I contributed THIS OPINION PIECE to the BregsForum last year concerning Part L compliance of the Building Regulations. In it I said:

“The only way numerically (currently) to assess conformance with Part L of the Building Regulations is via the Dwelling Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP) software. It is this software that allows the user to input the following:

Property Details
Property Dimensions
Ventilation details (Chimneys, ventilation type, air tightness etc…)
Building elements (Construction types, u values areas etc…)
Water heating
Lighting
The software on completion can give conformity results on U-values, renewables, primary energy use and CO2 emissions. The conformity with the Building Regulations is given in a straightforward green check (tick) or red cross. “

According to a recent article in passive house+ magazine this advice has now been superseded. In the article Dr Brian Motherway, the CEO of Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) states:

“SEAI does…

What I’m seeing over the last few years is that even if the client doesn’t go the ‘whole enchilada’ with a certified Passivhaus (I would however highly recommend designing, building and certifying to the Passivhaus standard incidentally); many of the Passivhaus features are becoming incorporated and ‘trickling down’ to the ‘Standard’ project. Namely:

1. High levels of insulation.

200mm cavity with low conductivity wall tie

With the ‘optimal’ cavity width for Passivhaus certification using concrete blocks at 300mm (pumped with platinum multi-bead insulation); we’re frequently adopting cavities on our ‘Standard’ projects of 200mm and 250mm.

2. Minimal Thermal bridges

As you can see in the image above, we are using low conductivity wall ties instead of steel versions.

The photo below also shows the low-conductivity blocks we use in strategic locations to reduce thermal bridging:

Low conductivity blocks

3. Triple Glazing

The price for triple glazing in Ireland has reduced…

As an avid reader of Passivhaus books (actually any books on a variety of subjects); below are two I would heartily recommend to get you started on Passivhaus theory and onto more advance topics.

1. The Passivhaus Handbook by Janet Cotterell and Adam Dadeby

A great primer in everything Passivhaus. Chapters include:

Part One: The how and why of Passivhaus
• What is Passivhaus
• The economics of Passivhaus
• Passivhaus Certification
• Challenges of meeting the Passivhaus standard
• Natural materials,zero carbon and resilience
• Setting up a Passivhaus project

Part Two: Passivhaus projects: a practical guide
• Using PHPP
• Thermal bridges
• Airtightness and sequencing
• Moisture
• Windows
• Ventilation
• Living in a Passivhaus
• Policy change in the UK

The book is extensively Appendixed with a great glossary of terms/units plus notes and resources.

I used this book as part of my revision before…

By Bregs Blog on October 19th 2014

Minister Damien English (pictured above) at Nzeb conference last week called for the passive house standard to be introduced in housing and suggested moves be made by the construction industry to address skills shortage problems in construction. He suggested we could have a lot of jobs associated with new technical standards that we can’t fill unless the industry gets moving to upskill. Link to conference programme here

Minister English, who told the Conference that he had built his own passive house said that …”we have to get construction right – this time“.

He called for higher construction standards so that houses are cheaper to run. He also gave a timely warning that if the construction industry doesn’t upskill “we could have a lot of jobs we cant fill”

In the article in the Journal.ie from 15th October 2014  “Pressure is on to get building, but those in construction need…

The writing was on the wall prior to the implementation of the Building Regulation Amendments under S.I.No.9 of 2014 but since April 1st it looks as if the situation will increase…

The situation being my appointment for the design and planning only on projects and the appointment of a another party for the construction drawings and site inspections.

Now I’m happy that if money is tight that I receive a fee for a ‘part-service’ rather than no job at all but on the basis of a couple of recent jobs I feel that it’s important to emphasise that I can do a lot more than just the ‘pretty’ bit involving the design and planning. This is the purpose of this post; to explain what I (as well as other architects) can offer when they are appointed for the ‘full’ service:

I have always said that the best residential projects are…

What possible connection could there be between the Passivhaus methodology and Triathlon?

If you’re in the Passivhaus world then you couldn’t help but notice the split between The Passive House Institute based in Germany and the Passive House Institute US. I’m not going into the reasons behind the split (of which there’s stacks on the web) but splits of this type are not unusual and this split is still rumbling on. Even today this Twitter stream shows a Twitter ‘fight’ on this very subject. And here’s the original [POST] that kicked everything off.

Here’s the ‘Open letter’ from Wolfgang Feist on the subject

So, the triathlon analogy…

As a primer, here’s the Wikipedia entry on Ironman Triathlon

Notice the key line:

“Other races exist that are of the same distance as an Ironman triathlon but are not produced, owned, or licensed by the World Triathlon Corporation. Such races include…

CPD or Continuing Professional Development is part and parcel of the architects duties and responsibilities and is summarised by the RIAI below:

“The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout the practitioner’s working life”.

The required CPD for Irish architects is 20 hours unstructured work and 20 hours structured work and my approach to completing it has varied from year to year. Some years I’ve knocked off each hour one at a time in approved seminars whilst other years I’ve completed the hours in one hit by completing a bigger course – the RIAI Conservation course is one example of this.

This year has also been a ‘one-hit’ year where all of the years CPD was completed in a single course – the Certified Passivhaus Consultant/Designer course and exam which was completed…