Why does this matter, and what is an Energy Efficient Home?
Energy – like the planet’s resources – is not without limits. Optimisation (reducing waste, and doing more with less) is important to us all at an economic and environmental level.
A high-performance home is does not get too hot or cold, maintains healthy air quality, and saves you money over time.
An energy efficient house costs less to run over the life of that building. Direct savings include reduced annual energy bills. Build it to last; and those savings can be projected over a longer period of time (creating larger savings).
The more energy efficient houses we build, the less additional demand there will be on our existing and future infrastructure – the cost of which is also passed on to the consumer indirectly via infrastructure and development levies to cater for increased housing.
Reducing construction waste diverts fewer processed materials to landfill and also saves building cost.
Labour and transportation efficiencies from Prefabrication and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) save cost and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other pollutants.
How energy efficient should we build?
Energy efficiency occurs on a sliding scale – starting with more ‘passive’ measures to control the internal environment (Passive Solar design principles) then added to more ‘active’ measures (Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation System).
The Gold Standard in performance is currently assigned to Certified Passive House status as ratified by The Passive House Institute
It is easy to create a warm dry comfortable home with great air quality, and ‘even’ temperatures throughout, by considering these key aspects of your building.
The site and how the building relates to its natural features (wind, sun, rain, topography),
Insulation levels
Window performance and shading
Airtightness
Thermal Bridges (paths) within the envelope
Air quality management
Building an energy efficient home requires expertise across the design and build process. To achieve the best result an integrated design, fabrication and build process is required.
