SPECIFICATIONS, LABOUR AND THE RIGHT ROI
EnerPHit accreditation vs Passivehaus. 80% of the results for 40% of the cost, can we really justify the skilled approach to solving our heating costs?
We all want lower bills, we all want to reduce our carbon footprint and out our pounds into something more worthwhile than say, just hot air. But improving the energy efficiency of your home even reaching for converting a residential property into a Passive House through EnerPHit, which is a less rigorous energy efficiency standard as Passive Hose, can be a challenging process. Even though the build market is not as crazy as it was 18 months ago, good builders, and by that I mean really great craftsmen and site supervisors/managers are hard to come by.
And here’s the crux of the problem, clients appreciate tripple glazed windows as more expensive than double glazed window due to their thermal properties, the cost of adding interior or exterior insulation as advantageous when insulating the home and even the addition of technology such as heat recovery systems to help regulate temperatures across the floors, but what’s most important of all is the skills required to undertake this work.
It seems like last week but really it was last year that we came across a video from Robin Clevett. Many may know him from his youtube.com channel and his Skills Builders content. In this video, he puts his 20+ years experience in installing loft insulation to Building Regulations Part L as an example to this topic.
This video was discussed for over a month in the office and the reason for this baffled me until I met with a clients main contractor and quantity surveyor, to which it was shown.
Our expectation; as building designers, architectural technicans and structural engineers was ‘supposition’.
The assumption, that when we set our scope, 100% of the time this is the way its done. The reality, not so much. The reason? The competitive market, the budget and the client. And this comes down to client education and close working relationships with contractors, at which point the finger was pointed right back to us as the building fabric designers.
Without the knowledge what client would approve 20% more labour to install insulation the right way. Using custom jigs to cut into the eaves, gappotape for insulation perimeters, and using a £600.00 Festool ISC 240 to cut PIR insulation cleanly and accurately ensuring the tightest of fits, eliminating every draft and cold bridging point.
Whilst we still argue internally about the rights and wrongs of retrofitting cavity insulation, we take our hat off to Robin and the crew at Skill Builder, who as well as making compelling content, make content that questions our ability to translate professional practice into an affordable return on investment for our clients.
