First tenants move into Passivhaus homes in Ebbw Vale
Two families have moved into a pair of Passivhaus certified houses in Wales which will be monitored for a year- rent free. Designed by Bere Architects, the Larch House and Lime House in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, are prototypes of Passivhaus social housing. Both properties were developed by Blaenau Gwent council and United Welsh Housing Association, based in Caerphilly.
The keys were handed over to the two couples by Welsh Housing Minister Huw Lewis in a ceremony marking the start of 12 months' environmental moitoring programme of the homes and how they are affected by the activity of their residents.
The Design Commission for Wales, estimates that despite its location, Larch House generates as much energy from the sun in the summer months as it uses through the rest of the year. But the property has stood empty since it was built. So the figures collected on its temperatures and energy use over the past few months will act as a baseline in the next phase of the monitoring project once people move in and begin using the house as a home.
A spokeswoman for United Welsh said: "We've seen the effect on the house with no tenants, now we need people to live in it and have a normal family life. "There will be regular contact with them, probably monthly phone calls, to see if they have been doing anything different just to see how the house is affected by everyday life." The families were selected from applicants who had to have a connection with the Blaenau Gwent area.
Three-bedroom Larch House House was built for the 2010 National Eisteddfod in Ebbw Vale, on a former industrial site that is 1,000ft (300m) up, on an exposed and misty hilltop and was the UK's first zero carbon Passivhaus. It takes its name from the Welsh larch timber cladding.
The two-bedroom Lime House, which is named after its lime render, was cheaper to build and looks more like a traditional Welsh cottage with most of the wood, insulation and tiles used in its construction coming from Wales.
The triple-glazed insulated windows and solar panels were made in Wales while local engineers adapted the German framing technique used in Larch House to use faster-growing, softer Welsh timber.
Read the full story on the BBC Wales website.
30th March 2012
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