Output details

Spooner House - Midmar, Inverurie

The Spooner house is Scotland’s first Certified PassivHaus.

The research aim is to provide house builders and public with information that promotes the understanding of the market potential for producing very low-energy construction and to identify quantifiable benefits that are relevant to the marketing of products to the public overcoming, arguably, the barriers to its adoption.

There are many barriers for the adoption of ‘Passivhaus or equivalent construction standards within volume house-building industry, for example the capital cost, skill shortages, the supply chain and reluctance to change behaviour. The scope of this design was to demonstrate through the evaluation of standard volume house- building, within a Scottish context, what is involved in achieving Passivhaus standards, and what the implications are for whole life costs. The performance of the house has been monitored and feedback from the construction process and from the users informs the following designs.

The design have sought to increase the standardisation of components and the off-site manufacture of products, yet with an emphasis on local production and workforce These factors, together with the desire to keep down costs, have led to an emphasis on buildability which in turn considerably reduces waste and construction cost.

There were many interesting findings from the investigation, these included: lower and more consistent CO2 levels in the Passive House than in the houses without MVHR; poor layout and ducting of MVHR system giving poor energy performance and condensation problems;

The lessons learned are relevant to all future implementations of these (Low Zero Carbon Technologies (LZCT) systems in the building stock both new build and retrofit.

PassivHaus Certification:

• Certified European PassivHaus (ID: 1773) http://passivhausprojekte.de/index.php?lang=en#d_1773

Awards:

• ASA Design Awards 2010 - Residential and Sustainability Awards (Distinction)

http://www.aberdeenarchitects.org/SustainabilityAward.htm

• Aberdeenshire Council Design Awards 2010- Housing and Sustainability (Distinction)

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/design_awards/DAProg2010.pdf