low energy - passivehouseplus.co.uk

Sola open new NZEB showroom

Leading Tipperary-based low energy retrofit contract Sola Energy Solutions have opened a new NZEB showroom designed to showcase the full suite of low energy retrofit & new build options offered by the company.

Channel Islands gets its first passive house

A passive house new build has commenced in Guernsey and, when certified, it will be the first project in the Channel Islands built to the standard. Located on the west coast of the island, Le Catillion is a single-storey dwelling being constructed for an architect and his wife as their low energy holiday home.

Wood works - Sleek but large Herts passive house goes heavy on timber

The Deerings, a large new certified passive house in the Hertfordshire village of Harpenden, is the stunning result of meticulous attention to design, energy efficiency and ecological materials by its architects, builders and a homeowner so taken by the experience that it led to an investment in an innovative passive house start-up.

Ground-breaking Glavloc completes latest low energy rapid build

Glavloc has recently completed a 129 square metre three-bedroom house in Carrickmines, Dublin, using the company’s innovative rapid-build construction system, which combines off site manufacturing and on-site assembly

Granite-hewn Victorian home upgraded to PHI low energy standard

Built in 1850, this home in Dartmoor national park would have relied on local timber supplies for heating until the advent of widely-available central heating. One passive house-flavoured retrofit later, it’s back to its wood-burning roots – only this time with much less wood use, and much higher comfort.

From derelict shop to tiny low energy home

In 2014, one couple decided to give up life in a van and convert an old newsagents in Shrewsbury into a very small low energy home, using the principles of the passive house standard as their guide. So how did it work out, and what is life really like in such a small home?

1948: The Dover Sun House

In his second column on visionary eco-buildings of the 20th century, Dr Marc Ó Riain looks at the Dover Sun House, which used a pioneering salt solution to capture and store solar energy

Scottish isle eco cottages need no central heating

Two spectacular low energy social housing units looking out over Ulva Ferry’s breath-taking surroundings prove to be a superb response to local problems of fuel poverty and lack of affordable family housing.

SMET picks up small business award

SMET Building Products, which supplies a wide range of products for low energy and fabric-first construction, picked up the award for best small business at the Greater Newry Business Awards,  organised by Newry Chamber of Commerce & Trade, on 28 September at the town’s Canal Hotel.

New coastal ICF home goes passive at low costs

This house on the coast of County Waterford is built from an insulated concrete formwork shell that delivers an inherently warm and airtight construction, and easily exceeds passive house targets.

Red brick Surrey home becomes an unintentional passive house

The team behind this Surrey home intended to use it as a test-bed for passive house design and construction, without necessarily expecting to achieve certification. But as the house neared completion, they realised that they were within touching distance of the coveted low energy standard.

Hereford archive chooses passive preservation

Safeguarding historic documents and other artefacts requires stable building conditions. Until now this was usually achieved with the expensive and energy-hogging use of heating and cooling equipment, but a new approach by Herefordshire Council used the passive house approach to conserve energy, money — and the county’s precious historical archives.

Smart Dublin passive house shows tiny heating bills

Building this stylish south Dublin passive house, which recently picked up a Made in Germany energy efficiency award, demanded a steep learning curve, not least when it came to airtightness — but despite the struggles, it ultimately gave its owners their dream low energy home.
Words: Des Crabbe, architectural technologist, OA Studios

Ireland's first passive house pharmacy

Late last summer, work finished on architect Paul McNally’s latest super low energy project: a three-storey building in Tipperary that has just become Ireland’s first certified passive house pharmacy.

Will building boom see low energy failures?

Low energy building isn’t complicated, but it’s easy to get wrong. Since Irish house builders downed tools en masse when the last boom ended, energy efficiency standards for new homes have seen unprecedented rises of 40% in 2008 and 60% in 2011, shooting far ahead of the UK. But with signs of a new boom emerging, can the industry get to grips with this brave new world of insulation, airtightness and thermal bridging and deliver healthy low-energy homes — or are damp and mould set to become the norm in new build?

What is the next frontier for low energy building?

It's not too hard to remember a time when 'passive house' was a rare, hallowed term. Of course it is still the zenith of low energy building. But there was a time only a few years ago, at our predecessor magazine Construct Ireland, when the possibility of featuring a certified passive house only came along every couple of issues.

Passive house vs passivhaus: the reaction

My blog post last week on 'passive house vs passivhaus' generated a fair bit of debate, so I thought it'd be nice to take a look at some of the reaction it provoked. The vast majority of those who responded disagreed with my stance, and this magazine's stance, expressing preference for the German 'passivhaus'.

New Irish passive house association launched in Dublin

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People planning to build a new home could save themselves thousands of euro each year by developing a passive house, according to the Passive House Association of Ireland (PHAI), a new low energy design initiative comprising passive house designers and contractors.

Walking on water

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Designing a low-energy public building with passive ventilation and lighting in mind is one thing – making it fit seamlessly into a rural wetland environment is quite another. Lenny Antonelli visited the award-winning Ballybay Wetlands Centre in County Monaghan - a closed-panel timber frame structure designed to sit softly on the surrounding landscape.

Modern Age

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Creating the right comfort in buildings for elderly people involves ensuring a warm internal environment, which typically results in high energy consumption. John Hearne visited the new Castle Gardens Retirement Village as it approached completion and found a project that combines complimentary low energy technologies, materials and design to deliver high levels of comfort whilst also keeping running costs, energy consumption and carbon emissions low

Eco Schools

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It is hoped that the lessons learned from the construction and monitoring of these buildings will assist in reducing the energy usage of future school designs.

From Policy to Practice

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As policy makers start to set mandatory low energy and renewable energy requirements as conditions of planning, the ability of the construction industry to find sound low-cost ways of achieving the new standards is becoming a key factor. John Corless speaks to leading sustainable building consultant Jay Stuart of Delap & Waller EcoCo and Paul Gilmartin of Ecobead to discover an approach with enormous potential for en-masse usage.

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