Sola open new NZEB showroom

This article was originally published in issue 32 of Passive House Plus magazine. Want immediate access to all back issues and exclusive extra content? Click here to subscribe for as little as €10, or click here to receive the next issue free of charge

The company purchased the G-rated commercial building, on the outskirts of Templemore, with the intention of undertaking a deep retrofit of the premises.

Sola are one of the leading contractors working on deep retrofit in Ireland, including the likes of the SuperHomes retrofit scheme, and are regarded for their expertise in delivering whole-house, fabric first retrofit and new build projects, as well as being a supplier and installer of renewable energy systems.

The upgrade to the premises involved a suite of measures including: removing the existing asbestos roof and installing a new insulated Kingspan roof system; pump-filling the cavity walls as well as installing 82 mm insulated board to the inside of the walls, digging up the floors, installing QuinnTherm insulation and a new Joule underfloor heating system. The building was then retrofitted with new Munster Joinery triple glazed windows and doors.

The team also installed a Mitsubishi Ecodan air source heat pump and a Mitsubishi Lossnay mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system. The offices upstairs benefit from air-based heating and cooling, while the showroom downstairs features both air-based heating and cooling in addition to the underfloor heating system. A new large 8.5 kW solar PV array was installed on the roof to further reduce the building’s primary energy demand.

The new showroom also showcases the array of products offered by the company to potential customers, including Aereco demand-controlled ventilation systems, Mitsubishi Ecodan heat pumps, solar PV panels and electric stoves. While final testing and certification has yet to be completed, Paul O’Brien of Sola Energy Solutions said that he is confident the airtightness has been brought down to about 2 m3/hr/m2, and that he expects the final BER assessment to confirm that the renovated building achieves both an A rating and meets the new non-domestic new-build standard for nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs).

“We moved into the new premises in August. The air quality is absolutely fantastic,” O’Brien said. “It’s great to be able to showcase exactly what we are able to offer in terms of retrofit right from our own showroom. Anybody who comes in, they can see that if we’re able to get a commercial building up to this standard, they know then their home is going to be like that as well.”