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Fern Green Eco Products Ltd
Renewable Energy Centre,
Rocklands, Carnew Road,
Ferns
Wexford
E: info@ferngreen.ie
Tel: (053) 9367569
Fax: (053) 9366923
Web: www.ferngreen.ie
Opening Hours:
Mon – Fri 9.00am – 5.00pm
Saturday & Sunday and after hours by appointment only
Admin Area
| Planning & Designing a House |
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Planning & Design of an Eco Rated HouseDesign & Planning Services
We at Fern Green recognise that a house is more than just a building to our clients. A house plays an important role in our client’s everyday routine & lifestyle. It is more than just a house; it is a Home for the future. It is a pleasure to see people taking the incentive to build for the future. See there foresight and protect your future and pass it on to your next generation. Passive Houses will be the standard way to build in 3-5 years. So why wait. Contact us today and find out what is involved.
With the introduction of ever changing regulations, materials, methods of building, energy saving technologies and the current economic difficulties, Fern Green recognise that you, more than ever, need clear, professional and impartial advice in relation to all these matters. We aim to provide you with a home that you can be involved in and control from the very outset right through to completion.
We can offer you a diverse and varied range of services for your home. Not only do we offer design and planning for the current regulation standard construction, we also offer design and planning for more specialised construction methods such as the Passive House (PassivHaus) standard.
With our experienced, qualified and registered Architectural Team, we can offer a unique range of architectural & building services specialising in Off-grid Low-energy Smart buildings, incorporating the latest systems, methods, building and renewable technologies.
Our design team can work with you to ensure your home is not only designed to meet your needs and lifestyle, but also to meet the essential criteria for the A Rating and/or Passive House (PassivHaus) standard. Our dedicated design approach will ensure you get the most out of your design for your home. If you have a design already, we can work with you and your designer to adapt and mould your design to meet the essential criteria.
Should you not require a one off bespoke house design you can choose from one of our pre-designed A Rated or Passive Homes.
Once you have chosen the design path you wish to follow we at Fern Green can then work with you on the costs, programming and construction methods. Not only can we give you cost surety prior to submitting your planning application, we can also stand over that price should you obtain planning within a given time period.
Did you know....
....An A Rated House does not mean a Passive House?
....You can build a Passive House which is not an A Rated House?
.... B1 is the minimum rating acceptable under the Wexford County Development Plan?
....Every house must have renewable energy contributing to at least
· 10 kWh/m2/annum energy use for hot water, space heating or cooling, or
· 4 kWh/m2/annum of electrical energy, or
· A combination of these which would have equivalent effect.
What is a Passive House?
A Passive House is a form of passive solar design. Passive solar design is not a new design concept. It has been around for centuries and has evolved separately in several parts of the world. If a few simple rules are followed, a building can be made much more attractive to live or work in, with enough natural daylight and winter sun, but not too much heat in the warmest months. This may not add significantly to build price if designed from the start, but can minimise the need for artificial light and heat and hence reduce CO2 emissions and save on your energy bills.
The Passive House (PassivHaus) standard is the world’s leading standard in energy efficient construction, originating from Germany: Energy saved on heating is 60% compared to conventional standards of new buildings. The energy requirement for heating is lower than 10 to 20 kWh/(m²a) (depending on climate), adding up to a low cost of €10 to €25 per month. That is €120 to €300 per year (depending on size), to heat your home and provide your hot water; leaving high energy bills a thing of the past for Passive House occupants.
The Passive House concept is one that is easy to understand. It is based on minimising heat losses and maximising heat gains, thus enabling the use of simple building services. Typically this includes optimising insulation levels with minimal thermal bridges, high thermal performance windows, very low air-leakage through the building, utilisation of passive solar and internal gains and good indoor air quality maintained by a mechanical ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery: · By creating a well insulated thermally efficient envelope which makes optimum use of free heat gains from the sun the space heating requirements of a Passive House is minimised, thus resulting in no longer any need for a conventional heating system.
· By creating a building with very low air-leakage the provision of a mechanical ventilation system is the key in ensuring the required volume of fresh air needed for healthy living conditions is provided.
· By creating large glazed areas, designed to optimise solar gains, a Passive House is naturally well lit which improves the indoor living and working spaces.
· By creating a mechanical ventilation system, fresh air is continually entering the house. This fresh air entering is heated by the stale air extracted from the house via aheat recovery ventilation unit., This means the fresh air is now providing two services; ventilated fresh air for healthy living and heated air to cover the remaining heat needed. This ‘fresh air heating’ is the real key element of the Passive House concept and low energy bills.
The Passive House (PassivHaus) requires superior design and components with respect to orientation, layout, external envelope, air tightness, windows, ventilation with heat recovery and innovative heating technologies.
To realise an optimal interaction of all design and components, an energy balance of the building must be worked out in detail. The Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) software is a clearly structured design tool that can be used directly by qualified and registered architects and designers, to calculate and analyse the energy balance, to ensure the design meets the Passive House standard and criteria.
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