Tag: developer homes

HPH308 : Testing the thermal performance of a house – with Tom Fenton from Veritherm

Tom Fenton from Veritherm explains how to test the thermal performance of a home, what this data can reveal and how it can then be used.

Interview with Tom Fenton

Tom Fenton began his career working in the family’s design consultancy that focused on the envelopes and facades of commercial and industrial buildings. From this unique vantage point they were able to see the pitfalls in the design and construction process that impact on the performance of the building fabric, which led them to develop Veritherm’s test of thermal performance.

Thermal performance measurement should be affordable and scalable

In general, the construction industry’s understanding of thermal performance has been based on theoretical design assumptions and desktop modelling. Academic approaches to measuring thermal performance are lengthy, costly and complex, and only really used at a research level. Veritherm’s aim was to develop a solution that would be simple to use while being affordable and quick enough that it could be implemented at scale into a range of projects.

Heat will find the weakest point

Even in properties with high-performing materials and quality specifications like a Passivhaus, if the build quality or detailing isn’t quite right, then it will be sub-standard compared to its design predictions. Heat is like water and will always find the weakest point, which is where the energy will be lost.

A phased testing approach can be beneficial

The assumption is generally that testing would be carried out on completion of a new build home, but Tom says that actually, the retrofit market is accounting for around half of their business. Using a phased approach, an initial test will give a baseline measurement of the existing home and how it is performing. That information can be fed back to the design team to consider the most suitable fabric upgrades for the property, rather than relying on design assumptions. Further testing can then be used at other stages as new elements are introduced, to quantify the difference that eg, replacement windows or external wall insulation have made. A final test can determine whether the project goals have been achieved.

A phased approach can also be useful on a new build, with measurements being taken before linings are installed. Together with further diagnostics, this can help to identify the possibility of any errors in the external envelope and allow them to be rectified before being sealed up.

There are three phases to a Veritherm test

The Veritherm test is carried out overnight and is broken down into three stages.

The first step is to retrieve relevant design information for the property, such as its thermal specification and basic dimensional information, which is entered onto the Veritherm dashboard.

Also in this preparation stage, the equipment is deployed in the property which includes temperature sensors in each of the habitable rooms, along with fans and heaters.

During the measurement stage, the Veritherm platform activates the equipment remotely and a controlled and measured heat load is applied to the property, using the fans to ensure temperatures are rising uniformly throughout. It is heated for the first half of the night before then being left to cool passively for the remainder of the time. All of the heat load and temperature data is sent throughout the night to the cloud-based software platform, which uses its integrated algorithms to generate the results.

On completion of the test the following morning the results are instantly available in a full report. This quantifies the rate of energy loss from a building per degree of temperature difference, expressed in units of watts per kelvin. The report also breaks down the data from the individual temperature loggers to give a better understanding of what is happening, and where, in the building.

A Veritherm test is quite often carried out alongside other diagnostic tools, such as an airtightness test, so that you can understand what losses are attributable to air infiltration through gaps, and what losses are attributable to the fabric.

Thermal imaging can pinpoint problems

Veritherm’s test quantifies the rate of heat transfer, giving the average U-value for the building as a whole. However, if the test flags up any areas of concern, further diagnostics such as thermal imaging could be carried out to pinpoint anomalies.

The performance gap can be quantified

The Veritherm report compares the ‘measured’ data from the test, with the ‘designed’ data that was entered into the system in the preparation stage. This gives you a quantification of what that difference is between the designed and as-built performance, ie the performance gap. That information can for example be fed back to the architect to help them improve their design processes. If there’s a 400% gap in performance it might mean that the self-builder needs to look at considerably improving their envelope, but if it’s only 5% then that’s not going to make a significant difference on their fuel bills post-completion.

The data that is produced can also be fed back into energy modelling software to communicate to clients what the longer-term impact will be on emissions and heating demand. This is particularly useful when it comes to designing heating systems to be correctly sized for the property. A new build property that doesn’t perform to its designed intent, means that the heating system may not be suitable or efficient. And conversely, many existing buildings have heating systems that are oversized in order to compensate for the unknown, which means there are many capital and operational savings to be had by getting it right and installing the correct system based on the particular property’s requirements.

Also in the Veritherm report is a thermal efficiency rating, which is where the rate of energy loss is divided by the usable floor area. Using this traffic light style rating means you can compare for example a 5 bedroom house with a 1 bedroom bungalow, and identify where your property sits on that scale.

