Nottingham Passivhaus refurb
Gil Schalom Design has just completed (May 2011) a radical whole house Passivhaus refurbishment on a 2-bed Victorian house in Nottingham, with the help of a number of Green Building Store Passivhaus products. At the design stage, the project has achieved an impressive space heating requirement of 18.77 kWh/m2/annum and peak total heat loss of 1.6 KW.
As the house is within a conservation area, the majority of the energy efficiency measures were applied internally to preserve the exterior appearance. Designed using Passivhaus Planning Package, the house has 500mm insulation in the loft, up to 270mm on the walls and 250mm in the ground floor plus triple glazed windows with insulated frames. Two airtightness barriers plus a lot of attention to detail have made it possible to avoid the need for central heating. 
Green Building Store designed, supplied and commissioned the Focus 200 PAUL MVHR system for the project, offering over 90% efficiency. Gil Schalom said: “The knowledge and technical backup of the MVHR team was what sold the PAUL unit to us in the first instance. The team will only supply to projects that use PHPP to model the building and this in itself puts Green Building Store at the forefront of the advanced MVHR market. It allows themn to focus on supplying the high quality package of design, supply and commissioning that PH projects demand. For dependable PH compaticble MVHR systems the PAUL unit has an excellent reputation for finely tuned and effective engineering but coupled with the knowledge and support of the supply team, we believe the combination is unrivalled in the UK marketplace to date. GBS would be our first choice on any future PHPP projects”.
Ecopassiv Passivhaus compatible windows and doors were also specified. Gil Schalom said: "We specified Ecopassiv doors and windows because they represented very good value for money for a PH compatible specification at less than half the price of certified products. Ecopassiv appeared particularly suitable for an advanced refurb and they have allowed us to comfortably exceed the new PH target for retrofits. We would not hesitate to specify Ecopassiv again”.
Pro Clima airtightness tapes and membranes from Green Building Store were also specified to help achieve the high levels of airtightness needed for the project.
Final airtightness results for the project are due to be updated soon.
Detailed case study - download pdf
Architect: Gil Schalom Design
West Bridgeford, Nottingham
Tel: 07981 501322
