Strategic Services

Passivhaus / Enerphit Consultancy (PH / EP)

Passivhaus / Enerphit is an internationally recognised energy standard which adopts a whole-building approach with clear, measured targets which focus on reducing heat loss and energy demand in buildings. This is achieved by adopting a fabric first approach to buildings with optimal form and orientation. Passivhaus buildings also have an extremely high-quality of construction, achieved through a rigorous quality assurance process.

Passivhaus can also provide additional benefits in respect of:

• Building Performance
• Climate Emergency
• Health and Wellbeing
• People Performance

Our Passivhaus Certified Designers can work with you from concept through to completion to develop the correct approach for your project, guiding you through the process to achieve certification. We can also support you on completion of the project to ensure occupants understand how to use their new Passivhaus homes to gain the most value from the process.

Passivhaus Equivalent (PHE)

It is recognised that the Passivhaus standard creates highly energy-efficient buildings, however, it can be very prescriptive and is not always practicable due to capital cost, maintenance and replacement costs, site constraints, brief constraints and planning constraints.

We advocate a Passivhaus Equivalent approach to the design and construction of buildings, utilising best practice guidance from the standard developed to suit the project brief, constraints and budget.

We can carry out options analysis to assess the impact on the energy performance of your building by implementing various best practice measures, including; siting and orientation, building form, fabric performance, MEP Systems and monitoring systems.

Similar to our Passivhaus projects we can also carry out a rigorous quality assurance process during construction and provide additional support on completion to ensure these buildings perform as designed.

Retrofit (EESSH2 / SHNZS)

80% of the homes which will exist in Scotland by 2045 have already been built, meaning retrofit of existing homes is critical to reduce energy consumption, mitigate fuel poverty and achieve the country’s Net Zero targets.

Retrofitting existing buildings is a particularly difficult challenge due to the scale, funding available, competing objectives and variety of existing building types. Additionally, government legislation for the retrofit of affordable homes is currently under review.

We have a wealth of retrofit experience gained from our over 40 years of experience working within the field. This has been greatly supplemented in recent years by our work on several pilot projects and energy studies carried out in respect of the Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing (EESSH and EESSH2) standard and the Social Housing Net Zero Scotland (SHNZS) future standard. Key to the success of each of these projects has been our awareness that the occupant must come first, and any measures undertaken should mitigate fuel poverty.

We can work with you to develop the correct brief for your retrofit project and in turn the correct retrofit strategy to meet your needs.

Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA)

A WLCA assesses the carbon impact of a building over its entire life cycle, from the construction stage through to its end of life. The assessment establishes the carbon impacts of both:

• Embodied Carbon – carbon associated with raw materials, transport, construction, maintenance, repair and replacement.
• Operational Carbon – carbon emitted during the operation and use of a building e.g. heating, lighting, water and equipment.

The increased operational efficiency of buildings and the decarbonisation of the electrical grid in Scotland has resulted in a decrease in operational carbon. Consequently, embodied carbon now makes up a much larger proportion of a building’s whole life carbon and must be tackled if we are to meet our Net Zero targets.

We can carry out a WLCA for your project to assist you in understanding the overall carbon footprint of your building. This can allow comparison to industry benchmarks but more importantly allow you to establish where improvements can be made to the design and specification of current and future projects.

Outline Specifications

Having a robust outline specification for both new buildings and retrofit of existing buildings can be instrumental in achieving your sustainability goals. Specification or employer requirements do not often focus on the sustainable elements of a building, however, we can work with you to develop a specification which amongst others could include information on:

• Fabric Strategy
• Heating Strategy
• Ventilation Strategy
• Renewables Strategy
• Maintenance and Replacement Strategy
• Construction Methods & Material Sourcing
• Whole Life Carbon
• Designing for Deconstruction

By incorporating these areas into your outline specification we can help you ensure your wider sustainability goals are achieved.

Construction Detail Packs

Our staff are firstly architects and as such have a wealth of knowledge and experience in developing detail packs for various construction types including new build, retrofit and modular constructions. We have experience working with contractors to develop their standard detail packs and through this process understand that the practicalities of constructing a detail on site are as important as the performance of the detail.

Considered construction detailing can mitigate heat loss in these areas. Heat is lost through the building fabric primarily in two areas:

• Infiltration – gaps in the air-tightness envelope
• Thermal bridging – gaps in the insulation envelope

When developing construction details we consider these areas first alongside all other technical aspects to deliver details which meet the technical requirements and reduce the building’s space heating demand and energy costs.

We can work with you to develop a standard detail pack for your projects including preparation of thermal bridging calculations.