Local Its Our County councillors – Marcelle Lloyd Hayes and Jim Kenyon, MP Jesse Norman, Nick Grant of the The Passivhaus Trust and representatives of Herefordshire Council will all be there to see the unveiling of a Passivhaus ‘EnerPHit’ wall plaque on Tuesday 27th of September at 2.00pm in Portland Street Hereford, to celebrate a first in the UK, an International Award for energy saving households.
Andy Simmonds is a Partner in Simmonds.Mills Architects which has been pioneering the design and construction of sustainable low energy buildings for 20 years. Practising what he preaches Andy converted his own solid walled Victorian house in Hereford City to the demanding new German Passivhaus refurbishment standard called ‘EnerPHit’. This is insulation to such a high standard that the house stays warm and comfortable, even in winter, using little more than the heat from Andy and his young family.
Said Andy Simmonds
“We still have radiators and in the coldest weather run them, but our bills are a fraction of what they were and the house is much more comfortable as well”
Simmonds.Mills last week received formal certification of the first EnerPHit certification in the UK – from Germany’s globally recognised Passivhaus Institut. This groundbreaking refurbishment has been monitored for two years, and the results show an increase in comfort (21 degrees throughout the winters with improved indoor air quality) whilst measuring a dramatic 80% reduction in gas consumption for space and water heating and cooking and 45% less electricity use. This has been achieved purely through ‘energy efficiency’ measures (extensive insulation and 100% draught free construction) combined with a low energy heat recovery system. There has been NO use of expensive ‘renewables’, and wood is NOT used as a fuel due to concerns about worsening air pollution, even with ‘clean burning’ wood or pellet stoves.
Improving the performance of the UK’s existing homes to improve comfort, reduce energy bills and reduce Green House Gas emissions is now recognised by government as crucial – and the challenging financial and technical details of the Green Deal initiative are being worked on currently at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
Meanwhile several Herefordshire based architects, engineers and builders have been busy developing skills in effective low energy design for both new buildings and low energy, low carbon refurbishments. Most of these are members of Association of Environmental Conscious Building AECB – the sustainble building association – and Andy Simmonds, the AECB’s part time Chief Executive Officer is based in Hereford. Andy was heavily involved in setting up the UK’s Passivhaus Trust – a continuation of the work of the AECB’s (internationally recognised) CarbonLite programme. Several Herefordshire based companies are enthusiastic members of the Trust. Andy also chairs the Its Our County Policy sub Group.
The Energy saving Trust, the Building Research Establishment and other mainstream organisations have recognised the achievement – an EST case study is available off the Architect’s website.