Passivhaus key buzz word at Green Sky Thinking Week 2013
The Passivhaus Trust supported Green Sky Thinking Week earlier in April which saw a series events hosted by those who influence how a sustainable built environment is financed, created, designed, managed and used.
The Trust hosted a successful event 'Why choose Passivhaus?' along with Bere Architects at Mayville Community Centre, which hammered the case to adopt Passivhaus to deliver healthy, comfortable and cost-effective buildings using three examplar case studies.
Tanisha Raffiuddin, Passivhaus Trust argued the case that designing to Part L of the Building Regs is not sufficient to address the 'performance gap' between as designed and as build performance. Additionally, evidence from monitored Passivhaus projects demonstrate that the standard delivers buildings that is low-energy, draught-free and easy (and cheap) to run.
Justin Bere, Bere Architects described how Mayville Community Centre was refurbished to the full Passivhaus standard, and highlighted the issues you should look out for while retrofitting to the Passivhaus standard. Monitoring results show that the actual energy use of the building has proven to be slightly better than the PHPP predictions. Bere later led tours of the building which proved to be an excellent way to highlight the ins and outs of the refurbishment process.
Marion Baeli, Paul Davis + Partners presented the results of the POE study of the Princedale Road Passivhaus retrofit. The study looked at the performance of three terraced houses on the same road in west London- one unrefurbished, one to Decent Home Plus and one to Passivhaus. The Princedale Road Passivhaus retrofit made an 83 per cent improvement on the primary energy use. Baeli warned against adopting halfway options for retrofit which can inherently can increase moisture, bacteria and carbon dioxide and threaten the health of both residents and the building in the long run.
Bruce Tofield, UEA made the case for the financial viability of Passivhaus using the Wimbish Passivhaus scheme as a case in point. He argued that Passivhaus increases property value and guarantees better health for residents. Tofield pointed out that the UK is the worst country in Europe for fuel poverty, Passivhaus can help address this. "It is virtually impossible to have fuel poverty in a Passivhaus, even if the grid energy supply fails, you only have to run about a bit to get it warm."
Other Passivhaus events were hosted by PHT Members’ Architype ('Passivhaus and Beyond: Forging a New Architecture and Professionalism') and Paul Davis + Partners ('Passivhaus Retrofit POE'). Passivhaus was referred to on more than one occasion as an effective methodology to address the ‘performance gap’, particularly at the AJ & FCB Studios event 'MIND THE GAP – How to Crack Building Performance'.
On the more fun side, Passivhaus also featured in a number of questions at the very enjoyable Pub quiz hosted by PTEa Architects, which a joint team of the Trust and the AJ won!
Further reading:
Download presentations from 'Why choose Passivhaus?'
image courtesy Bere Architects
It should be borne in mind that the Zithromax in any case should not be taken if there are pronounced renal dysfunction and liver. Taking the Azithromycin can cause some side effects such as nausea, stomach pain and indigestion, diarrhea, loss of hearing, eyes and skin may turn yellow.
23rd April 2013
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