There are ordinary, achievable answers to the extraordinary challenges of our times. Some are quicker, simpler and less costly than others. A recent BBC article on countering excessive heat in homes mentioned a very simple piece of advice. To shade your windows! However, unsurprisingly, the issue of overly warm homes and addressing the complex issues involved is a lot more complicated than that.
As we reflected in our last blog post, ‘Drought, doubt and air conditioning’, as Project Managers we are in the future-proofing business, but clearly when it comes to climate change, the impact is already more immediate than we would like. But we are in a position to provide expert short, medium, and long-term help to property owners.
The help is needed because of the increasing impact of global warming and a UK housing stock ill-equipped for heat above the norms of recent decades, when much of that stock was built.
As the BBC article, ‘How this 1960s ex-council house is managing to stay cool without air con’, shows there are immediate and longer-term solutions that can help many homes.
The article pointed out that, “More than half of homes in the UK are already at risk of overheating and at current rates of climate change this will rise to 92% by 2050 if we do not adapt.”
It goes on to say, “But in south London, on a 35C day, one 1960s ex-council house with no air-conditioning is managing to beat the heat. Marion Baeli’s home is one of many across the UK being adapted for warmer – maybe even 40C – British summers…. Marion Baeli has been adapting her home over more than a decade to cope with rising heat. As well as being the homeowner, Baeli is an architect – and she compares her house to a well-insulated flask.”
It quotes Marion as saying, “You wouldn’t put holes in your flask if you wanted to keep the ice in. You’d close the cap and make sure it is firmly twisted on. It’s the same in this house.” And there was proof of Marion’s innovations working, “When the BBC visit Baeli on the hottest day of this summer’s fourth heatwave, her house is 10C cooler than outside.”
The innovation is Passivhaus, “an international building standard that was developed around 35 years ago in Germany. The concept is simple: design your home to keep the temperature constant at all times, by effectively sealing it against the elements. It is estimated they consume up to 90% less energy than typical houses.”
What was done? “When the Baeli family moved in 10 years ago, their house had draughty PVC double-glazed windows with little insulation – they struggled to keep warm in the winter and overheated in the summer. The most disruptive part of the retrofit work was carried out first, and included the insulation of shared walls, flooring and the roof. The work also focused on getting rid of ‘thermal bridges’ – which are parts of the home where heat is exchanged rapidly, such as where the insulation is broken up between rafters in your home. Two years later, during the second phase of the works some cavity brick walls were replaced with ‘thinner, super-insulated’ timber-framed walls, while new triple-glazed windows were installed to slow down the transfer of heat from outside. With the house now air-tight, a ventilation system went in to ensure that the air inside the house was constantly kept fresh. These measures work to prevent the temperature fluctuating inside the house – in winter and summer – so less energy is used. In the colder months, one radiator is now sufficient to heat Baeli’s four-bedroom home over three floor she says, because heat is not being lost. Baeli estimates energy demand in her retrofitted house has gone down by 88%, giving her a yearly saving of nearly £750 on her bills.
Interestingly, the article continues, “But the Passivhaus Trust – for which Baeli is a non-executive director – acknowledges retrofitting your home to this standard is ‘expensive’. The total cost of the work Baeli carried out on her house was around £80,000, not including any additional costs for architectural work. Baeli’s priciest purchase, she calculates, were the windows at £30,000, while one of the cheapest measures was making the whole house airtight, which cost £5,000…. Including Passivhaus measures in a building’s initial design is much cheaper than trying to add them retrospectively. According to the Passivhaus Trust, the additional construction cost associated with building to the standard range from 2% extra for flats up to 5% for a semi-detached house. In March, the Future Homes Standard will come into force which will set higher building and energy performance requirements for new homes in England – taking the regulations closer to the Passivhaus standards….
“Around 1% of all new homes in the country are now built to the voluntary standard, and the Passivhaus Trust estimates this could grow to 10% in the next decade. But building these types of new homes can be challenging. In April, City of York Council struggled to attract interest from construction firms to build 315 homes to the standard due to market conditions and the complexity of building to such specifications….
“There is a government support system to help those in low-income households install insulation and other measures, but after reports of botched work it will close later this year. The date when the replacement scheme will begin has not been announced. Jay Morton, incoming President Elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, told BBC Radio 4’s Rare Earth programme that cost can be a barrier for many homeowners, but that even implementing half these measures can make a significant difference.”
We would encourage you to read the BBC article in full. We have quoted a good deal of it, but even so have left out details such as problems with overnight heat retention in homes using Passivhaus techniques.
That is why our expertise, not only across the entire field of home and commercial construction, refit, and renovation, but also in smart home technology, can be so valuable to property owners or those looking to build a new home.
If you’d like to learn more, give our Founder Tony Cheeseman a call for a no-obligation chat on 01959 533788.
Otherwise, please get in touch via the form on our Contact page.