All new homes to be carbon neutral from 2013?

delad

Came across this article from 2008 saying all new builds from 2013 onwards would be required to be carbon neutral:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/builders-told-all-homes-must-be-carbon-neutral-by-2013-1438627.html

It says in the article that they planned to implement those changes to building regulations, did this go through in the end?

Was just watching grand designs where a couple in england built a passive house, and not only do they have no bills but they also get paid £1,800 a year. Incredible.

Does anyone here know roughly how much it would be to build a 3 bed bungalow which is passive?

BryanF

passive house costs
anything from 1400€ upwards per m2. you must appreciate that passive house concept, is about compact southern facing homes, super insulation and air-tightness etc. the bungalow design may influence the cost and efficiency, though clever use of space will help. Please note that council charges, site conditions, the extra kit and materials etc all increase the 'builders finish' or the self-builders figure - and may not give a true sense of current building costs or rates. see page 31 http://www.bruceshaw.com/communicraft-cms-system/uploads/BS-handbook-2011.pdf that's a guide for mqs rebuild costs by quantity surveyors, who would know..

All new homes to be carbon neutral from 2013?
Just being pedantic here: but in my view were along way from carbon neutral, in many ways we've only paid lip service to co2 reductions in buildings. We currently have a 60% reduction on the 2005 building regulation base line, But we still have major non-compliance with these reductions, with many seeing their homes, & their fossil fuel heating consumption as no ones business but their own. Even with the passive house standard, it can be argued that the embodied energy of materials and mechanical kit to reduce the calculated kwh/m2/yr to passive levels, would only allow for 'carbon neutral' in use. In Extremely rare cases 'carbon neutral' in construction or maintenance might be achieved but IMO that'll be someone like Ben Law the woodsman, and not many of us will be doing that (the question of timber burning efficiency, not addressed here). In the Irish context there's every chance many of our homes built for the foreseeable future will be rural, and leading to them being car based 'carbon dumps' no mater what the passive rating

so, the 'passivhaus' standard is not a 'carbon neutral' standard, there is a constant heat load in a passive house - but it is less than our current building regulations, a worthy goal and a great achievement if reached.

In order to have a no bills one would need quiet a lot of eco bling - solar PV or suitable wind location, etc. Also, we dont have the tariff arrangements/ incentives that they have in the Uk - very few seem to get a decent return from the ESB.

here's a good Irish website that has regular information about the passive house, its costs and materials that are being used
http://www.constructireland.ie/Articles/Passive-Housing/Why-Ireland-is-becoming-a-leader-in-ultra-low-energy-building/Page-6.html

beyondpassive

delad wrote: »

Came across this article from 2008 saying all new builds from 2013 onwards would be required to be carbon neutral:

It says in the article that they planned to implement those changes to building regulations, did this go through in the end?

Was just watching grand designs where a couple in england built a passive house, and not only do they have no bills but they also get paid £1,800 a year. Incredible.

Does anyone here know roughly how much it would be to build a 3 bed bungalow which is passive?

Passive House
The building regs are getting closer to Passive House standard. The recent Part L 2011 would have similar, wall floor and roof U-Values to an Irish Passivhaus. Part L 2011 reqires houses to use 60% less energy than a house built prior to 2008, so there has been big changes to the minumim allowable standard of energy efficiency.

The main differece between PartL and Passivhaus is that the latter focuses on reducing the energy demand, with a priority on eliminating thermal bridges, compact design and airtightness to minimise heat wastage. To build a house in 2012 or 2013 to comply with Part L 2011, you would specify Heat recovery ventilation, treble glazing and thermal bridge free details. The price gap between building regs and Passivhaus is now 3.8%. (this is provided some thought has gone into design, rather than a stock set of plans drafted up by the local plansman)

Passivhaus has to be verified on completion with a series of tests such as the airtighness test, so it is a good way of embedding quality into a build. For us, we say that its just as useful to use the passivhaus approach to a project as it is to achieve the passivhaus energy standard benchmark.

You can no longer build off planning drawings and need everything worked out before you get to site. We routinely see block built houses with a bead filled 250mm cavity in a 450mm wide wall. Just note that your Registered Architect or Technician will need to spend about three times as much input into your build as the Celtic tiger standard builds, so fees can be almost double. But you get what you pay for.

Part L has since 2008 required about 10% of the houses energy to come from renewables. 10kWh per meter square must come from solar, or biomass or the operation of the heatpump above 250% efficiency. Two banks of solar tubes usually do the trick and these take about €300 of the fuel bill but at a cost of €4500 this is a 15 yr payback.

We've worked on a renovation in Wicklow with a Viking where the client gets €1,400 from the ESB every year as he sells back to the grid from wind and PV. His kit cost over €60k though and the reasons were for energy independence rather than an economic rational.

Don't get too distracted by carbon neutral or energy plus. Get an appropriate house design and specification that is clever about energy usage, passes the regs and comes in on budget. Get it right on paper and things will run smoothly on site.

consultation for the proposed 2013 regs for 'almost carbon neutral' hasn't commenced yet and will most likely be in 2014, so those regs wont become operational untill 2016.

Agree with Brian. Building reg bunglaow with meduim quality finishes would be €1,350 per meter squared ex VAT, turnkey. Passivhaus €1450. Self builder might get 10% less than that but it will put 10 years on them.

delad

Thanks for the responses guys, very interesting area. I have a few more questions, I'm pretty clueless about planning and all that sort of thing so sorry in advance for the potentially stupid questions.

If I bought a site, would I be more likely to get planning permission if I was building a house that exceeded the current energy efficiency regulations or would that not factor into the decision?

Also if I bought a site with planning permission, with plans for a house that wasn't south facing, is it possible to change it so it would be south facing or would that need a new planning permission application?

Is it possible to upgrade an existing house built in the 80's to Passivhaus standard or PartL standard?

BryanF

Eco house gets marginal bonus in planning

Re planning and change of design or new application will depend on criteria of current app and your circumstances/ right to build

Yes, but it's costing roughly the same as new build ,IMHO... So it's all about the existing houses benefit.