Grove Cottage, Hereford
The UK’s first EnerPHit refurbishment
Grove Cottage is the first refurbishment in the UK to be formally certified under the Passivhaus Institut's new EnerPHit refurbishment standard. Designed by Simmonds Mills Architects, Grove Cottage is a solid walled Victorian townhouse (1869) that was extended and refurbished using CarbonLite principles and aimed for Passivhaus levels of energy performance.
By applying the principles and methodologies of the AECB CarbonLite programme, the whole house CO2 emissions for cooking, space and water heating energy have been reduced by 80% compared to the average measured performance of a typical UK house of the same size. Energy performance and comfort has been monitored over the last 2 years, showing around 80% less gas used and 45% less electricity than an equivalent sized home, whilst internal temperatures remained at 21 degrees Celsius throughout the heating season.
Simmonds Mills specified the PAUL Thermos 200 MVHR unit* from Green Building Store for a number of reasons. Andy Simmonds commented: “We favoured the PAUL MVHR system because we required a Passivhaus certified product with robust quality engineering and efficiency. Green Building Store’s technical support and ducting design were also important factors. We valued being able to work with Green Building Store in an iterative process during design”.
The MVHR system has worked well in the two years since installation and occupancy: “Indoor air quality in the house is excellent and the acoustics of the system are very satisfactory.”
Completed 2009
More information
* The Thermos 200 model has now been superseded by the Novus 300 model
AECB low energy low carbon building database listing - including detailed energy performance information on the house. http://www.retrofitforthefuture.org/viewproject.php?id=199
Architect: Simmonds Mills, Tel: 01432 353443, www.simmondsmills.com
Contractors: ECO-DC www.eco-dc.co.uk.