The ‘designed’ and ‘measured’ data almost never tally!

With the experience of carrying out these tests comes the knowledge that there is nearly always a difference between the designed and measured values. In general, new builds will tend to underperform against their designs. Existing buildings that use EPCs or reduced data standard assessment procedure (rdSAP) will pluck thermal values from standardised tables based on the building’s construction type and year of construction, to come up with basic thermal specifications for that property. Once measured, these properties will often outperform what was expected of them and the client can actually have a cost-saving on their planned improvement works. With upgrades being rolled out to millions of homes across the UK, Tom says that there is serious value and savings to be had by using a measured approach to retrofit.

The goal is to have thermal performance testing in legislation

Even testing identical properties on a development can throw up variable results and identify pitfalls in the construction process, in much the same way as when air tests were first introduced, showing why it’s so important for testing to be carried out.

Tom is keen therefore for thermal performance testing to be included in Part L of the Building Regulations, and with the introduction of the Future Homes Standard which has a requirement for photographic evidence of insulation, he suggests that using a measured approach is actually of far greater value and a better way forward.

Find out more

Visit the website of Veritherm UK

Follow Veritherm on Twitter

Follow Veritherm on Instagram

Find out more about Veritherm’s thermal performance test

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Tom Fenton.

Building Performance Interactive

Ben Adam-Smith is taking part in a new series for Passive House Accelerator which aims to share lessons and best practice from low energy projects across the UK and Ireland. Hugh Whiriskey of Partel has devised the hour long format and is hosting alongside Ben and Mike Jacob of KISS House. The Building Performance Interactive is held monthly and everyone is welcome.

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November 4, 2021
HPH260 : What’s the difference between a self build and a speculative development? – with Mark Stevenson
Managing Director of Potton Homes, Mark Stevenson, looks at how self build, custom build and speculative development differ.

Interview with Mark Stevenson

Mark Stevenson has spent most of his career working for house builders and developers, including in the role of Construction Director for ten of those years. For the last seven years he has been the Managing Director of Potton Homes, a company that specialises in making the process of self building homes as simple as possible.

Potton Homes Centre

Self build is about self-commissioning

While this isn’t the case in all projects, for the most part self build isn’t about physically building the house yourself, but about getting in the right team of people to build it for you.

Even the biggest risks can be managed

Mark cites obtaining planning permission as the being the biggest risk to a self-builder. He wouldn’t advocate buying a plot of land without a permission on it, but instead suggests identifying a piece of land, securing the rights to buy it with an option and then getting planning permission. Once that has been secured the sale can be completed.

“So from a risk point of view in self build, it’s all manageable. It’s about the choices you make in how to limit your exposure to those risks, and make sure you’ve got a way to get out of a problem without it becoming too expensive too quickly. So I don’t think self building is actually that risky, if managed properly and managed professionally.”

Custom build is a government re-brand of self build

Their intention was to encourage potential self builders who didn’t have the confidence, or want the risk, of buying a plot of land, seeking planning permission or organising the build themselves. They wanted to explain to the market that planning permissions could be put in place on plots beforehand, builders are on hand to build them, and they just need the individual to customise the design to suit their requirements.

Schemes like Graven Hill offer sites for both self build or custom build

A Potton self build project on the edge of a developer estate near Peterborough

Mark agrees that there are plenty of blurred lines between the two, with different offerings between custom build companies. To some, such as Potton, it means helping the owner move their plot forward and asking what house they would like to build there. Another company might offer a plot of land with a selection of five houses to choose from.

Potton show homes try to provoke a response – be it positive or negative

Potton provide a diverse mix of show homes at their centre with the intention that people walking round can immediately react to what they like and dislike about them. Provoking these responses helps mesh the ideas and concepts together of what would work for that individual.

“By walking around the physical property you can start to understand how you could commission something that’s all about you and your family, and deliver something that functions in the way that you want to behave and live together as a family. And that’s just about spaces and how things work.”

The centre is about being able to develop your brief with the subjective attributes that you perhaps hadn’t thought of before, but have been triggered as a response to being in those spaces.

A speculative development can be one house or many

A speculative developer tries to predict what someone would want to buy at the end of the entire process. They make the choices about what a purchaser may want, how it should look and how it should perform. In doing so they are trying to maximise the value of that asset in the hope they can sell it and make a profit. There is a fair amount of risk involved as they are speculating on the profit, which is only realisable at the point of sale.

