Thanks to all who attended our site visit in Colerne last week. We enjoyed the opportunity to discuss this near-Passivhaus project with attendees and answer some interesting questions.  Feedback was positive and everyone seemed to enjoy the opportunity to tour the building, which is at structural/first fix stage.  Huge thanks to Piers Sadler, The Green Register for co-organising this event and of course the clients!

We have begun work on this contemporary low energy house on a garden plot in Bristol, designed by Emmett Russell Architects.

On this occasion, we are acting as principal contractor and working with architect, engineer and energy consultant to ensure the final product meets the design criteria in every way.

The house will have a super insulated timber frame structure sitting on a conventional concrete raft/trench fill foundation.  Walls will be finished with a combination of local rubble pennant stone on the ground floor and render above, with the roof finished in traditional standing seam Zinc.

Typical of houses that we have built in the last few years this house has not only been designed to near Passivhaus standards, but also uses natural (non petrochemical) products wherever practicable and is looking to the future for its energy supply and ways of living.

Features include:

• Very little space heating required
 - cheap to run 
-  very comfortable
• U values below 0.13
• Airtightness of less than 1 acph
• Minimal cold bridging
• High quality MVHR unit with rigid Lindab ducting
• Careful consideration to maximizing solar gain and eliminating solar overheating
• Photo voltaic panels with potential for battery add on later
• Air Source Heat Pump (ASHP) instead of a gas boiler providing hot water and heating
• Electric car charging point provision 

The house is scheduled for a January 2020 finish - keep an eye on our website and Instagram for site updates

There was a good turn out in Bristol on February 27th for the Futureproof training  - a collaborative event between ourselves and The Green Register.

The afternoon was a good mix of talks and practical demonstrations, with some very positive feedback at the end.  Attendees were mostly builders - our target audience.

Richard and Malcolm gave a short talk about sustainable building and It was great to see the Earthwise project again and to see them achieve an impressive air tightness result - well done guys!

Here's to more regular training events aimed at builders - green builders!