Passivhaus retrofit - Guy Martin on C4
If you haven’t caught it yet - I’d thoroughly recommend watching C4’s Guy Martin’s House Without Bills. This follows a 9-month deep retrofit of a semi-detached house in Manchester following the Passivhaus ‘EnerPHit’ approach.
Guy already had an interest in low energy design and renewable technologies, as seen at his own home. The programme follows him as he learns more about issues like airtightness, continuity of insulation, ventilation and the importance of high quality construction techniques above and beyond basic Building Regulations compliance.
Remember Building Regulations is a base MINIMUM. Passivhaus is the gold standard for high performance construction, meaning low or zero bills, high indoor air quality, thermal comfort and a low carbon footprint in use.
The programme highlighted the importance of trained designers and installers who care about precision over speed and performance over profit. Passivhaus is not a set of ideas you can steal and expect the same results. The testing, quality assurance and third party auditing of the design and construction is what produces high performance homes without air leakage and near zero bills.
What I most enjoyed about the programme, compared to others like Grand Designs or RIBA House of the Year, is that it focused on low energy design in common typologies like a terraced or semi-detached mid-century house. ‘Low energy’ is not a luxury brand reserved for the super-rich. The principles work everywhere, and are probably most effective when the homes are modest in size and simple to operate.
At Chapter 2 Architects we firmly believe in enabling high quality retrofit through clear upfront advice, performance-based design using energy modelling and finding materials that have low embodied carbon with less environmental impact. These things can lead to energy efficient and healthy buildings, whether domestic or commercial.
If you want to discuss how you can retrofit your home using the Passivhaus methodology, please get in touch.