An individual buying a single plot with the intention of building a house to hopefully sell for a profit, is a speculative developer in much the same way as volume house builders, but without the economies of scale, the bigger margins and bigger profits to make.

Mark estimates that a developer would be looking to make a profit of around 15-20%. Individuals might be happy to take a bit less as they don’t have the overheads. The volume builders may take decisions in the development process to maximise their profit in order to sustain their business, and push harder to cover their large overheads.

Take emotion out of the process

This is Mark’s first piece of advice to anyone wanting to undertake a speculative development. As soon as you start becoming emotional you might start incorporating things you yourself like, but others may not and therefore perhaps not add value to the house. It’s about keeping a keen eye on value and offering products, contents and functionality of the house that someone will give you the money back for.

“Development is about a systematic approach to making the fundamental choices that maximise value and reduces your risk. And in doing that and controlling your costs, you make sure the return is as large as possible.”

Market test to see what demand there is for what you’re offering

With Ben’s intention to build his development to the Passivhaus standard, Mark suggests he market test to see what kind of demand there might be, and even if there is a demand, whether it would be likely to achieve a higher price. With the mainstream market being conditioned to accept that a house might not have great performance, sales are more commonly driven by factors of location and functionality.

With far fewer people in the market looking for a Passivhaus, Mark questions the likelihood of finding one of those who is looking for that product, in that area, with the architectural design that has been chosen for them. With so many variables it may mean struggling to find a buyer for what has been created.

Mark would advise being careful how it was marketed, highlighting the low energy bills, rather than emphasising it being a Passivhaus, in order to appeal to more of the house-buying community who may not know what the term means.

Self build is driven from a personal viewpoint, speculative development is a business proposition

Mark describes self builds as being about individuality and making sure you deliver on what is right for you and your family. You’ll invest and spend whatever you feel is appropriate.

A speculative development on the other hand is a business proposition. You’re trying to appeal to certain types of individuals who might offer that bit more money to maximise profits. It becomes a set of business decisions based on whether you will get your money back and if there is a profit to be had.

Developers appeal to the mass market, instead of pushing boundaries

Mark says while it’s great to be individual, providing a safer, more standardised offering will produce more customers willing to buy your product, and ultimately raise prices and profit. And this is why there is a proliferation of the four bedroom executive house with a central front door and four windows, because someone somewhere has worked out this is the formula for building at the least cost to maximum return.

For a lot of people, what’s the alternative?

For many people with busy lives, who don’t have the time to shop for a second-hand house and spend several months doing it up, buying a developer home is about convenience. The only alternative is the nice new site just down the road, with the extra bedroom and space they need, offering a good price, part-exchange and legal fees paid. And, Mark says, that’s why we’ve ended up with a sterile development environment.

Custom build can be a middle ground

Mark sees custom build succeeding where it incorporates the individuality of a self build, and takes away the risk of speculating what someone might want to buy by asking them in advance and negotiating a price that both parties are happy with.

Tips for tackling a small scale development
- Anything you do well is normally driven by passion, and this is no exception. You need to really want to do this to do it well, and passion will carry you through the weight of the work
- Be impersonal and keep emotion out of it
- Do market research to understand what people want and how you can incorporate those things – perhaps even contacting local estate agents to find out what houses people want to buy
“But just don’t go off on a leap of faith that your beliefs are the ones that everyone else should have, because it’s not necessarily the dream that everybody shares that you might have.”

Find out more

Visit the website of Potton Homes

Follow Potton Homes on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Mark Stevenson.

Please connect with me

Subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes

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August 15, 2019
HPH204 : Why you shouldn’t rule out custom building on a developer estate
Five self-builders explain how they came to build their houses on the edge of a developer estate.

All photos of Pip’s house copyright Potton. Photographs taken by Maciek Platek

Interview with Pip, Yvonne and Martin, Jessica and David

When Pip decided to move away from Surrey because building plots there were too expensive, and Yvonne and Martin knew that they wouldn’t be able to fulfill their 25 year year self build dream for the same reason in their home town of Buckingham, they found a developer site in Cambridgeshire offering more affordable plots on a street set aside for self builders.

Jessica and David’s story is a little different. They lived around 5 miles from the site and went to have a look around one day out of interest. Having never previously spoken about building a house, they made an offer that same week and had it accepted.

