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Bere Architects' Lime House is shortlisted in the 2012 Greenbuild Awards
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Other features in this category...
Domestic newbuild
The Camden Passivhaus, Bere Architects
This project is the first certified Passivhaus in London, consisting of a 118m2 family house constructed with a heavily insulated prefabricated timber frame, triple-glazed windows and Austrian larch cladding. The systems include a heat recovery ventilation system, water filtration, and an underground rainwater-harvesting tank, which provides water for irrigating the green roofs and garden. Hot water is supplied by a solar thermal collector with backup from a tiny gas boiler. CO2 emissions are minimised (11.3kg/yr excluding appliances and 23.6kg overall).The project goes far beyond the required regulatory minimum standards and meets the carbon compliance limit for 2016 zero carbon homes.
www.bere.co.uk
Trinity Close, Dove Jeffery Homes
This Code for Sustainable Homes level 6 project has been developed for Wherry Housing Association in partnership with Broadland District Council, to provide 12 zero carbon dwellings for affordable rent to local people. The development incorporates photovoltaic panels, air source heat pumps, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and grey water recycling. The project teams are working with the University of East Anglia on energy monitoring equipment, to establish in use energy efficiency and performance.
www.dovejefferyhomes.co.uk
The Lime House, Bere Architects
This two-bedroom, ultra low-cost, social housing prototype, achieved full Passivhaus certification and Code for Sustainable Homes level 5. To meet the challenge of increased commercial viability, the Lime House was designed with normal sized windows, which do not need blinds for summer shading, reducing the cost of the windows and eliminating the cost of blinds. Following the unfussy form of a traditional Welsh cottage, its compact shape minimises the surface area from which it loses heat as well as the amount of insulation needed.
The Lime House uses locally sourced and manufactured goods and materials, including Welsh timber for the doors, wall panels, floor slabs and roof with Welsh insulation and roof tiles from a factory two miles away. The staircase, stonework and solar panels were all made in Wales.
www.bere.co.uk
Greenwatt Way, PRP Architects
This Code level 6 development is a prototype to gain a better understanding of behavioural change in residents’ energy use in low-energy housing. It will be monitored in occupation over two years and offers a model for affordable sustainable living, which could be rolled out at a larger scale. The site – which was originally the car park of a 1960s Southern Electric depot – is a research project, but is first and foremost a place to live that has been designed to meet the needs and aspirations of the residents. An energy centre to test different types of renewable energy generation includes air and ground source heat pumps, a biomass boiler, solar thermal panels and solar photovoltaic tiles.
www.prparchitects.co.uk
Wimbish, Parsons + Whittley Architects
Designed to achieve the Passivhaus standard through the best use of passive solar gain techniques, completely minimising thermal bridging and using very high U-values, the Wimbish houses also benefit from very low air leakage rates of 0.6 air changes per hour. This in turn leads to the provision of mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) which in this instance was installed to greater than 92% efficiency. The scheme was designed to fit with the context of its surroundings and to deliver to normal social housing standards including Code level 4, Secure by Design, Lifetime Homes, Building for Life and HCA quality standards. The first occupants are recording space heating and domestic hot water bills of around £5 per month.
www.parsonswhittley.co.uk
David Little’s house, Joyner Group
Retired Chartered surveyor David Little had dreamed of building a highly energy efficient home. The home uses Rockwool insulation and is finished with Rock shield top coat. This ensured that the property achieved a U-value calculation to fall in line with current building regulations. In addition to the energy-saving measures, solar PV, solar thermal and a ground source heat pump were installed. The energy generated from the renewables and the energy saved through the EWI (external wall insulation) ensure that the property is carbon neutral.
www.joynergroup.co.uk
The Larch House, Bere Architects
The three-bedroom Larch House shows how the Code for Sustainable Homes and Passivhaus are entirely compatible and complimentary. Most energy needs are met by heat from the sun, occupants and appliances with the balance being provided by a 4.7kWp photovoltaic panel installation. The construction utilised Welsh traditions, products and skills, and local materials with low embodied energy were selected including local larch cladding, recycled slate roof tiles and solar panels. The house is easily recyclable, due to a rigorous approach to non-toxic material selection.
