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First large scale Passivhaus refit underway |
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15 Jul 2012, 8:52 PM
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A Manchester-based stock transfer association is carrying out the UK’s first large-scale Passivhaus retrofit.
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Eastland Homes is using the energy efficient standard, usually applied to new build properties, to refurbish 32 apartments at Erneley Close, Longsite, as part of its £180 million decent homes programme. It is the first large-scale adoption in the UK of the approach to retrofit homes and also the first time it has been carried out while tenants continue living in the properties.
Passivhaus homes have to be extremely air-tight, installed with high thermal insulation, making it an expensive and difficult standard to achieve. Previously Passivhaus retrofits have only been attempted in heavily subsidised, small-scale pilots.
Eastland hopes to be able to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent and slash energy bills for tenants from £1,540 a year to just £270 a year.
This will cost around £40,000 per property - almost four times as expensive as the average amount spent per property under decent homes - though far cheaper than previous Passivhaus retrofits.
David Williams, deputy chief executive of Eastland Homes, said: ‘There is no getting away from the fact that it’s expensive.
‘But the residents in the maisonettes are the poorest people in our housing stock and we would have had to have done considerable work to get the homes up to decent homes standard anyway.’
Phil Summers, director at R-gem developments, which is overseeing the project, added: ‘The world has moved on since decent homes was the standard to aspire to.’
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