Having attended a recent daylighting symposium explaining the benefits of daylighting on the health of occupants, the design approach has been slightly modified in an attempt to increase daylighting. Shuffling the […]

Work has been progressing with Velux and Maico on using active MVHR ventilation during the heating period and passive ventilation via opening windows and Velux’s during the summer. Its estimated that this strategy will save around 2.5kg CO2/m2/year as well as providing purge ventilation for cooling purposes in the summer. Actuators which can be…[Read more]

We have just taken delivery of our Maico MVHR which was sized to keep the seasonal indoor RH between 35-55% and the CO2 content close to the Pettenkoffer limit of 1000 ppmv. We waited for  this new model to be manufactured which only received PH certification on 30.12.10.  It’s going through the SAP appendix Q accreditation process at BRE [...]

As mentioned in the previous case study, it was discovered after work on site had commenced and the attic ceiling removed, that the old roof timbers were rotten as the result of pushing insulation up against the sarking felt. Sensitive to the discovery of how poorly installed insulation can destroy a roof beyond repair over a short period (25 [...]

Link to Construction Excellence NI Case Study of the Eco-Energy Retrofit project up to December 2011:

http://www.constructingexcellence.ulster.ac.uk/page.php?50

The quality of the windows is critical in not only hitting our aspirational space heating target of 30 kWh/m2/yr, but also from a thermal comfort perspective. There are a number of Passivhaus window manufactures in mainland Europe, but they all appear to only manufacture inward opening windows which are not suitable for the project house. [...]

Due to the low space heat demand, we have tried to source a boiler of around 4kW to prevent boiler cycling. Although there are a couple of manufacturers of such a boiler in Germany, even though CE marked, these do not have type approval for use in the UK. Having attempted to convince a few [...]

A comment on the feed back from the TSB judges was that we should endeavor to use a locally made MVHR. We have been scouring the UK for a suitable unit, however, although often promoted as a UK product, many of the parts are made in China with the unit assembled on the continent. These [...]

BSRIA carried out the airtightness test in April, calculating the air permeability at 12.58 m3/(hr/m2). It appears that a disproportionate amount of air is leaking out from the 30 year old converted attic. At the time of the test it was commented that without the attic, the 114 year old original construction would have an [...]

Eco-Energy (NI) Ltd and Grove Housing Association, Belfast   The Eco-Energy Retrofit project aims to deliver an exemplar demonstrator house retrofitted with a whole house solution which reduces CO2 emissions by 80% whilst ensuring high levels of thermal comfort and air quality for the occupants. The 1896 built house owned by Grove Housing…[Read more]