UK news - passivehouseplus.co.uk

Residential retrofits must ensure ventilation is carefully considered in order to avoid an increase in radon gas levels, researchers at NUI Galway in Ireland have found.

Plans for over 33,000 net zero carbon new homes are underway across the UK, Passive House Plus can reveal.

The UK's net-zero carbon target for all homes by 2050 is unlikely to be met without a major overhaul of the current energy certification system, MPs have warned.

Industry-leading mechanical ventilation company BEAM Vacuum & Ventilation has launched a new mobile phone app for their award-winning, next generation HERU heat recovery ventilation range.

The second edition of the book Understanding Passivhaus by Emma Walshaw of First In Architecture is out now. The book is designed to provide a brief, clear and complete guide to building a passive home.

NI still plans to tighten energy rules for new build

Before it was halted until January 2021, the Grenfell Tower inquiry heard a series of damning testimonies on the culture towards fire safety within leading building material manufacturers and certification bodies in the years leading up to the fire.

The Welsh government is set to introduce a new section of building regulations to deal with mitigating overheating risk, Part S.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) envisages loft insulation and air source heat pumps as being among the primary tools to reduce the carbon footprint of existing buildings, in its newly published landmark plan for how the UK can move towards becoming a net zero carbon nation by 2050.

Ventilation will be an essential requirement of insulation retrofits under the UK government’s new £1.5 billion Green Homes Grant voucher scheme, Passive House Plus can reveal.

RIBA has published a report urging the government, local authorities and the wider construction sector to adopt post-occupancy evaluation as standard practice to ensure all new buildings meet intended energy efficiency ratings and provide optimum value for money.

The NHS has given the go ahead for its first passive house building. The new Foleshill health centre in Coventry is designed by Tooley & Foster Partnership. Patients and doctors at Foleshill are currently using a temporary building situated in a carpark.

ABK Architects has received planning permission for 597 homes at Shanganagh, Co Dublin, the overwhelming majority of which will be passive houses. The project has been developed in partnership with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and the Land Development Agency.

CO² levels in rooms and other enclosed spaces should be used as a proxy for Covid transmission risk, a number of leading experts have said, as the evidence increasingly points towards airborne transmission being a major factor in the spread of the virus.

The digital edition of Passive House Plus has seen a significant increase in readership during the Covid-19 crisis, in addition to the magazine’s market-leading print circulation.

A new campaign is aiming to encourage more sustainable property refurbishment through tax incentives for people to adopt passive, or near passive, building standards.

Advice also calls for upskilling for retrofit & low carbon heating

The European Commission has adopted the EU’s new circular economy action plan, a major part of the European Green deal. The action plan aims to make the EU economy produce more durable, longerlasting, repairable consumer products, and maximise the use of recycled material.

A new report by the Passivhaus Trust has questioned the common assumption that mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) is inappropriate in dwellings with air permeability worse than 3 m3/m2/hour.

The World Health Organisation is set to imminently publish revised guidance on ventilation as part of its Covid-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance in healthcare settings, Passive House Plus has learned.

The airborne transmission of COVID-19 may be a risk in enclosed spaces with air recirculation or poor fresh air ventilation, with one study concluding that airborne transmission may have occurred in 48.3% of people in a poorly ventilated office and 34.3% of passengers on an air conditioned bus.

To ensure anyone who wants to read Passive House Plus can do so easily during this challenging and disrupted time, we’re making the new issue of the magazine completely free to read, both digitally and in print. This edition is essential reading for anyone interested in how to design and spec out low energy, sustainable buildings.

Researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo have developed a new procedure for recycling concrete with the addition of discarded wood.

RIBA has published a new in-depth guide to the Enerphit Standard, the Passive House Institute’s benchmark for retrofit projects.

The 2020 UK Passivhaus Awards are now open for entries. The awards will celebrate the best certified passive house projects from across the UK.

The innovative Passive Purple airtightness paint from Intelligent Membranes has been used to form an external airtight layer on an Enerphit project in Norfolk. The BEIS-funded deep retrofit to a block of six flats for Great Yarmouth Borough Council is being delivered by passive house specialists Beattie Passive.

An impressive assembly of passive-certified skylights is helping to ensure that the occupants of a unique new eco business centre in Oxfordshire can work in an indoor environment full of natural light.

New research published by the Passivhaus Trust has shown that the real-terms cost of building to the passive house standard has fallen since the previous study four years ago.

Blowerproof liquid airtight membrane has achieved Class A passive house component certification for both its liquid and fibre-reinforced brush applications.

Nine out of ten readers of Passive House Plus have made decisions on building or upgrading projects in response to articles in the magazine – and nearly eight out of ten in response to adverts – according to the results of a survey of readers of the magazine’s UK edition.