www.bere.co.uk
Domestic retrofit
Milnrow Road, Pozzoni
Improving the existing building fabric of a Victorian mid-terrace property in Rochdale – including a new extension – included dropping quilt insulation between the ground floor timber joists above the basement, injecting cavity wall insulation and replacing the loft hatch with an insulated unit. Heat loss has been reduced and an air permeability of 6.3m3/(h.m2) from 15.22m3/(h.m2) has been achieved. Other work carried out includes painting the south-facing elevantion to absorb radiant heat and replacing kitchen and bathroom fittings to reduce water consumption.
www.pozzoni.co.uk
Bowes Street, Manchester City Council
The 2.1 hectare site is located within Moss Side, with a building stock composed of pre-1919 Victorian terraced dwellings which had been subjected to decades of neglect.
Significant thermal enhancements were carried out to all MCC-owned properties in order to achieve the target improvement equivalent to Ecohomes ‘very good’.
Front walls received super-efficient internal wall insulation to achieve 0.25W/m2K and rear walls were enhanced with thick external insulated render. New windows and airtight front doors were installed and the entire scheme was comprehensively re-roofed and thermally enhanced with 350mm 90% re-used plastic bottle insulation. The properties were fitted with high-efficiency boilers linked to thermal solar thermal panels on the roof. As part of the construction process demolished building material was re-used wherever practicable.
www.manchester.gov.uk
Grove Road, Bere Architects
This is a prototype, Passivhaus-modelled, low-energy retrofit. The original 1950s detached house suffered from a lack of insulation in the roof, walls and floors, poorly fitting UPVC double glazing and draughty doors. The elderly tenants both suffered terribly from the cold and both have serious lung problems, which are medically linked to air quality problems. The house is located on a motorway junction, beside Heathrow Airport. External wall insulation was used, along with insulation for the timber floors and roof space. Triple-glazed windows were installed along with a heat recovery ventilation unit with pollen air filters, to help improve the air quality inside the house and the residents’ health.
www.bere.co.uk
Moss Bank, Forrest
In May 2011, Merseyside-based housing association Helena Partnerships completed a £4.9m major retrofit scheme in Moss Bank refurbishing 107 British Iron and Steel Federation (BISF) homes, with the help of partner contractor Forrest. The approach has embraced the best principles of sustainable construction including community and resident engagement, use of renewable technologies, a whole house life cycle approach, reducing energy consumption and fuel bills and encouraging community ownership.
The project aimed to extend the life span of the properties for a minimum of 30 years and to enhance tenant living conditions. Helena improved the structure of the properties, reduced carbon emissions and greatly improved the thermal performance of the properties by over 50%.
www.forrest.co.uk
Passfield Drive, Bere Architects
This low-energy refurb of a social housing residence was funded by the Technology Strategy Board’s Retrofit for the Future programme and employed a whole house retrofit solution to Passivhaus EnerPHit levels of performance.
The Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) was used to reveal the causes of the existing building’s very high energy demand, and significant reductions of 95% were made by using high levels of external insulation, triple-glazed Passivhaus windows and heat recovery ventilation providing fresh air whilst capturing waste heat from exhaust air.
www.bere.co.uk
Leisure buildings
Mayville Community Centre, Bere Architects
This Passivhaus retrofit project was designed to use over 90% less energy than before the renovation, halting the drain of precious financial resources to large energy bills. The fabric-first approach to energy reduction involved wrapping the existing brick walls in external insulation, installing triple-glazed windows, a low-energy heat recovery ventilation unit and a low-temperature supplementary radiator heating system supplied by a ground source heat pump. The project shows how this common building typology, a medium-sized Victorian solid masonry building, can be transformed to achieve energy consumption reductions to exceed current UK building regulation standards and even the UK’s 2019 targets for non-domestic buildings demonstrating how refurbishment rather than demolition is a viable and replicable solution.
www.bere.co.uk
Brockholes Visitors Centre, Max Fordham/Adam Khan Architects
Built on a 2,400m2 concrete pontoon floating on a lake within a 67ha nature reserve in Preston, Lancashire, this building accommodates a restaurant and shops alongside exhibition, education and conference facilities – generating income to maintain the wetlands. The project aimed for maximum environmental performance from design, throughout construction and into operation. Main spaces have excellent day-lighting, are shaded and naturally ventilated, so no mechanical cooling or fans are required. Heat demand is minimised by excellent insulation standards. The façade produces a 40% heat loss reduction when compared to a part L notional building. Other features include the kitchen, which is a low-carbon catering exemplar. Heat is provided by an efficient, low NOx emission biomass boiler fuelled with locally grown wood.
www.maxfordham.com and www.adamkhan.co.uk.
