TSB Monitoring at Knights Place Proves Passivhaus Works

Gale & Snowden Architects have recently finished a 2 year building performance evaluation monitoring exercise at our Passivhaus scheme Knights Place. With funding from the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) we were fortunate enough to carry out, in quite some detail, extensive monitoring of the Passivhaus social housing scheme that we designed almost 5 years ago. This in-depth study has taught us a lot, and we can now confidently say from this level of feedback what does and does not work with a Passivhaus design.  

The monitoring comprised two distinct elements: hard monitoring which records the facts in an objective manner with the use of sensors and equipment, and soft monitoring which involves quality checks of installations and discussions and interviews with tenants and the design team.

Hard Monitoring

• Main metering and sub metering - heating, lighting, DHW, cooking, ventilation and appliances.
• Solar thermal system performance monitoring.
• Performance monitoring of MVHR systems - air flow tests & energy consumption assessment. In addition to the mandatory TSB tests, measurements of temperature and humidity in all four air streams of the ductwork were taken, as well as an additional measurement after the heater battery in the supply air. This provided details of heat exchanger efficiencies at different operating temperatures.
• Internal comfort monitoring - temperature and humidity monitoring in kitchens, living rooms and main bedrooms. CO2 monitoring in living rooms and main bedrooms.
• External temperature and relative humidity monitoring.
• Air permeability and tracer gas tests in accordance with ATTMA: two tests over two winters.
• Summer time temperature and comfort monitoring to determine comfort conditions during hot periods, and to see how well the mass and super insulated approach performs. This study is beyond the TSB mandatory requirement. 
• In-situ U-value thermal resistance monitoring of wall construction details using heat flux sensor method and data logger.
• Infrared thermography survey of the three flats and key thermal elements.

Soft Monitoring

• Design and construction audit.
• Design team review of SAP/PHPP and design details & commissioning data for services.
• Installation check of services & fittings by the team.
• Building user survey (BUS) questionnaire to all eighteen flats.
• Interviews and walkthroughs with occupants to determine controls issues, modes of operation, different lifestyle habits, ease of use, fine tuning of energy systems, user guide.
• Energy audits using DomEARM methodology (domestic energy and reporting method).

The full report can be downloaded from here, or read below:

 

Another Passivhaus Certified Designer at Gale & Snowden Architects and Engineers

Gale & Snowden’s Chartered Technologist, Giles Boon, has successfully completed the Certified European Passivhaus Designer Course, adding to the number of certified Passivhaus designers working within the practice.  Culminating in a three hour exam, the CEPH Designer course rigorously trains and tests design skills critical to preparing and executing a successful Passivhaus project. 

Giles joined Gale & Snowden in August this year and he is currently working on a number of Passivhaus projects with the integrated design team at G&S.

The Business Case for Adapting Buildings to Climate Change

Gale & Snowden Architects and Engineers have been working with the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) / Innovate UK to produce a legacy report for recent work undertaken for the Design for Future Climate, Adapting buildings (D4FC) programme which generated a substantial body of evidence for how different buildings exposed to different climate risks can best be adapted for a changing UK climate.

“We need to adapt existing and new buildings to be safe and comfortable in a hotter climate”

The Business Case for Adapting Buildings to Climate Change, page 11

The legacy report analyses the drivers that affect the market for professional building design services to ready buildings for the changing climate. Recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports confirm the climate trends that make adaptation important and urgent.

The legacy report from the D4FC programme responds to the Government’s National Adaptation programme and considers adaptation to climate change at the scale of individual buildings. It identifies that the need to have a plan for adapting the UK’s stock of buildings is already urgent.

Building designers have a professional duty to understand the potential implications of climate change, discuss them with clients, and act accordingly. Over time, it seems likely that liabilities will arise for building designers to take reasonable account of future climate change. As a consequence, building designers should at least inform clients about climate change risks, and record the outcome.

Building designers should favour passive adaptation design measures to avoid compromising efforts to mitigate climate change. At the same time, they should also recognise that these might not be sufficient to cope with climate change from the mid-century onwards and more active measures may be required to keep buildings from overheating. 

The concluding section of the report considers how adaptation services might become mainstream, identifying possible market and policy failures and summarising the case for intervention, including by central Government.

