MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Kitchen. Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
Follow Zero Carbon House on Twitter!MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Street view. Courtesy of Sto External Render Insulation Systems; Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Ground floor. Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Stairs. Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Front door. Courtesy of Sto External Render Insulation Systems; Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Studio (top floor). Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Oriel window. Courtesy of Sto External Render Insulation Systems; Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "From north east Courtesy of Sto External Render Insulation Systems; Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "Above living room. Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
MartineHamiltonKnight.jpg "From garden. Courtesy of Sto External Render Insulation Systems; Copyright Martine Hamilton Knight")
Questions and answers
If you have any questions to the architect about the design, please add them in the comments; John will endeavour to answer them.
Q&A
26 Responses to “Q&A”
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What make is the wood burning stove?
It is Lenius by Consolar UK, supplied by GreenShop Solar in Stroud. In fact they did the solar store, solar thermal panels and the PV.
I hope you have chosen insulation with decrement delay (thermal lag) characteristics for the sloping roof with space below.
A very important consideration; we are using Natural Building Technologies woodfibre based “Pavatherm” boards which have a pretty good decrement factor. For those not familiar with this, it will typically delay the transfer of heat from outside to inside on a hot summer’s day to reduce over-heating. Apart from the roof, all the walls and floors have between 203mm/275mm/57mm of dense clay blockwork or rammed clay to give excellent decrement factors elsewhere.
What is the ‘local company’ that you said you had the fixed window panes made by? (Thanks for the viewing opportunity last Sat.)
I have a few questions. I would like to enclose our front porch. Is there a builder/joiner in the Crewe and Nantwich area who could advise us (and build) the most enviromentally friendly porch?
Also I would like to start replacing windows. The windows on your house are triple glazed. Can you recommend anyone to fit windows in my area?
Finally, if we have our house repointed, should the job be finished off with any special coating?
Linda
Sorry to be boring but, do you have a total cost for the project as yet? I’m sure the benefits are on the triple line but I would like to know if this kind of retrofit could be undertaken by an ‘average’ UK householder?
See 31 March post below.
Hi
How much did this house cost to build in comparison to a standard house?
Please see 31 March post below.
Hello,
Firstly, congratulations on this exceptional house. I’ve only just become aware of it, am a Birmingham resident and harbour ambitions to self-build a home along similar principles.
Are there any more plans for Open Days? I would very much like to come and see the house and learn a bit more.
Kind regards,
Kevin
Yes! we have have an open day on Saturday 10 September, watch this space for details…
Hi John
Great project. and congratulations on the awards. I was just wondering that there is no mention of how much the refurbishment cost? and what have been the returns till now in terms of energy bills saved?
You mention that the house contributes to the national grid, has that helped in recovering the cost of the refurb.
It would be helpful for people undertaking refurb of their own house if you could provide details of the financials involved.
Thanks
The zero carbon house total building costs, excluding some fit out items, were approx £1575/sqm of internal floor area. As the scheme is half new build and half retrofit, it would be very interesting to try to break this down into the two parts, but sadly we don’t have these figures (ie – which half of the house was the carpenter working on that day?! – clearly it doesn’t work like that).
To try to help, we have looked at one typical element, the walls, comparing our new build walls with our retrofit walls. Remember these are to zero carbon standards with thermal insulation of the walls = 0.11 w/sqmdegC. Thanks to Matthew Bailey at Speller Metcalfe who kindly supplied these figures.
New build (insulated render over clay blockwork finished internally with wet lime plaster) cost £165.50/sqm of wall.
Retrofit (plasterboard and Intello airtight membrane on timber frame dry lining, filled with Warmcel insulation and breather membrane, all fitted inside the existing nine inch brickwork front wall of the old house) cost £78.82/sqm of wall.
It is interesting that of that £78.82, only £17.05 is the insulation cost – so if you were to halve the insulation you would only save £8.50/sqm. Therefore it seems sensible, if you are retrofiiting, to encourage people to go the whole way and insulate to a very high standard.
Regarding the renewables, we now have data for a full year. We have generated 4030 kWh (predicted estimate was 4020kWh, not bad!). With the feed-in tarrif this will have paid us £1650:00. So in rough terms, if we might have expected fuel bills of £1500:00 a year previously, we are “saving” over £3000 a year.
Hope all this helps. John
Do you have any open days planned for2011?
Thanks
Zero carbon house open day 2011 will be on Saturday 10 September
please could you let me know of open days for 2011
Saturday 10 September
would like to know future opendays for this year please.
Saturday 10 September, please watch this space for more details
John,
could you let me have details of the PV set up for the roof please.
Weight cost max output per hour and how it is linked in to existing wiring etc.
I hope to see you on one of your open days.
regards
Robert
Its is 5.05kWpeak, weight is very little, and it feeds into a normal domestic electric system very easily, by running a wire down to the incoming main. The house then uses the PV electricity (when it is available) instead of the grid, and exports any surplus power generated.
Hello John
Your House is very inspiring & in my home city. It would be great to have more detailed information about the cost/benfits. Most average people probably wont be able to afford a full 0 carbon house but they can still reduce their impact. Is it possible to break down some of the main elements into cost/savings over a set period & providers used for the house. I saw your savings in previous comments but without the initial outlay it is difficult to assess what can be afforded for average working people.
Thank you for inspiring 0 carbon housing in an urban environment.
Regards
Francesca
Even without much money it’s possible to make worthwhile savings. Draught-stripping windows and doors, and sealing gaps in walls, round skirting boards etc can make a big difference. The insulation in our walls cost about £17 per square metre, see above, plus a bit more to make a timber frame (with reclaimed timber) to hold it in place. For more detailed help try Birmingham Energy Savers http://www.birminghamenergysavers.org.uk/ They work with residents and businesses and can even pay for solar panels upfront, earning back the money over time through government Feed In Tariff.
Hi John
what was the product you use for the reflective semi-mirrored surfaces within the house? I am trying to increase light levels into the basement we have made, via various internal openings and glazed screens, and this would bounce more light around perfectly. It looks as though this could be cut fairly easily too? Thanks!!!
Hello John,
Hope you are doing well.
My name is Vivek Pai, and I am currently pursuing my Masters degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Birmingham. I have been referred to you by Alan Shrimpton of Bournville Village Trust and Matthew Hill of LEDA, Leeds. I had previously written on your office id, but probably that mail would have got lost in the crowd of professional mails.
John, I am currently doing research on “Affordability of Retrofitting homes”, for which I am looking at various retrofitting projects, methods, and their cost/benefit. I have looked at various case studies in West midlands, but the Zero carbon house seems to be one of the few projects which is actually being monitored. There are a few questions about this I wanted to ask you.
I know that you are a very successful, popular Architect and must be very busy with your professional commitments with Associated Architects, but still I am trying my luck. Is there any possibility that you could answer 3 questions by email?
I hope to hear from your side.
Thanking you.
Best wishes.
Vivek Pai.