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Assessing the 'Future Proof' house |
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29 May 2015, 11:39 AM
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An independent building control service for England and Wales recently inspected the green credentials of what has been termed the ‘Future-Proof Home’.
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The Duffy family outside their new home in Meopham
A development of five Trivselhus houses in the rural village of Meopham in the heart of Kent were inspected by Quadrant Building Control who said “The thermal standards that these houses have been built to exceed the current standards required by the building regulations and the recommended standards for zero-carbon homes that the Government committed to introducing in future changes to the building regulations.”
The two and four bedroom detached houses in Meopham’s Windmill Close were built by small-scale niche house builder Cedar Rydal in partnership with Swedish building company Trivselhus.
The Scandinavian firm uses doors and windows which are triple-glazed, argon-filled units pre-fitted in the factory. They arrive on site within the completed wall panel. Service conduits for electricity and plumbing are included in the build at the factory stage so that no holes need to be made in the walls or floors on site.
Paul Knight, of Quadrant, commented: “These features are aimed at minimising construction time while ensuring that the occupants don’t experience draughts and energy loss. The whole house has mechanical ventilation with heat recovery for good air quality and no wasted warmth.
"Heating and hot water come from a high-efficiency gas condensing boiler with a hot water storage cylinder and radiators. This creates homes that are very thermally efficient, require low heating loads and provide a clean, fresh and comfortable internal environment insulated from external noise.”
But what makes the Trivselhus (roughly translated as ‘house of wellbeing’) really efficient is the thermal insulation.
240mm of mineral wool insulation is built into the closed panels of the house at factory stage, providing a highly insulating wall layer.
The building inspector continued “It is very difficult to put more thermal insulation into the fabric of a standard house. Future-proofing means maximising the building’s thermal insulation so that future improvements such as installing photovoltaic (PV) solar panels for additional energy and a solar thermal system for significantly reducing water heating bills become easy.
“Solar thermal and PV solar panels can be fitted post-completion as Government subsidies, Feed in Tariffs and Renewable Heat Incentives are still available when fitting these systems to a completed house rather than including them during the construction process.”
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