Suburban Passive House

Built to stringent Passive House standards, this home located in a typical suburban street, provides a model for future living. It offers flexible family accommodation combined with thermal comfort and very low running costs. At a time of concern over soaring energy bills and meeting climate change targets, this house model offers an attractive affordable solution.

The main living area has been designed to be adaptable: either completely open plan, or various rooms can be closed off to provide greater separation or privacy.

The external building fabric is heavily insulated. The wall panels were formed from an innovative, but extremely simple pre-fabricated space stud timber frame, which is virtually thermal bridge free. The roof panels were formed from timber i-joists, which again almost completely eliminate any thermal bridging. The airtight construction, achieved an air pressurization test result of 0.75m3/m2.hr @ 50pa, equivalent to 0.59 air changes per hour. Estimated space heating requirements are 16kw/m2 per annum. The first year of occupation of the house is being monitored with Edinburgh University, to assess predicted energy use with actual.

The house is heated by solar gain through large south facing windows, incidental gains from appliances, lighting, towel rails and people. In colder weather, back-up is provided by a 2kw heating element in the MVHR ventilation system. Photovoltaic panels on the roof generate up to 3.7kw of electricity, with solar panels, providing a significant contribution to the domestic hot-water supply. LED lighting has been specified throughout.

The house was constructed from a timber frame, with insulation made from recycled materials. The concrete slab was mixed from reclaimed potash, with the kitchen and timber floor also from reclaimed sources. The slate worktops in the bathrooms were cut from salvaged snooker table tops.

Externally the materials are a simple palette of stained Scottish timber cladding and slate on the roof. The gable walls are clad in wood fibre board finished in a lime based render.