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ReHabit House wins LABC Technical Innovation Award
July 16, 2012 at 11:10 AM
White Design's ReHabit House, 220 Easton Road, was awarded Best Technical Innovation in the West of England LABC Building Excellence Awards on 21st June 2012.
The Re-habit project had two distinct, but intrinsically linked, aims: The first aim was to deliver the required cuts in energy use by focussing on the building fabric, structure and energy systems whilst respecting the external value of our ageing buildings; the second aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of occupant behaviour and psychology, identifying technologies and processes that facilitate low carbon lifestyles.
Combining these two approaches, our objective was to deliver system solutions which address all aspects of carbon emission reductions in the home, while also establishing the potential for cost-effective, large-scale replication of the refurbishment project.
The building incorporates the following systems
Technology
- triple glazed windows to south facade u values less than 0.8; quadruple glazed double windows to front incorporating sash window to respect victorian facade with internal casement arrangement.
- 0.15 u values wall and roof testing both internal and external situations,
- airtightness 2 to 3 times better than building regs
- Solar hot water
- A rated appliances
- mechanical heat recovery ventilation
- natural ventilation scenario to aid summer cooling
Behaviour
- this is facilitated in large part by the ‘Hab Shimmy’ portal located in the kitchen providing realtime data on house consumption in pounds and pence as well as providing information about rail, bus and other local services to encourage lower carbon lifestyles.
The house also incorporates
- food growing/ seating planters in rear garden
- bike store bin and recycling store out front
- internal home office area
The project has reached the end of the construction stage and is now in a two year monitoring stage. This final stage will test the targets and design aspirations of the project and help develop a national database managed by the Technology Strategy Board.