Education buildings
Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), Sheppard Robson
LICA is a new performing and fine arts facility at Lancaster University and is the UK’s first BREEAM Higher Education Outstanding building. It was constructed using an pre-fabricated cross laminated timber structure, which helped to provide high levels of airtightness and low U-values. It is linked to the campus district heating system, itself partly served by an on-site CHP, and solar photovoltaics provide a renewable energy source using a cylindrical PV module combined with a reflective roof membrane to maximise the amount of solar energy captured.
www.sheppardrobson.com
Isis Education Centre, David Morley Architects
This centre for the ecological and environmental education of children is located upon an original Victorian reservoir in the heart of London’s Hyde Park. The building structure is akin to tree trunks and branches with the roof as the canopy, which is further emphasised by the brown roof and timber cladding that helps to blend the building into the landscape.
www.davidmorleyarchitects.co.uk
The Green, GB Building Solutions
This student village at the University of Bradford achieved the highest‐rated BREEAM Outstanding building in the world. A fabric‐first design approach was key to producing a truly sustainable scheme. Passive technologies cut energy use in heating and cooling. Mechanical heat ventilation recovery systems maintain air temperature, while the continuous airtight membrane and high‐level insulation reduce heat loss. Windows allow natural light without excess solar heat gain. Solar thermal units pre‐heat hot water, supplemented by a CHP plant. Every building in the scheme has an EPC rating of A, with typical emission rates of around 21.62kgCO2/m2. It was designed by GWP Architecture and built by GB Building Solutions for Mi7 Developments, funded by Listerhills SSV Ltd, a joint venture of the Hayaat Group & Welbeck Land.
www.gb-building.co.uk
Creative Learning Centre, ECE Architecture
This is one of three buildings constructed at schools across Sussex, with a philosophy to use minimal resources for construction and operation. Every element of the building was considered from a green aspect and features include rammed earth walls (using soil sourced from within the school site), locally-sourced timber cladding, recycled newspaper insulation, a green roof encouraging a natural wildlife habitat, air source heat pump, triple-glazed windows and natural ventilation controlled by CO2 levels.
www.ecearchitecture.com
Newport High School, Leadbitter
Part of Newport City Council’s programme for secondary school redevelopment, this school was designed for 1,100 student and is a learning resource for sustainable construction, renewable energy sources, landscape and biodiversity, with ICT provision used to monitor it’s environmental performance. The school’s design adopts various environmental techniques and technologies including a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS), solar thermal panels, CHP, solar shading and rainwater harvesting.
www.leadbitter.co.uk
Kay House Duryard, Exeter University
This building was originally a dining and social block that served the surrounding halls of residence and it was decided that the building should be refurbished to provide a base for all types of music and learning activities. The 1950s building had an exposed concrete frame with masonry infill, single-glazed windows and uninsulated flat roofs. All of the services had either already failed or were very inefficient and at the end of their days. An adaptable energy-efficient building was achieved by overcladding and re-glazing the external envelope, being creative with the internal layout.
www.exeter.ac.uk
Workplace buildings
Houghton-le-Spring Primary Care Centre, Willmott Dixon
This clinic is designed to stay below 25˚C for all but 100 hours per year without the need for air conditioning. It works by using a bespoke 50m long thermal wall, designed by Breathing Buildings, which was constructed along the spine of the building. This provides ventilation for the consultancy rooms as well as the open-plan waiting area and café. The wall is split into 49 shafts to separate the ventilation for the individual spaces and reduce the potential for infection transfer.
Funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), as part of its Building Performance Evaluation programme, means the project will be closely monitored until 2014.
www.willmottdixon.co.uk
Hillcrest HQ, Hillcrest Housing Association
The aim for this building was to be the greenest in Dundee, not only to create an energy-efficient office building which meets the highest sustainability benchmarks but to also use the building to test sustainable design features that can be incorporated into the organisation’s housing projects. Located within the established landscape of the Dundee Technology Park, the building is created mainly from concrete, glass, aluminum, local stone and timber. Simply conceived and executed, it comprises a glulam timber structure forming the roof and upper floors. Floors and roof decks are solid timber prefabricated panels which support raised access decks to provide optimum flexibility.
www.hillcrestha.org.uk
Pool Innovation Centre, Aedas
This BREEAM Excellent, low-energy building provides flexible office space for new businesses in the IT sector for the Combined University of Cornwall. The design of the building focused on achieving high standards of internal environmental quality and comfort utilising natural ventilation and daylight. Local materials such as timber and slate feature in this building and renewable energy technologies such as ground source heat pumps, solar thermal collectors and solar photovoltaic panels are incorporated. Additional offsite renewables are planned which will make the building carbon neutral.
www.aedas.com
Three Piccadilly Place, Carillion FM
This mixed-use and multi-tenanted building was completed in 2009 with a BREEAM Excellent certificate, which the team has been improving on ever since. For the last two years an environmental business adviser has worked on the building, ensuring that the occupants are using it as efficiently as possible. Early in 2011 a BREEAM In Useassessment achieved a Good certificate and this was increased to Very Good by the end of the year, following a programme of improvements. These included water use reduction devices and, more significantly, a rainwater harvesting system from a roof section.
www.piccadilly-mcr.co.uk
Werneth Primary Care Centre, Community 1st Oldham
This four-storey health centre houses GP practices and community health facilities. It has a CHP system running on sustainable biofuel (waste cooking oil), which works together with an air source heat pump and underfloor heating, capable of supplying 100% of the building’s requirements. Excess power generated by the CHP system is diverted to the national grid using a bespoke system of synchronisation with the grid where it is then used to power other Community 1st buildings – meaning the centre is carbon negative.
www.community1st.co.uk
Severn Trent Water, Glen Howells Architect
Set on the south-eastern sector of the Severn Trent operational site, the new offices form a unified crescent shape, nestled against the existing mature woodland at the boundary of the site. In addition to creating a legible and attractive approach, the orientation of the main elevation maximises natural daylight and allows solar gains to be controlled through an intelligent façade strategy. Severn Trent is leading by example in minimising the use of water within their domestic water services and promoting greater water efficiency. Recovering rainwater is a significant contribution to minimising the use of processed water and rainwater harvesting tanks are incorporated to serve the flushing WCs. Mains cold water is distributed through a direct water system around the building to serve wash hand basins and sinks etc., with valved connections for vending/drinking water points and a connection to the kitchen.
www.glennhowells.co.uk
9 Millbank, Cavendish Engineers
This striking Grade II heritage listed building is home to approximately 850 Ofgem employees. Since 2000, Cavendish Engineers has provided M&E operational maintenance and engineering consultancy and between 2004 and 2011 the building has successfully reduced its energy consumption by 48%.
In addition to the continuous improvement in energy and facilities management, the building has incorporated over 57 different energy reduction strategies in the last ten years (37 of these include new plant technologies.) For example, PIR motion detecters for light switching and more recently the conference rooms’ lighting has been replaced with LEDs. In 2002 it was the first government building to install a combined heat and power (CHP) unit and in 2008 it installed two voltage power optimisers.
www.cavendishengineers.net
Behavioural change
Venue Cymru
This large, multi-purpose building houses a 2,500 capacity arena, 1,500 capacity theatre, 1,100 capacity hall, meeting rooms, function suite, café bar and restaurant. In an industry that traditionally uses a lot of energy, the management team decided to prove it could operate in an environmentally friendly way. John Own, became energy champion and has driven changes forward with complete commitment and enthusiasm, a commitment that has filtered through to staff in all areas of the business. As well as awareness raising literature, Own ran a series of workshops for all staff to give an overview of the aims and how they could be achieved. Staff were asked for their own ideas to reduce energy consumption and some were implemented alongside the installation of a building management system (BMS), so staff could see the impact of their ideas and the changes.
