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Barratts green house under construction

Posted: 28/01/2008

The winning eco home design from the 2007 Homes of the Future competition, run by the Mail on Sunday, is now being built by Barratt at the BRE Innovation Park. Designed by architects Gaunt Francis, the house is one of the the first to be both suitable for volume production and capable of meeting the UK Government's zero carbon criteria.

There has been an intense evaluation of the design by the project partners, particularly its sustainability credentials which have been optimised by specialists from BRE, NHBC and Arup. As a result Green House, which met the Competition requirements of a Level 5 Code for Sustainable Homes design, will now be built with the aim of achieving Level 6 and meeting the Government’s definition of Zero Carbon and qualifying for exemption from stamp duty.

Green House is a three-storey design suitable for terraced or detached homes. The flexible design contains many features that provide future-proofing. For example the thermal mass incorporated in the structure will reduce the need for cooling in the hotter summers anticipated in climate change predictions, and the interior space is flexible allowing different permutations of layout to suit changing needs of families.

The house will have a series of passive features coupled with advanced control systems. As for any home designed to zero carbon standards, high levels of insulation are incorporated in the envelope: the externally insulated walls carry 180mm of insulation, and the walls, ground floor and roof are expected to have a U-value below 0.15W/m2/K.

By using high performance triple glazing and thermally-broken wooden frames (achieving 0.7W/m2/K for the window and frame areas), Green House can be built with a good proportion of glazing (25% of floor area). The result will be a high level of daylighting across the depth of the accommodation. In addition, the building will be built ‘tight’ to avoid uncontrolled air flow through the envelope.

Various heat exchanger mechanisms are in use (or are being evaluated and tested) to pre-heat incoming fresh air using the heat extracted from exhausted air.

In Green House, a whole-house mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery (MVHR) will give minimum continuous ventilation rates in accordance with Part F, and there will be no ‘traditional’ trickle vents associated with each window. Incoming air from outside will be passed through a heat exchanger in the MVHR unit and warmed by heat captured from the air being exhausted from the building.

Green House is designed to be built as part of a cluster of homes connected to a district electricity generating/heating system. When built as an individual house an air-to-air heat pump and a solar thermal array may be included (in addition to the MVHR and roof photovoltaics fitted in all cases) - this decision will be made on a project by project basis.

In addition to its energy saving features, Green House picks up Code for Sustainable Homes credits across the range of sustainability criteria. So to minimise water consumption, a rainwater collection and re-use system will supply flushing water for WCs. The system includes a 3000l underground tank and a system that automatically prioritises the use of collected rainwater for flushing.

Barratt began work on site in October 2007, with completion due in April 2008.

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