performance building case studies including 150 retrofit case studies, and analysis charts to learn from, as well as a ‘check your own home emissions’ tool.

JOIN AECB TODAY https://aecb.net/join-the-aecb/

Standard cost for members £410 + VAT. Extend access for 12 months for an annual fee of £55 + VAT. To download the AECB CarbonLite Retrofit Course prospectus and find out about AECB membership, please visit www.aecb.net For further queries, please email training@aecb.net ph+ | marketplace | 65

D R TO B Y C A M B R AY

COLUMN

Let’s get decarbonisation done While there is much debate about whether we should prioritise retrofitting homes or installing heat pumps, the climate crisis means we may not have a choice but to do both as fast as possible, writes Toby Cambray.

L

ike them or loathe them, Insulate Britain have undeniably got everyone talking a bit more about insulation. The debate around their methods is thought-provoking, but I don’t want to delve into that here. I recently read an essay entitled ‘Insulate Britain!

Yes, but by how much?’ [find it at tinyurl.com/ InsulateBritain], the general thrust of which was that even what I’d consider to be a basic fabric retrofit is relatively expensive, and heat pumps are getting better and cheaper, therefore we should do a bare minimum of fabric work, and focus on deploying heat pumps. There is a lot to unpick in this piece, and plenty I disagree with, but it did get me thinking about whether it is time to adjust our tactics in the great game of decarbonisation.

It’s worth clearing up at the outset that, if designed properly, a heat pump, could, in theory, heat a building with poor fabric efficiency. The

Installing a heat pump does not preclude a deep energy retrofit. kicker in this statement is “if designed properly”. I would even go as far as saying, that if designed well, the heat pump could theoretically be quite efficient in terms of simple COP – it would just be doing an awful lot of work. This does not however mean that it’s a good idea to put a heat pump in a building with poor fabric efficiency. Although there are cases where other constraints mean we have little choice, ultimately we need to both (mostly) Insulate Britain and (mostly) Heatpumpify Britain.

The central point in the article is that deep energy retrofit “isn’t a realistic strategy for reaching net zero in the fastest time possible”.

This, unfortunately, is becoming a valid argument. We’re running out of time and we don’t yet have the workforce or supply chain to undertake deep energy retrofit at the scale necessary. Policy makers seem reluctant to mandate or incentivise this process (such as the culling of the Green Home Grants). Even if this changes very soon, we as deep energy retrofit advocates

66 | passivehouseplus.co.uk | issue 40

may need to re-think how we decarbonise within the necessary timescales, and that may mean a more circuitous route.

My main concern with the aforementioned essay is around the framing of the problem; it’s important to consider ideas from a household perspective, but this tends to obscure the significance of how our energy supply systems work. There are, it seems, some misconceptions around the ‘grid can’t cope’ argument. Much like an enormous heat pump with enormous radiators can heat a leaky building, it is possible to engineer a national electricity grid that could support a nation of leaky homes heated via electricity. The implications of this are, however, potentially significant in terms of the necessary infrastructure. There are various other consequences rarely mentioned: ecological damage to the space occupied by the infrastructure, or the upfront CO2 for example.

We’re not saying the grid could never cope with wholesale heatpumpification; we’re saying it would be expensive to make it able to cope. What’s more is that inter-seasonal electricity storage technology isn’t ready yet, a clear counter argument to concerns about the roll out of deep energy retrofit. With the latter, the technology (i.e., fluffy stuff) is well established and the barriers are “just” political and logistical.

A simple switch of heating system also does not yield the benefits to health of a well-executed retrofit (positive for the public purse as well as individuals). The interaction with fuel poverty is more than a little complicated though. While the efficiency of a heat pump can potentially offset the higher cost of electricity compared with gas, the coefficient of performance (COP) has to be consistently impressive to do this.

However, I would concede this to the heat pumpers’ argument: maybe given the urgency of the climate crisis, we need to start pulling all the levers available to us. When we started Greengauge 11 years ago, typical advice was to fit a fossil boiler, and spend the money you could have dropped on a heat pump, on insulation, airtightness and ventilation — you could always opt for a heat pump when the boiler gave up. I stand by that advice of 11 years ago, but I think the calculus has changed. The climate crisis is more urgent, the UK heat pump

market has matured significantly and the retrofit market is bumping along thanks to a band of dedicated individuals rather than soaring thanks to the bold, consistent policy support needed.

Here's the rub: in the same way that deep fabric retrofit doesn’t preclude upgrading to a heat pump at a later date, (especially if it planned in advance), installing a heat pump does not preclude a subsequent deep energy fabric retrofit, especially if it’s planned in advance. A rapid growth in heat pumps would quickly stimulate the investment in the infrastructure needed if we’re to shift away from gas in the medium term, and with appropriate forethought, we can go back and reduce the demand of those properties later.

On the other hand, we still seem to be riding with the stabilisers when it comes to fabric retrofit, and getting on with heatpumpification buys us some time to get that bit right.

I therefore offer the following idea for discussion in the retrofit community and beyond.

At the national (rather than household) level, perhaps the fastest route to decarbonisation is to heatpumpify as fast as possible, and retrofit as fast as possible – in some, perhaps even in many cases, in that order.

Of course, individual cases must be considered on their merits, and I’m certainly not saying always bung in a heat pump first, and I’m absolutely not saying we should give up on fabric. But we should acknowledge that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are the ideal combination. I’d welcome a debate here, but the fastest and most pragmatic route to a low carbon built environment might be a balance of fabric first, and fabric second. n

Toby Cambray is a founding director at Greengauge and leads the building physics team. He is an engineer intrigued by how buildings work and how they fail, and uses a variety of methods to understand these processes.

TRIED + TRUSTED

Prize-winning MVHR

Green Building Store has been supplying and delivering low energy MVHR projects since 1995.

We are the trusted choice for MVHR, triple glazed timber and alu-clad windows and doors, insulation and airtightness products.

Proudly offering: 





Technical product support for Passivhaus and low energy projects Outstanding customer service Free technical resources on low energy building, including blogs, films, webinars and CPDs

Contact us for a quote or to book a free CPD

“Green Building Store were brilliant members of the MVHR team on the Goldsmith Street project and it was good to tap into their superb technical know-how. They delivered the systems that we designed efficiently and reliably and came to site to commission every single one of the MVHR units at the project.”

Sally Godber WARM Toby Cambray Greengauge M&E and Environmental Services on the Goldsmith Street project Photo ©Tim Crocker

greenbuildingstore.co.uk 01484 461705

ph+ | editor’s letter | 87

Reset to circular

Xtratherm is commited through our investment in R&D to be a leader for sustainability & circularity in our industry.

We are on a path of continual improvement in the sustainability of our products, working with our partners in design and construction to meet the most stringent targets for the construction sector such as the RIBA Climate Challenge 2030 & LETI Carbon Primer.

Our best performing insulation to date is not only bio-enhanced, but is also designed to integrate with the most energy efficient building methods.

Meets RIBA 2030 & LETI Targets

Over 50% reduction in packaging materials* Halogen free formulation

Reduction of onsite waste

Improved thermal performance of 0.020 W/mK Bio-degradable packaging materials

Visit xtratherm.com to view the full ECO360 range

in recycling technology 68 | *Investment passivehouseplus.ie | Issue 21will see Xtratherm reprocessing waste raw materials, resulting in up to 30% of recycled raw material input into new products, by 2026.