The work has reduced energy consumption significantly, which could not have been achieved without the full involvement and commitment of all staff members.
www.venuecmryu.co.uk
Northwards Housing
Working with other housing providers in Manchester, Northwards Housing (NH) developed the Missing Quarter report, identifying energy savings which can be made by encouraging behavioural change whilst carrying out a retrofit programme. Energy advice was delivered to households benefiting from improvements such as loft and solid wall insulation, heating replacement and double glazing. In addition, 1,000 residents who live in hard-to-treat homes of solid wall concrete construction, will received advice on cutting energy. A Green Guide to Your Home was produced, which gives further advice on understanding heating systems, appliances and lighting, bills, water saving, recycling and provides useful links to other organisations.
www.northwardshousing.co.uk
Alumet
This specialist contractor designs, manufactures and installs the complete external façade of commercial buildings. In 2010 the board of directors worked with the environmental manager to develop a sustainability drive, implementing behavioural change in the workforce with an aim of improving our environmental standards, saving money and increasing profits. The drive has been a huge success and has led to a Green Team of six managers who meet regularly to assist the environmental manager with ideas and support. They then work with their departmental teams to ensure the whole company is united in its environmental commitment. Measures that have led to a reduction in the carbon footprint include: a shower has been installed to encourage employees to cycle to work, food waste is composted in the wormery and a biodiversity garden has been created.
www.alumet.co.uk
University of Bradford
Recognising that sustainability is about people and how they use buildings, the University of Bradford developed the EMU project (Environmental Move for U). Ahead of a move to a new BREEAM Excellent School of Health building, it wanted to maximise engagement in carbon management and to prepare 150 staff and 3,000 students for a move to a sustainable building, ensuring they understood the sustainable use of the building. The university recognised a need for an engagement project within the old building, which would provide the foundation for success in the new building. The outcome has resulted in staff/students being engaged, informed and educated in the successful and sustainable use of new building whilst achieving unprecedented energy savings. Eliminating seasonal variances and other anomalies demonstrated an average saving of 33% with peak savings reaching 43%. This provides hard evidence of what a behaviour change programme can achieve.
www.bradford.ac.uk
Breakthrough
Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Hoare Lea
The innovation shown at Westminster Magistrates’ Court represents a holistic approach to combining and adapting proven technologies to achieve low-carbon goals.
Firstly free energy associated with an aquifer was harnessed, using the low-grade cooling medium as a means to discharge the heat created by cooling a large proportion of the building. Hydrological and subterranean geo-impact studies were commissioned to demonstrate aquifer use would be sustainable in the long term. These determined that heat should not be discharged back to the aquifer continuously over a prolonged period so cooling chillers provide energy efficient cooling in low ambient conditions, allowing aquifer regeneration. To best use the cooling medium throughout the building, adoption of cooling enhanced thermal mass was proposed. Looking at how this is readily applied with underfloor heating, the technology has been turned on its head, embedding cooling coils in the underside of the slab.
www.hoarelea.com
Denby Dale Passivhaus, Green Building Store
Through its pioneering Denby Dale Passivhaus project (the UK’s first cavity wall Passivhaus), Green Building Store has developed a number of original design details with which the construction industry can adapt cavity wall construction to create Passivhaus and ultra low energy buildings. As well as demonstrating that cavity wall can offer a viable and valid option for Passivhaus construction in the UK, the project has also offered the construction industry useful technical detailing for radically improving the energy efficiency and airtightness of cavity wall construction, regardless of whether the project is aiming for the Passivhaus standard. Through its Passivhaus Diaries blog and freely available technical briefing and film, it has aimed to share its original improved design detailing for cavity wall to the wider public.
www.denbydalepassivhaus.co.uk
HQ, Frankland Tree Services
This innovative entry involves an annex to a residential house which is used as an office for Frankland Tree Services, based in South Manchester. The construction of the building used reclaimed Cheshire Brick and reclaimed Welsh Slate, meaning that it fits with the local rural architecture. The key difference is the timber and its provenance: the entire wood content of the structure and most of its furniture is from amenity trees, neither grown nor felled for their timber. Not only is the wood from local trees but most of its provenance can be traced back to a particular position in a particular garden, park, school or pavement.
www.ftstrees.co.uk
Avondale Road, Oliver Heath
As both designer and client, Oliver Heath was able to push the boundary of what most clients might attempt to achieve, creating an exemplar eco retro-fit home.