The land owner provided outline design guides

The brownfield land was formerly a brickworks before being bought by a company called ONH. A number of developers were building on the site but one street of 13 plots at the outskirts, overlooking fields, had been set aside for self build. The outline guide included that the houses should be eco-friendly and contemporary in design.

Challenges arose during the construction because, being at the back of the rabbit warren of narrow roads on the new estate, heavy lorries struggled to get past parked residents cars.

The substantial plot sizes influenced the house designs

David and Jessica

As David and Jessica bought their plot on the spur of the moment, the design wasn’t something they had given too much consideration. They employed a local builder initially, who then recommended an architect and worked with him to develop their rough ideas into workable plans. They opted for four double bedrooms, two with en-suite, and a family bathroom upstairs. Downstairs they wanted a large kitchen with an open plan family room. Having attended a self build conference which emphasised the importance or airtightness, MVHRs etc, they decided to follow an eco-house route, with triple glazing, solar panels and under floor heating. They also have a large garden with an area used as an allotment.

Yvonne and Martin

Yvonne and Martin’s is a large plot so they felt they needed to build a substantial sized house, which although they are the only two living there, provides them with plenty of space when their children and their families come to visit. Having been built well with airtightness in mind, they have a comfortable home with low running costs.

They also wanted to future-proof their home so it would still be accessible when they are in older age. They have four double bedrooms on the first floor, but downstairs has been designed to work as a fully self contained unit. It has a wet room and bedroom on the ground floor and space to install a lift if required.

Pip

Pip originally wanted a Passivhaus with a traditional exterior, but the council informed them it needed to have a contemporary design. Instead she worked with an architect at Potton who developed their ideas into a design they were blown away by. As the budget was stretched as works progressed they moved away from trying to achieve the Passivhaus standard and using ground source/air source heat pumps, but did manage to retain the solar panels and underfloor heating.

Establish good relations with your fellow self building neighbours!

Pip recommends getting to know your new neighbours as early as possible, particularly if you’re joining at the end of the plot sale process, so you can tap into their knowledge and previous experiences.

Getting your finances in place is something Yvonne advises. The build process can be extremely challenging so ensuring you have sufficient cashflow sorted early on can help to eliminate some of the stress.

Martin suggests working to develop a good relationship with your builder. His builder asked that if there were any changes or extras that he be notified early on so they could discuss and agree it so it wouldn’t be a problem, and this worked well for them. Martin also recommends thinking about the small things in advance, such as where sockets are going to go.

Locating the services and getting them installed early on is something they all say is important. Several of the house builders on the site were already starting construction before the water had been connected, leading to lengthy treks to get some from friend’s houses or relying on the kindness of neighbours!

Find out more

Find out more about Pip’s Potton designed home.

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Pip, Yvonne and Martin, David and Jessica.

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January 26, 2018
HPH169 : Embracing contemporary vernacular design – with Clare Nash
Clare Nash from Clare Nash Architecture talks about various responses by small developers in the UK and abroad to the challenges of creating modern communities through better design.

Interview with Clare Nash

Clare Nash set up Clare Nash Architecture six years ago. The team operate differently to other architects, working remotely or in co-working spaces and meeting up once a week. Her book, Contemporary Vernacular Design, How British Housing can Rediscover its Soul, naturally followed on from her Masters thesis where she researched the uses of vernacular materials and technologies in modern, sustainable housing in the UK and abroad.

In the past, houses were inherently green

Clare says, “Vernacular [design], I think, doesn’t really exist anymore, apart from in developing countries where people are literally just self-building.” Buildings used to be sustainable and varied in their design, using local materials and low energy out of necessity. She adds, “We seem to have lost all these really good ideas in modern housing design.”

In the UK, there are a few exceptions including Ashley Vale where a group of self-builders actually got hands-on and developed such a strong community that others really want to live there.

Contemporary vernacular design is a hybrid of old and new

Clare likens contemporary vernacular design to being a mixture of the best of the old and the best of the new. She cites an architectural ‘taste test’ that was carried out in Holland, where members of the public, architects and design professionals all found this ‘third way’ preferable to super modern or a pastiche of the old.

The residents Clare interviewed in Europe abroad unanimously liked modern homes, whereas she found people in this country quite suspicious of them. She believes this is because they tend to think of the poor quality housing stock built in the post-war period.

Incorporating good landscaping encourages people to talk to each other

Clare talks about contemporary vernacular design as a way to have mass produced housing that retains a sense of identity through the varied design of the homes and getting the landscaping right.

