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'Community' eco homes under construction |
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23 Jun 2014, 2:14 PM
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Construction has begun on a pair of green and affordable self-build houses for two families in Witherslack, Westmorland. The semi-detached eco-homes are growing daily, and the occupants should be able to move in by Christmas.
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Architect Andrew Yeats of EcoArc Architects said the properties “will be some of the most energy efficient houses in Europe.”
A ‘long and complex’ 10-year journey for the families began in 2004 when the Parish Plan identified a need for affordable housing. A Housing Enabler Group was established, which set up a community land trust to deliver a self- build scheme. Full planning permission was granted in December 2012, with no objections from the community.
The Witherslack Estate gifted the land to the trust, which then transferred the freehold for the plots to the self-builders. The families have worked with the architect throughout the process to achieve designs they are happy with.
Witherslack Community Land Trust chair Nick Stanley said: “It has been a long and winding road to get this far. “We know that these issues face most villages in the UK, but it is particularly hard in the National Parks. We hope that our work will have some, small influence on Government in all its forms and that they will now accept that many of rural England's problems are solvable by the communities themselves.”
The homes will be low carbon, eco dwellings conceived as an integrated eco system within the boundaries of the site, built to the German Passivhaus standard. The design of the houses features compact south facing plans which will minimise heat loss from the house and enable gains to be received from winter and summer sunshine.
The super insulated, low energy structure will be built with 300 mm insulated cavity walls and 400 mm insulated roofs to give a consistent all over fabric U Value of less than 0.13 W/m2k. The houses will include heavy weight thermal mass to reduce the thermal flywheel effect to a minimum. The windows will be Low E argon filled triple glazed, to give a centre pane U value of 0.83 W/m2k.
Cold bridging and accidental air infiltration will be avoided through careful detailing around all reveals.
Hot water will be supplied by roof mounted solar thermal panels, with a wood burning stove using locally sourced fuel, providing space heating and additional water heating during the winter months. The well-insulated building fabric with internal thermal mass will reduce heat losses to a minimum creating considerable thermal inertia eliminating the need for a full central heating system. Conventional central heating boilers run off fossil fuels will not be required.
Mechanical ventilation will be avoided in the summer months in favour of natural ventilation. However in winter months when the outside air is too cold relative to the required inside temperature a seasonal whole house clean air ventilation system fitted with heat recovery, to preheat incoming cool fresh air with outgoing warm stale air, will be utilized for maximum efficiency and reduce space heating requirement to the minimum.
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