The measurable achievement was a reduction in the home’s carbon footprint from 10.9 to 2.7 tonnes – a 75% reduction. As a result it has been awarded Super Home status and joined the Old Home Super Home network. As part of this group, the house is open to the public twice a year, welcoming guests to take a guided tour of the house. The plan was to take a familiar, conventional house with a high carbon footprint and turn it into an exemplar retrofit low carbon home; creating an efficient and nurturing family home and an example for others to read about and visit. The house was not only to work efficiently but also to express the aesthetic opportunities that sustainability has to offer, creating a home both truly of its age, and fit for the future.
www.oliverheath.com
New retrofit product (judged by Salford University)
As well as judging this category, the university will welcome the winner on to its stand at Greenbuild Expo on Thursday 10th May, the day after the awards ceremony. Here the winner will get the chance to promote its product to the event’s thousands of visitors and network with other low-carbon technology companies.
CAHV-P500YA-HPB Ecodan monobloc air source heat pump boiler, Mitsubishi Electric
Mitsubishi Electric has designed its new commercial heating system to make a dramatic difference to energy use, providing a building’s entire heating either on its own or in conjunction with another system. Incorporating proven technology to offer reliable heating with design flexibility, the system comes in units of 43kW (@-3°C) to offer space heating and sanitary hot water up to 70°C. It is also available with multiple unit control to provide 688kW of renewable heating.
www.mitsubishielectric.co.uk
ThermoShell internal wall insulation system, Knauf Insulation
For properties where it is not appropriate to alter the external façade of the building, a flexible, cost effective and highly efficient system for insulating walls internally is needed.
The ThermoShell internal wall insulation (IWI) system, which was launched to market in 2011, delivers exceptional thermal energy performance and thermal comfort through a very simple and easy-to-use installation process. No scaffolding is required and the system can be installed on a room-by-room basis, or as part of a whole house refurbishment plan. The system was used to internally insulate a Victorian mid-terrace property in Doncaster, where it helped deliver a 52% reduction in CO2 emissions and energy savings of approximately £400 per year, as well as increased thermal comfort for the resident.
www.knaufinsulation.co.uk
Biofan, EnviroVent
The Biofan is manufactured with built-in antibacterial protection (silver ion technology), which works to provide clean, safe and hygienic ventilation by inhibiting the growth of bacteria, microbes and mould on the surface of the fan by up to 99.9%, 24 hours a day, when used in conjunction with regular cleaning practices. Ideal for all domestic applications and also commercial applications such as dental practices, GP surgeries and vets, the fan’s central cartridge can be recycled and reused at EnviroVent’s Harrogate factory. The fean is powered by energy efficient technology, which makes it up 80% more efficient than a traditional AC motor.
www.envirovent.com
WWK300 air source heat pump, Stiebel Eltron
The WWK300 combines high energy efficiency and installation simplicity, recovering latent energy to provide domestic hot water (DHW). Launched in the UK in the summer of 2011, the product has plug-and-play technology, which means it can be placed in any type of build, whether it is contemporary, old, commercial or domestic. Ten heat pumps are installed at Worcester University’s halls of residence, replacing gas-fired water heaters and saving around 300,000 tonnes of carbon over 25 years, as well as up to £80,000 in energy costs.
www.stiebel-eltron.co.uk
0.8wmk2 window, Warmseal
The 0.8wmk2 (0.8 U-value) window is suitable for use in both newbuild and retrofit applications and was developed in response to the requirements of the Code for Sustainable Homes and Passivhaus. The window reduces the amount of energy consumed in heating a building significantly against a window product which simply meets the building regulations. Using Passivhaus calculations of an internal minimum temperature of 16 degrees, a 0.8wmk2 window can retain up to an additional 7 degrees of heat inside the building when compared against a window with a U value of 2.0wmk2.
www.warmseal.co.uk
ReAction, Moores
This kitchen range can offer 17 credits towards the Code for Sustainable Homes and each component has been responsibly sourced to make it an eco-friendly kitchen. Launched in May 2011, the ReAction range is designed specifically for housebuilder and social housing providers. It hosts a number of green features and the manufacturing process behind the range has been designed to have as little environmental impact as possible. The cabinet doors are 15mm thick instead of the usual 18mm, meaning it reduces the number of trees harvested in order to produce the board material and results in less fuel being needed for delivery as the cabinets are lighter. Other green features include low level LED lighting, recyclable cabinet handles made from zinc and a built-in tile strip, which allows users to change worktops without damaging the existing tiles resulting in less expenditure and waste. The ReAction also comes with a sink that is 25mm shallower than other sinks on the market and a tap with flow restrictor that allows for less water wastage.