David and Jason were expert panel members for the Innovate UK’s legacy report and contributed to both the Client Group and the Building Designers Group.

 

 

St. Loyes Extra Care project, Exeter, by Gale & Snowden Architects.

Gale & Snowden Architects and Engineers provide a full 'Design for Future Climate' consultancy service for both existing and new build projects. The integration of a climate change adaption strategy for a development is best undertaken at the outset of the project and can often, for little additional expenditure, ensure that a project is fit for the future without the need for either significant and costly adaption measures or the introduction in the future of energy intensive systems.

Gale & Snowden Climate Change Adaption Diagram for the St. Loyes Extra Care project, Exeter.

Further information on Gale & Snowden's 'Design for Future Climate' consultancy service is available here:
Climate Ready: Designing for Future Climate Scenarios

See you all @SelfBuildDesign Show! #buildingbiology

The stand is ready and we look forward to welcoming you!

G&S and Building Biology Association UK to present at SelfBuild & Design Show @SelfBuildDesign #BuildingBiology #HealthyBuildings

Gale & Snowden Architects will be representing The Building Biology Association UK at SelfBuild and Design Show at Westpoint Exeter on 13 & 14 September 2014.

Building Biology Association Directors David Gale, Tomas Gartner and Maria Gale will be presenting a seminar entitled "Creating and Maintaining Healthy Homes - A home-user's guide to designing, building and maintaining healthier homes" at 15:15 on Saturday at the Masterclass area.  

Bau biology (or Building Biology) is the study of the holistic interrelationships between humans and their (built) living environment.  Today, our living environment is defined by the spaces and buildings we have created for ourselves.  Most of us take great care when it comes to what we eat, where our food comes from, what we give to our children, how we keep fit etc., but when it comes to construction unfortunately the focus is only very rarely on the human being, their health or well being.  Very often the focus is predominantly cost driven and economic viability, low maintenance costs and short payback periods are typically the key drivers for developments.  On average we spend about 90% of our time indoors and 30% of our time in bedrooms.  With these exposure times even low concentrations of potentially harmful substances can affect our health in the long term and cause chronic diseases.  More vulnerable inhabitants like children and elderly persons are particularly exposed to this risk.  Bau Biology is about managing this risk. 

The Building Biology Association UK is an educational and research not-for-profit organisation, which has been set up to promote healthy building awareness to the general public as well as the construction industry.  The organisation is linked to many similar Healthy Building organisations around the world to share knowledge and experience.  The Association is a national organisation, based in Exeter, Devon.

Gale & Snowden Architects, having been pioneering healthy building design for over 20 years in the UK, are the founding members of the Building Biology Association UK, and have become the first Building Biology Consultancy in the UK to be officially accredited by the Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (IBN) in Germany. 

This Healthy Homes seminar will provide you with:

•        An introduction to Healthy Homes and the Building Biology Association
•        An overview of key health risk areas in modern construction
•        Key strategies how you can make your home more healthy for you and your family
•        A homeuser’s maintenance checklist
•        Where you can obtain further information
•        What Healthy Building seminar courses are planned for 2015
•        The benefits of joining the Building Biology Association

Building Biology Association UK are located at stand A3, near the entrance - see plan below.

More information on Building Biology Association founding member Gale & Snowden Architects can be found here.

The Building Biology Association, Exeter Bank Chambers, 67 High Street, Exeter, EX4 3DT. 01392 279220

Gale & Snowden achieves #AECB Silver Performance Standard certification with Dartmoor retrofit

Westcott House, a substantial extension, renovation and refurbishment of a Victorian country house on Dartmoor has become the first project outside of London, and the second in the UK, to achieve AECB Silver Performance Standard certification.

The standard recognises projects which are built using Passivhaus principles and achieve the following performance parameters:

For further information on the AECB Silver Performance Standard, visit the AECB website.

A full project profile on Westcott House is available to view and download here.

Thatching a Round House at Winkleigh Primary School

Jason has been keeping his weekends and evenings busy helping to thatch the new round house at Winkleigh Primary school. The round house timber structure has been up for a while but the school was struggling to source funds to pay for the roof. Local master thatcher Rob Wilmot of Devon Thatching (http://www.devonthatching.com) then kindly stepped giving up his free time to kindly show us all how to go about it which ended up being a crash course in thatching.  There was quite a bit of work to do so its not finished yet, so watch this space for the finished job, we think the kids are going to love it.  Also thanks to Tristan Johnson for supplying the thatch.  

