Issue 25 - passivehouseplus.co.uk

One of Ireland’s pioneering and most consequential green organisations, Tipperary Energy Agency, turned 20 at the end of February, evolving from one man buried in sawdust to a 24 strong team whose efforts are influencing national policy and earning European plaudits. But why has the agency endured and grown, and what lessons can be learned to help others play their part in delivering the transition we so urgently need to low energy buildings and clean energy generation? Two of the central figures in the agency’s development spill the beans, along with some of the many partners the agency has worked with over the years.

Architect Donal Ryan’s new low energy home in Thurles, Co. Tipperary attempts to marry design and passive house principles, a fact that’s manifest in its minimally-glazed yet striking north-facing façade.

Built on a particularly exposed site near Chichester where winter temperatures plummet all too frequently – down as low as minus sixteen – the award-winning Curly House had to overcome several challenges.

Featured in a case study in Passive House Plus not long after it was completed in 2015, quantity surveyor John Carney’s passive house on the windswept but sunny Waterford coast has now been occupied for almost three years.

As demand for super-insulated and airtight building structures grows, insulating concrete formwork (ICF) is rapidly gaining popularity as a method of construction. But what exactly is ICF, what are its key advantages, and why is it so well suited to passive house and low energy construction?

When architect Tony Godwin wandered into a seminar on the passive house standard at Ecobuild ten years ago, it was the start of a journey that would eventually see him design and build his own passive home on a sloping site — and learn some hard lessons along the way to achieving a comfortable, ultra-low energy family home with tiny energy bills.

In the classic story of the three little pigs, the big bad wolf may have blown down the first little piggy’s house of straw with consummate ease — but he wasn’t reckoning with this pioneering, energy bill-shredding Suffolk project, the UK’s first load-bearing straw bale passive house

This skilfully designed new passive house in Blackrock manages to be lightfilled and strikingly contemporary while taking its design inspiration from the very ordinary Dublin street on which it sits.

Generational differences in taste were successfully married by a concern for energy efficiency in this contemporary, award-winning passive house in An Spidéal, which comes within a whisker of the nZEB standard.

In his third column on visionary eco-buildings of the 20th century, Dr Marc Ó Riain looks at the pioneering passive solar designs of Fred Keck.

A selection of passive & eco builds from around the world, this issue features a boat designed according to passive house principles, with the artic climate in mind, and a contemporary passive house by Key Architects on Japan’s rural Shikoku Island.

The net effect of poor insulation levels, underheating and under-ventilation in buildings poses a major public health threat. Peter Rickaby describes one pioneering London project that’s taking a practical, methodical – and scalable – approach to solving the problem.

Inertia with state-owned land is exacerbating Ireland’s housing crisis, argues housing commentator and architect Mel Reynolds, in spite of the state possessing enough zoned land to make a major dent in solving the problem.

MBC Project has warned that poor quality installation risks undermining confidence in the growing external wall insulation (EWI) industry — seen as crucial for bringing Ireland’s housing stock up to modern standards of energy efficiency. Dublinbased MBC Project supplies KABE Therm external insulation systems, which include EPS and mineral wool boards.

Energy consultant Cillian Donoghue of BERCerts.ie is currently undertaking a retrofit project that will transform a neglected G-rated bungalow in Co Meath into an A-rated dwelling, using a fabric-first approach and without the use of renewable energy.

This year’s prestigious iF Design Awards saw Daikin Europe’s design skills recognised as the company scooped five awards for their residential heat pump and commercial control solutions at a ceremony in Munich on 9 March.

Quinn Building Products has announced a new free CPD (continuous professional development) offering for those in Irish construction, entitled ‘Single Leaf Masonry - A Modern Method of Construction?’ A series of open house regional seminars are scheduled throughout Ireland, and available to book via the Quinn Building Products website.

An innovative scheme to develop the site of the former Caerphilly Magistrates Court in South Wales into 38 new social homes built to passive house standard has been granted planning permission by Caerphilly Council.

Leading green lender Ecology Building Society has welcomed the publication of the Green Finance Taskforce’s report to the UK government on boosting green finance, but warned that any measures to stimulate green lending must be long-term and sustainable.

Leading mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) manufacturer Brink Climate Systems has launched a new high efficiency MVHR unit, the Flair 325. According to the Dutch company, the new range comes with some exciting new technologies to boost efficiency, ensure correct ventilation rates and enable easy operation.

Ecocem, Europe’s largest independent specialist producer of key low carbon building material GGBS (ground granulated blast-furnace slag) cement, has announced a re-brand with the launch of a new logo and tagline.

Ecological Building Systems have announced the launch of the new pro clima products Tescon Sprimer, Aerosana Viscon and Roflex Solido to the Irish and UK Markets. These new airtightness solutions “expand pro clima’s market leading range of high quality sealing systems for inside and out”.

The Dutch company Fresh-r has won the passive house components award at the 22nd annual Passive House Exhibition in Munich, for its decentralised residential ventilation system. Fresh-r worked together with the Scottish firm Collective Architecture on its submission for the award, which was presented at this year’s international Passive House Conference.

Concerns have been raised that proposed changes to Irish building regulations — designed to bring Ireland in line with EU requirements that new homes be ‘nearly zero energy buildings’ (nZEBs) from the end of 2020 — could encourage sub-standard approaches to ventilation and airtightness.

The Irish Green Building Council's annual Green Room event takes place this year on 2 May in the Alex Hotel, Dublin, and this year’s conference focuses on the imminent arrival of nearly zero energy building standards, and on the role of 'corporate action in our transition to a low carbon built environment’.