Scottish Passivhaus Projects Update

PHT Scotland's Paul Tuohy organised a gathering of Passivhaus practitioners in Glasgow on 16th June, with support from a number of partners, including CIBSE Scotland, CSIC, MEARU and SEDA, and hosted by the University of Strathclyde. Over 40 people came to the event to share information about the latest Passivhaus projects and research in both Scotland and the wider UK.

Two projects were of major interest and were given prime slots:

The Cedar Court EnerPHit project, Glasgow

Rupert Daly of Collective Architecture spoke about the approach being taken in trying to achieve the EnerPHit standard as part of a large-scale tower block refurbishment to create a sustainable community in Glasgow. Rupert highlighted that aiming for EnerPHit on a large-scale retrofit such as this was not much more onerous than the standard refurbishment that was originally planned, although the thermal bridges from the balconies had caused some problems.

Cedar Street & Cedar Court, Glasgow - Collective Architecture

Rupert also mentioned a new decentralised ventilation system product they had discovered – the Vaventis fresh-r - with an integrated heat exchanger & filter.

MEARU post-occupancy feedback studies

Janice Foster and Chris Morgan described the results of their post-occupancy research on a range of low energy homes (27 in total), some of which were Passivhaus. These showed that Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality were issues that required increased attention in all dwellings, and that overheating in low-energy homes can be a problem in Scotland, even before taking account of likely future climate change.

Jon Bootland, Passivhaus Trust and Mhairi Grant, Paper Igloo

A number of other people provided information about their projects:

Construction Scotland Innovation Centre - update, industry support and funding models - Frank Boyle, CSIC
Thermal Comfort and Indoor Air Quality in low energy houses - Maria del Carmen Bocanegro-Yanez, University of Strathclyde
Ostro and Hamilton Passivhaus projects - Mhairi Grant, Paper Igloo
Ferndown and Lenzie Passivhaus projects - Chris Morgan, John Gilbert Architects / Passivhaus Associates
PHPP9 and Passivhaus Classic, Plus and Premium - Nicholas Major, White Hill Design Studio
Passivhaus schools - Wendy Pandya, Architype
Ferndown, Snug Within, and Claddens Holdings – Matt Bridgestock, John Gilbert Architects
Dormont Park, The Lodge Aglionby, The Hawthorns Gretna (PHPP 9), Dumcrieff Gardener's Cottage, and Raehills Home Farm Steading (renovation) - David Major, White Hill Design Studio

The most encouraging aspects of the event were the number of Passivhaus projects underway in Scotland, and the willingness to monitor, test and learn from the results of previous schemes!

At the end of the meeting, the attendees held a brief session to discuss what were the barriers preventing further uptake of Passivhaus in Scotland, and then voted on their key priorities. The following points were identified as those most needing to be addressed:

Ventilation, Overheating & Quality Control – prepare design guidance, training and protocols.
Bigger housing schemes – encourage housing associations, local authorities and policy makers to adopt Passivhaus on bigger schemes.
Retrofit – explore finances.
Health impacts – explore impact of pollutants, Indoor Air Quality etc.

PHT Scotland will now work with the Trust and others to take forward those areas identified as a priority. If you would like to be involved, please contact PHT Scotland via Paul Tuohy (paul.tuohy@strath.ac.uk).

The event was kindly supported by:

28th June 2016

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