- News
- Magazine
- Awards
- CRC
- Legislation
- Housing
- Renewables
- Non-domestic
- Water
- Energy
- Waste & recyc..
- Refurbishment
- Innovation
- Materials
- Biodiversity
- Interiors
- Books
- Training
- Transport
- Links
- Events
Standings Court
http://www.greenbuildnews.co.uk/images/img/articles/297_198/Articles_579_1_1335786747.jpg
Passivhaus goes head-to-head with Code for Sustainable Homes
By editor | 30 Apr, 2012
Saxon Weald’s new £4.7m development in Horsham, East Sussex is comprised of 38 houses and apartments. Of these 38 homes, 12 meet Passivhaus requirements while a further 26 will comply with level 5 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. It is the South East’s first affordable Passivhaus scheme.
Saxon Weald plan to test and compare the performances of the two types of building for two years in order to select a standard for future developments.
Five dwellings will be home to adults with learning difficulties and one apartment will house an on-site carer so that residents with learning difficulties can love independently in a mixed community.
The development is orientated to make maximum use of daylight and optimise solar thermal (fitted on the Passivhaus homes) and solar PV (fitted on the Level 5 homes) generation.
Increased levels on insulation in walls, roofs and floors matched with triple-glazed windows and doors ensure that air tightness levels are of a high standard while reduced water consumption, heat recovery and ventilation units and low energy light bulbs decrease energy requirements and so lessen the load on the renewable sources.
All the homes have been constructed using Innovaré Systems’ Structured Insulated Panels system, which have been developed to respond to Passivhaus air permeability requirements of 0.6m3/m2/hr at 50pa as well as providing U values at 0.10 Wk/m2K with minimal cold bridging.
The development’s biodiversity has been taken care of with abundant planting and green transport is catered for with cycle storage as well as a residents’ parking area.
Osborne were the principal contractor on the build. Director of the homes team Paul Ensch said: “We have demonstrated here that it is possible to build homes of this standard on a large scale and to a tight budget and hope that this will help more housing associations meet higher sustainability targets while also fulfilling demand from residents for new homes.”
Search related articles