She cites an example in Holland where a group of architects took inspiration from a Mondrian painting to create different types of good-quality houses dotted around bisecting canals and green spaces. Clare compares how this development felt like home, whereas the new build houses local to her in the UK feel like a toy town, soulless, hence the subtitle of her book.

Faro Architekten project in Biesland, Holland

Another case study in Wales had open-ended gardens that led to a lake at the back where residents got to know each other because they often walked there. The design further encouraged interaction by incorporating a shared garage rather than individual drives.

Great House Farm project in Wales

Only residents really know whether housing design works

As well as interviewing architects, designers, housing associations and property developers, Clare made sure to speak to a good selection of the residents at each housing scheme to find out what actually worked.

While she often heard about teething problems, these resolved themselves and some of the small developers even had the foresight to anticipate and make provision for them. Resident feedback was summarised into four categories:

1) Comfort – is it warm enough and is it light enough?

Clare found the levels of insulation and daylighting were better than building regulations dictate. She comments that it’s really important to have bigger windows because seasonal affected disorder could be caused by being inside so much of the time.

2) Appropriateness – how appropriate is the scheme for the area?

Good design takes into account culture and context (i.e. the surrounding buildings and landscape, local materials and craftspeople). Therefore you need different types of housing for different types of area. Clare gives the example of a Norfolk development where they rejected the aesthetic of individual suburban plots; the site meant the front gardens were south facing and the architects chose to only separate them minimally with green wire fencing. The result was like a barn in a landscape.

3) Sustainability – does the design consider the embodied energy as well as the cost of running the home?

The focus in the UK is to save on energy bills but materials should matter too. Clare found examples such as Sieben Linden in Germany where they built everything out of straw bales and timber frame.

Sieben Linden eco village in Germany

4) Improvement – is the housing an improvement on what is currently built locally?

Clare deliberately sought out developments that she felt did better than the status quo, and found that on the whole residents were really happy with the quality of life afforded by the housing and sense of community. “They were just very happy to live where they lived and they didn’t want to move. Which I think says it all really.”

The current dominant building culture in the UK restricts progress

Clare was really excited to meet some progressive and interesting developers who are trying to do things differently with their residents and the planet in mind, but notes that the existing culture prevents widespread expansion of such practices.

She observes that in the UK six big housebuilders are dominating the landscape and what the edges of our towns and cities look like, adding that everyone she talks to seems equally frustrated with what she calls ‘the standard redbrick box plonked everywhere’. Clare compares this with Europe where individual developments respond to local demand.

European governments regulate development differently

In Sweden, no more than 100 houses can be built by any one developer in any one area, which creates a diversity in housing. And in Vorarlberg in Austria, anyone who owns a piece of land can build on it as long as the design (which can be modern) is considered appropriate for the region.

There are cultural differences on the continent as well. In Germany, people often build together in ‘baugruppen’, and they think long-term so they build very good quality homes typically passed on to the next generation.

UK decision makers are beginning to value ‘community’

Historically, councils have gone with the highest bidder when selling land for housing development, and the big companies can outbid the smaller ones. However, councils are now starting to see that a slightly lower bidder can deliver much higher long-term benefits. For example, mixed-use schemes improve the sense of community, making people want to stay and resulting in less maintenance and increasing the scheme’s longevity.

Gavin Barwell, Minister of State for Housing & Planning, has said that the government is going to make it easier for smaller developers to get land and to start developing. Clare finds this encouraging and hopes it will become easier for self-builders too.

Self-builders need to register their interest

At the moment, planning authorities have to find out if there is a need for self-build land and then if there is, they have to provide it. In some cases it’s proving difficult to actually get councils to follow through, but Clare thinks the housing white paper will help to move things forward, saying: “I think it’s quite exciting times now. I’m really hopeful for the future of housing and house building in Britain.”

Find out more

Visit the website of Clare Nash Architecture

Follow Clare Nash on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Clare Nash

Please connect with me
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March 22, 2017
HPH149 : Can airtightness tests on developer homes be trusted? – with Paul Buckingham of Sustainable Lifestyles
Paul Buckingham explains his frustrations about building standards in volume built houses.

Interview with Paul Buckingham

In Episode 99 we spoke to Luke Mahon about what it had been like living in his new, developer built, home. In this episode we are turning attention to the insights of someone who has worked within the industry and has been frustrated by the practices he has routinely seen.

