We specialise in energy-efficient homes.
Energy-efficient homes offer not just energy cost savings for the owners, but a number of benefits.
They create more amiable environments, such a more even temperature, comfortable, drier, mould-free environments, that maintain their temperature in the winter and offer the ability to keep cooler in the hot summer days.
There are a number of ways we can create a low-energy house, depending on the client’s needs and expectations.
Following are a number of examples using different methods of construction.
This is an example of an energy-efficient house build using a more traditional cavity construction.
It is highly insulated and utilises triple glazing.
It has a heat-recovery system, a heat pump and solar panels as part of its specifications.
It is heated with under-floor heating on both floors.
The kitchen/dining area is housed in the oak timber frame component.
This is temperature-controlled utilising electric blinds and electric window openings.
This helps maintain a suitably stable temperature in the winter and helps to keep it well-ventilated and cooler on hot days.
The following development is a non-cavity construction house using Insulated Concrete Formwork (ICF) system
This is the first of a number of pictures of a development that we designed and built that does not use a cavity construction that is highly insulated
This also has a heat-recovery system, and solar panels (this time for hot water).
It is heated by a condensing gas boiler via under-floor heating on both floors.
Click on any of these images to enlarge
These images are included for those interested in this type of construction
The picture on the right shows the formwork before the concrete pour.
The concrete mix is so dense that moisture does not penetrate
The image below is showing the building ready for the first concrete pour
The next image is actually the concrete pour for the top section
This building is now ready for the roof, which is a hand-cut roof, some we also specialise in. Building a hand-cut roof is mostly a forgotten art, most roofs are made from trusses these days.
As a note of interest, in the USA this form of construction gained huge popularity after Hurricane Andrew destroyed more than 6,000 houses. One house stood all alone against this onslaught, it was an ICF house just like this one with a hand-cut roof.
This is nearing completion. The new wall needs a coat of paint.
This building is rendered with a silicone-based render system.
There are other forms of Insulated Formwork systems that we have used.
This next system is built with blocks that knit together like Lego blocks.
This first image is the highly-insulated raft that makes the base for the house.
The below image shows the steelwork in the raft ready for the concrete base.
This building is to a much higher specification of insulation than a low-energy house.
This forms the base is a passive-house design.
This is the completed base with the concrete finally poured.
For this is a passive house design, a block system is employed.
There are a number of passive-house systems that we can employ.
This one was using block construction on a raft system.
Once the building is rendered and timber clad, the system is lost behind the facade finish and interior finish.
Passive-house systems need little in the way of heating at all. Energy costs are absolutely minimal.
The solar array of photovoltaic panels supply most of the energy requirements.