Our Passivhaus Service
Building environmentally sustainable buildings makes logical sense. For too long the construction industry has looked at attempts to build well insulated, carefully detailed low energy schemes as expensive and experimental. Times are changing. As a society, here in the UK we are more aware than ever of the pressures on global resources, changes to the climate resulting from global warming and the economic pressures of providing energy to our buildings.
As responsible building designers, it is essential that together with our clients we address these design drivers head-on and demonstrate the real benefits of investing in carefully detailed buildings that demand less energy to run and maintain.
With our new inhouse Passivhaus (Passive House) design service, we are better equipped than ever to deliver on our responsibilities. With focus on providing environments with the highest comfort levels whilst at the same time ensuring the lowest energy consumption, we can ensure our designs are forward thinking and the best value for our clients.
To download our digital client guide click here.
What is Passivhaus?
Passivhaus or 'Passive House' has a fabric-first philosophy, which matches with our approach to sustainability. The principles of Passive House are Super insulation, high-performance airtightness, high-performance triple-glazed windows, thermal bridge-free construction, and heat recovery ventilation. For more information read our blog.
Comfort
The standard has a list of “soft” criteria, ranging from overheating to mean radiant temperature, ensuring the level of comfort and luxury demanded by Passive House. This means that users are almost guaranteed to feel comfortable all year round.
Low Energy
This standard ensures the lowest practical energy use for a building. Passive Houses must use less than 15kWh/(m².yr) for heating demand. Put simply it aims to keep a 10m² room at a constant 20°C using the equivalent of a single 100W bulb as a heat source.
Not Just for Houses
Because Passive House is a physics based, fabric first approach the standard can be applied to any building type. This includes new or existing buildings whether they are homes, warehouses, offices, leisure centres and churches. The list goes on.
Healthy Buildings
With the list of “soft” comfort criteria comes the benefit of a healthy building. This includes ventilation designed to remove odours, filter air pollution, and remove excess moisture. This combined with minimum surface temperatures, the risk of mould growth is almost eliminated.
What do we do?
Using specialist software, we calculate the total energy usage of your new or retrofitted building. This will allow us to inform you of likely energy bill savings or areas where improvements can be made. We use this information to review the design advising on changes that may provide better energy reductions, reductions in overheating, and options of materials that can be used.
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As Passivhaus Designers, we can offer support to your favoured designer or as an extra service to our own architectural service.
Contact Us
Office:
Ayshford Sansome
6 Riverside House
Lower Southend Road
Wickford, Essex
SS11 8BB, England
Telephone:
+44 (0) 1268 562 266
Email:
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Registered in England
Registered No. 10124503
Registered Office:
1422-4 London Road
Essex SS9 2UL
©2023 by Ayshford Sansome.