Paul Buckingham is a trained electrician but his interest in the energy efficiency of buildings led him to complete a Masters degree in Architecture: Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). Over the last 4 or 5 years his work has predominantly been in airtightness testing, and estimates in that time he must have carried out tests on over 2000 properties, of which he says none of them were properly airtight. Until recently much of the work he did was on volume built houses and he shares some of his experiences of that time.

Paul now runs an independent consultancy, providing advice on achieving energy efficiency.

The airtightness testing is about making the house pass the test, not about making it energy efficient

Paul claims that his experience of testing was about quantity and not quality, getting as many houses to pass the test as possible.

“All you’re doing is effectively bodging to get it through an air test…. And it doesn’t matter how good or how bad the building is, it will pass eventually.”

He uses the example of dry lining which should be solid dab and fully sealed around the tops, bottoms, electrical outlets etc, but invariably the builders are not using anywhere near enough plaster. After the boards have been put up on the walls this can be spotted with a thermal camera to see where the dots and dabs are.

Paul tells of a house he visited where the building failed the airtightness test because of a lack of mastic around the skirtings. He says the builders then put in the mastic, only for the carpet fitters to cut it out again. After it was then replaced by the builders and subsequently passed the airtightness test, Paul noticed them once again cutting it out as he was preparing to leave.

“So they’ll go round, they’ll mastic it purely to get it through an air test but it does look a bit messy because they go in there, they literally just throw this stuff on there just to seal the skirtings up so they can get an air test pass on it. And once we’ve finished they come in and cut it all out again. It happens on pretty much every house I’ve ever been to.”

Cold air flowing behind the dry lining of a new house where it has not been sealed to specification.

Wind blowing through the eaves and across the ceiling of a brand new loft conversion.

Some builders were prepared to take advice onboard

Paul says there was a often a shortfall in knowledge on site about what airtightness is and how to make a house airtight, and it was his aim to advise people how to improve on this, rather than just get the buildings to pass the test. He found some site managers and builders more receptive than others to his suggestions and they were prepared to work with him to get the houses built right, rather than patching them up at the end.

The tight schedules mean quality is often not a consideration

On a large housing development the builders are given such tight schedules that Paul claims the builders themselves say they’re just throwing the houses up in order to meet deadlines and targets.

“And when the guys that are building them turn round and say I wouldn’t buy one, then there’s something seriously wrong somewhere.”

Loft space of a new house showing insulation that has fallen out because it wasn’t installed to manufacturer’s specification.

Absence of loft insulation on a new build house.

Paul was eventually fired from his recent airtightness testing job. He says his employers weren’t happy that he was spending time trying to get the message across and get the builders to change their ways, when he should have been keeping the customers (the volume house builders) happy by helping them to just get a pass on the buildings. Things came to a head after he wrote a report where he had used thermography to show missing insulation, air leakage around windows and air blowing in behind the plaster board.

“But I think had they not sacked me I would have quit anyway because I got to the point where I just couldn’t do it anymore. I just felt like a total fraud.”

Use an independent surveyor or airtightness tester if you’re planning to buy one of these homes

Paul points out that when it comes to the airtightness test, “the trouble is the builder pays for it so the builders effectively own the compliance companies.” He suggests that if it was instead carried out by an independent tester or surveyor, and paid for by the potential purchaser, you could be sure of a more impartial result. He says this might be a step in the right direction of putting pressure on the builders to improve standards and practices. He would also like to see a tightening up of legislation, where things adhere to the Building Regulations to the letter, not just an interpretation of them which is what he currently sees.

“I know how we can make energy efficient houses, it’s just that none of the main builders seem to be doing it. They just seem to be throwing up boxes and selling them. If I could work with these builders and advise them on how they can make them properly energy efficient then yes I think I’d be quite happy with that but at the moment I’m not seeing any of that!”

Find out more

Visit the Sustainable Lifestyles website

Follow Paul on Twitter

Transcript

Download a transcript of the interview with Paul Buckingham.

The Big Green Home Show – National Self Build and Renovation Centre

A reminder that Ben will be speaking at The Big Green Home Show at the National Self Build and Renovation Centre on 8th and 9th October. He’ll be talking on the topic of what it’s like to be a self builder. He’ll be drawing on his self build experiences so far, some of the challenges that you might face, and also offering some of the tips that he has picked up from visiting a number of Passivhaus self builds across the UK.

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October 5, 2016