Passive House | Passivhaus (German)
In a nutshell,
Passive House design is ...
Airtightness
Optimised Building Orientation
Renewable Energy
Super Insulation
Triple Glazing
Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery
Sustainable Materials
We are Certified Passive House Designers
An Internationally Recognised Accreditation
Passive House, or as the germans say, "Passivhaus" buildings achieve a 75% reduction in space heating requirements, compared to standard practice for UK new build.
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We use accurate design modelling via the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP).
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If you want to understand more, please give us a call or check out the Passivhaus Trust, of which we are members.
Materials
Local and Renewable
Timber is one of our favourite building materials as it can be carbon neutral ... and yes, we can use straw to super-insulate your home!
Sustainable & Carbon-Negative Construction
Straw Bale
We worked with manufacturer Ecococon to deliver a straw bale insulated house at Nyth Pren. The straw is packed in tight within a structural timber frame. The product is called a Structurally Insulated Panel (SIPs) and these are constructed in a factory. Then they are loaded onto trucks, craned onto a concrete raft foundation on site and assembled in a matter of days.
Hempcrete
Local Welsh contractor Hempcrete Cymru built a hempcrete insulated extension at Bodychenan. Hempcrete is a mixture of hemp shiv and lime. It can either be wet-applied around the timber frame structure using shuttering or made into blocks.
Timber
Timber is our favourite material. We try and use local timber on almost every project because we love how sustainable it can be, its colour and texture and its malleability. Timber can be structural or clad a building. Most of our timber comes from Welsh saw mill Timber Cooperative, who source all their timber from Wales. The most common species we use are larch, douglas fir and cedar.
Woodfibre
We use Woodfibre insulation on a significant proportion of our projects. As a vapour open material is particularly excellent for insulating stone walls, but it is also great in timber frame systems. Chris used woodfibre to insulate his own stone cottage, Yr Hen Ladd-dy.
Cellulose Fibre
Cellulose insulation is made from recycled newspaper. The newspapers are collected from offices, schools, over-runs from printing companies, and kerbside collections. It is excellent for blowing into cavities and SIP construction. We have used this product on Bryn Afon passive house and Glasdy, two houses delivered by local Welsh timber frame contractor Arfon Timber.
Glapor
Glapor is made from 100% Recycled Foamed Glass. It is a loosefill insulating aggregate ideal for use in limecrete flooring. We have used this product at Tan yr Esgair and Bodychenan. It can be bought from local Welsh supplier TÅ·-Mawr.