Passivhaus flats for Exeter tenants
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Passivhaus flats for Exeter tenants
Posted: 07/12/2010
Three cosy flats in Exeter are the first new council homes built by the city in more than 20 years. The flats, known as Rowan House, will arguably be the first social housing scheme in the UK to enjoy standards of energy efficiency reaching the Passiv-Haus standard.
Managed by Exeter City Council, the flats will be for people over the age of 55 paying social rent, with priority for those downsizing from larger homes.
Partly funded by a grant of £195,000 from the Homes and Community Agency, Rowan House has been built to meet very high sustainable standards. The homes will achieve level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and will meet the PassivHaus standard.
Rowan House was designed by ‘green’ architects Gale Snowden, who have designed only low energy buildings for the last 19 years and have won many awards for their designs. ISG Pearce was the main building contractor.
Cllr Dilys Baldwin, Lead Councillor for Housing and Social Inclusion said that the scheme represented the way forward for council homes. “It is exciting to see Rowan House completed, this scheme will really benefit the tenants. It represents what we hope will be the future of social housing.”
Steve Warran, Head of Housing for Exeter City Council, said: “With over 7,200 households on the Council waiting list (a rise of 12% over the last 6 months), this development, together with Knights Place, represents an important step forward for Exeter. All credit to the Housing Enabling Team for delivery such a high quality, innovative scheme.”
The project was started on site in April. The Passiv-Haus standard focuses on reducing the energy use of the building and the new tenants will benefit from heating bills as low as £50 per year, as well as much reduced hot water bills from the installation of solar hot water panels for each flat.
Each flat has also been designed to be as healthy as possible, with the installation of ceramic tiles throughout to reduce dust mite habitats, the reduction in the use of VOC’s in the flats by omitting PVC in pipes and wiring and glues used in kitchen cupboards. The electrical circuits have been installed as a radial circuit to reduce electro-magnetic fields.
The council has another scheme on site at present at Merlin Crescent, which has been designed and is being built to the same standards as Rowan House. This will be a bigger scheme of 18 one and two-bedroom flats that will be completed in March 2011.
Green Building Press
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Article source: http://www.newbuilder.co.uk/news/newsFullStory.asp?ID=2888
