Opening doors to low energy refurbishment
SuperHome Database
Manchester, Chorlton Eco Show Home
House Summary
Owner(s):
Kit KnowlesHouse Type:
1909 Arts and Crafts, Semi DetachedCarbon saving:
61%Reported saving on bills:
80%
Measures installed:
- Triple glazing throughout including encapsulating existing Stained glass and leaded light windows
- Extensive draught proofing and air tightness membranes used throughout
- World first use of hybrid Spacetherm, Kooltherm K5 EWB Phenolic foam external insulation, U value 0.263 with just 5cm of insulation
- 300mm organically bound glass fibre roof insulation, U value 0.123
- 260mm glass wool floor insulation, U value 0.128
- World first installation of Passivent's iHybrid whole house Ventilation Heat Recovery system
- 10kW high spec micro condensing boiler
- 93% efficient Log burning stove
- LED lighting throughout
- All AA or AAA rated energy efficient appliances
- Water saving devices includes; world first trial of a rainwater harvesting system driven via PV flushes loos and provides out door taps. We have all taps (bar the bath) with aeration technology and toilets are duel flushing 3/4.5l with examples of grey water recycling
- Coming soon:
- 9kW thermal, 5kW electricity generation from hybrid Photovoltaic-Thermal Panels
- Low turbidity high performance thermal store with external heat exchangers
- Weather compensation technology
Upcoming events
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What visitors are saying
"Thank you for sharing your wonderful house, shows an excellent step in the right direction!""Very interesting, especially from the viewpoint of cost. Some items not as pricy as I thought they might be."
"Fantastic visit. Thank you. I've spent ages trying to find real expertise."
"Incredible what you have achieved in a relatively short space of time. Thank you for showing us round your home."
“Very informative and helpful guide. Very prepared to discuss technologies and solutions.”
"We enjoyed our free-style exploring and found listening to the homeowner talking about the improvements that had been made very informative!"
"Beautiful home with really interesting technology and other features. Very informative and detailed discussion with Kit."
"Kit was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all the tasks he has undertaken on his property. He has certainly given me useful information and things to think about."
"An excellent visit - I feel inspired again. Your enthusiasm came over strongly!"
Motivations:
Having just completed my masters in Chemical Engineering I had a decision to make. Should I continue to work for companies like BP and AstraZeneca, following a typical high flying corporate career, but waking up each morning feeling like I am missing a little bit of my soul? The answer for me was to find a career that provided job satisfaction in knowing that I would be directly helping people and the environment. When deciding upon a low risk business model for my new sustainability consultancy we devised a route to market that utilised a show home. This enabled us to fully understand the market from the perspective of our clients. It forced us to test each of the hundreds of products required to create an eco retrofit home, to fully understand the complexities involved. The Sustainable Energy Academy helped us to satisfy the public demand for eco educational facilities, providing the incentive and guidance to organise open days. Public interest was reflected by the attendance of over 500 people during our first year.
Also see:
www.ecospheric.co.uk/Benefits of work carried out:
Now the home is complete we are benefiting from annual gas bills of £150 and annual electricity bills of £400. We have remarkably comfortable year round temperatures regally receiving comments from visitors along the lines of:
“Wow your house is so warm you must have put the heating on! I don’t believe that you haven’t put the heating on since February, its October!”
The general levels of maintenance are now unbelievably low, all the systems have 20+ year life spans, bringing down running costs and inconvenience. The design focus for the show home was on passive technologies, in fact bar a single room wood burning stove there are no renewables installed at all. The house uses standard A rated gas boiler and no heat pumps.
A big worry of potential converts to eco style living is any negative effects that ‘cutting back’ may have on their lifestyle. The over whelming result from our experience has been nothing but beneficial to our lifestyle.
Favourite feature:
The original concept behind the space we dub ‘The Solarium’ was to act as an area capable of capturing solar energy, storing it and distributing it as necessary both across space i.e. from the south to the north of the building and across time i.e. from midday to midnight. Additionally this was a critical area from an interiors perspective as it meant a joining of spaces designed today and those designed a century ago. To ensure the continuity of space was not broken by a lack of contiuity of design it required the original space to be modernised and the new space to be minimised, ensuring no severe contrast of style.