www.moores.co.uk
VPhase unit, VPhase
This domestic voltage optimisation device is easily installed by any qualified electrician into retrofit and newbuild properties. It is universally suitable for all housing types and its installers do not require any specialist training. Having undertaken a carbon footprint assessment with C-Tech Innovation, the product has been shown to be typically carbon neutral within one year of operation. Saving around 180kg of CO2 per year, this amounts to c.4.5 tonnes over the product’s 25+ year lifespan. The VPhase device has been widely tested, with savings claims independently verified. Typical installations have demonstrated savings of up to 12% off electricity bills.
www.vphase.co.uk
Green Heat Module, Wood Energy
Launched at the 2011 Greenbuild Expo, the Green Heat Module is a retrofit biomass heating product designed and delivered by wood heating specialists Wood Energy. The product is specifically for application on UK commercial buildings – delivering significant quantities of low carbon heat with the minimum of fuss. Everything needed is included in the automated module so that once the team arrives on site, it can be hooked up to the existing heating distribution system and the system started. The product is designed to be eligible for an attractive financial incentive through the government’s RHI scheme and can typically reduce a buildings carbon emissions by between 50% to 100% (excluding electricity), depending on what proportion of the heating load is being met by the carbon neutral fuel.
www.woodenergy.com
Voltis Home, Marshall-Tufflex
This domestic voltage optimisation unit will operate continuously at up to 40Amps (approximately 9kW) and for 30 minutes at up to 60Amps (approximately 13kW) – all circuits in a typical house can be connected to Voltis Home so there’s no need to isolate circuits for electric showers, immersion heaters, cookers etc. The unit self-diagnoses when load drawn by the household is insufficient to warrant it operating (ie when householders are out) and switches to bypass, saving power on its own operation. It also monitors incoming voltage supply and, if it detects a problem, switches to bypass and waits until the supply is restored/stable before switching back into save mode. Retrofit is straightforward and takes approximately 45 minutes by a registered electrician, with the system installed between the consumer unit and electricity meter. An average household can reduce carbon emissions by up to approximately 432kg per year.
www.savepowerathome.co.uk
IdealGuard secure letterbox, Power Prize
One solution to letter box draughts is to fit a brush strip excluder over the letterbox. However, the downside is that these devices make it almost impossible to push newspapers and mail fully through, creating a worse draught than you would have had before the brush strip was fitted.
The actual impact of loss of house heat through the open letterbox is difficult to quantify precisely, but assuming reduction in room temperature by just 1°C, this can increase the heating bills by up to 10%. With the current natural gas and electricity prices this would typically cost around £75 per year and result in extra 300kg of CO2 per year. IdealGuard offers a solution – this maintenance-free product is suitable for most types of door on both commercial and domestic buildings.
www.secureletterbox.com
Finalists at Greenbuild Expo
All the shortlisted entries for the awards, sponsored by NFRC and SIG Roofing, will be on display at Greenbuild Expo on 9th and 10th May at Manchester Central, with representatives from the finalists on hand to talk to visitors about their projects. They will also be taking part in the event’s seminar programme, including the following sessions:
- The Greenbuild awards judging team will be presenting on the importance of building performance evaluation and why it is so crucial to our understanding of sustainable buildings. Come along to hear what you will need to do to successfully enter your projects into the Greenbuild awards in the future. This session is at 12:00 on 9th May and the speakers will be Green Gauge Trust’s Liz Reason, Kerry Mashford from the Technology Strategy Board and Paul Ruyssevelt from Ruyssevelt Consulting.
- Two local finalists will be presenting their projects from 10am on 9th May – starting with the Manchester City Council refurb of Bowes Street, followed by the sustainable facilities management by Carillion FM at Three Piccadilly Place in Manchester.
- PRP Architects will be talking about the lessons learned from Greenwatt Way at 11:45 on 9th May.
- Pozzoni will be describing its low-carbon refurb of a 1920s terrace house at 12:00 on 10th May.
- Helena Partnerships is talking about its retrofit of BISF housing at 14:45 on 9th May.
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