G&S have a history with the school as we designed the classroom for the future there which stands to the rear of the school. The classroom was designed to be as sustainable as possible.   As with the thatch round house all materials used were natural based with sustainably sourced oak cladding and oak framed triple glazing, insulation was made of word fibre and internal materials were natural woods.    We like to take the lessons from yesteryear where buildings were made with natural materials and use them in a contemporary manner.  Having a good understanding of how buildings were made with cob, timber, thatch, and straw has enabled us to use these materials and methods with our contemporary designs.   The classroom was also designed along building biology principles (see our Building Biology page for further details) with emphasis on natural and passive ventilation, energy efficiency, maximising daylight levels, and the use of natural materials to reduce the build up of toxins and chemicals in the school classroom.  The last item being particular important for growing children. 

We think the new round house when finished will sit rather nicely against our classroom for the future. 

Gale & Snowden presenting at #AECB2014 conference Bristol 11-12 July #BuildingBiology #ecodesign

David and Tomas are presenting an Introduction to Building Biology UK and the new online course from the Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (IBN) in Germany, at the AECB Annual Conference in Bristol 11-12 July 2014.

Bau biology (or Building biology) is the study of the holistic interrelationships between humans and their (build) living environment.  Today, our living environment is defined by the spaces and buildings we have created for ourselves.  Most of us take great care when it comes to what we eat, where our food comes from, what we give to our children, how we keep fit etc., but when it comes to construction unfortunately the focus is only very rarely on the human being, their health or well being.  Very often the focus is predominantly cost driven and economic viability, low maintenance costs and short payback periods are typically the key drivers for developments.  On average we spend about 90% of our time indoors and 30% of our time in bedrooms.  With these exposure times even low concentrations of potentially harmful substances can affect our health in the long term and cause chronic diseases.  More vulnerable inhabitants like children and elderly persons are particularly exposed to this risk.  Bau biology is about managing this risk. 

Gale & Snowden has become the first Building Biology Consultancy in the UK to be officially accredited by the Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (IBN) in Germany.  The IBN was founded in 1976 to provide objective information and to offer a holistic approach to building biology and its teaching and to promote a healthy, ecologically and socially responsible living environment.

This seminar will provide an introduction to the background, key concepts, testing standards of Building Biology and key organisations involved to help orientate those that are not familiar with the concept.

We will then proceed to discuss how the Building Biology movement is being developed as a not-for-profit organisation in the UK which will be affiliated to the Building Biology movements in both the rest of Europe and the USA.

We will be able to explain the exciting development of the new on-line UK Building Biology course, translated from the latest course material from the Institute for Building Biology and Ecology (IBN), in Germany.  Start for this course is planned for autumn 2014.

An ongoing series of Building Biology related seminars are being planned in the UK in support of the on-line Building Biology course which can lead to qualification as a certified Building Biology consultant, accredited by the IBN.

This seminar is the start of a permanent presence for Building Biology Ecology in the UK and it is a call to members to join at the outset.

David introduced Building Biology at last year's AECB conference and, with Tomas, will be expanding on this exciting subject.  David's earlier presentation can be found here.

Gale & Snowden Architects is an award winning RIBA Chartered Practice that focuses on Regenerative Design based on Permaculture Principles.  The practice integrates ecology, building physics, building biology, architecture and landscape design in a desire to create healthy uplifting environments that are life enhancing.  The Practice has been a long term member of the AECB since inception, dedicating their work exclusively to ecological and healthy design for over 20 years, working throughout the UK.

Since 1992 the practice’s team of architects, mechanical engineers, Passivhaus designers, landscape architects, permaculture designers and planners has specialised exclusively in integrated, ecological and sustainable design and planning. 

David Gale’s background is in Biology and he is an Architect and founding Director at Gale & Snowden Architects.

Tomas trained and worked as an Architect in Germany prior to moving to the UK in 2007 when he joined Gale & Snowden Architects and Mechanical Engineers.  Tomas is a Director at Gale & Snowden and a chartered member of the RIBA and ARB.   He is a licensed Code for Sustainable Homes Assessor (BRE), Certified Passivhaus Designer CEPH and certified Building Biologist IBN.