We use passive design techniques, but what makes us unique is that we adapt these to the climate in Spain, where you have a cooling problem in summer. We also adapt the passive ideas to the lifestyle in Spain where you want to be outside enjoying the wonderful weather most of the time.
Your home can operate in three modes for each of the cold season, the hot season, and the open season.
Speed
We are probably quicker than you think. We use highly efficient off-site construction techniques and we are about twice as fast as conventional methods. So a building which would conventionally take a year to build might take us about 6 months. This means you will move into your home much sooner.
From a commercial client’s point of view it means your building is income producing faster and finance costs are lower.
Photo: D.B.
Photo: D.B.
Inside / Outside Living
During the open season which will be the spring and autumn fresh air will naturally flow through the building. You will be enjoying the sunny terraces and sometimes even the shaded areas under the terraces perhaps even having most of your meals outside enjoying the fabulous weather.
We create micro-climates with plants, water and pergolas so that there are always sunny areas and cool shady places too.
Air-tightness
During the hot and cold season your building will be airtight. Glass walls mean you continue to connect with the outside and have the feeling of being in big open spaces.
Air-tightness is a key principal of energy efficiency. It allows you to keep the warmth or the coolness you have generated.
Heat Recovery and Ventilation
A mechanical ventilation system extracts old, humid air from the kitchen and bathroom and injects fresh filtered air into the living spaces.
In the cold season a heat exchanger takes the heat out of the dirty air before expelling it and uses it to warm the fresh air before introducing it into the living spaces. It works to over 95% efficiency.
In the hot season the system works in the other direction and cools the fresh air before introducing it.
This means you keep the heating or cooling effect you have achieved. The result is you are always breathing clean fresh air at the right temperature regardless of season or weather.
Air Source Heat Pump
We often recommend an air source heat pump as a system for cooling and heating during the hot and cold season. It uses the energy in the air outside to produce hot or cold water which is used to heat or cool the building.
A certain amount of electricity is used to power the system but it’s more efficient than a conventionally powered system by a factor of 5 or 6 times.
We like to install a photovoltaic panel that over the year generates at least as much electricity as the system uses, making it net carbon zero and free to run.
Radiant Under-floor Heating & Cooling
Radiant under-floor heating and cooling produces a general sense of comfort. The long wave radiation from all interior surfaces, conduction (tiles are warm on your feet), and through surface convection influencing air density.
It keeps the fabric of the house itself warm or cool, not just the air. So the temperature is much more stable and so more efficient. It allows for flooring materials which are kinder to the air quality. And the space is free of radiators and other hazards associated with more conventional methods.
Super Insulation / No Thermal Bridges
No heat should escape the building in the cold season or enter the building in the hot season whether that be through the walls, the roof, the windows or thermal bridges. Thermal bridges are a defect in your thermal envelope often inadvertent sometimes brought about by ignorance or poor workmanship.
Off-Site Construction
Photo: David Spender
We often recommend a timber frame. This should not to be confused with a wooden house. Most Travelodge hotels for example look like concrete structures, but structurally are in fact timber.
Timber frames are a highly engineered structures that outperform concrete and steel in most circumstances. They are lightweight, strong, and easier to make energy efficient than concrete and steel. They are far kinder to the environment as they are a renewable resource which absorbs carbon and locks it away.
The frame and some other elements are constructed off site in efficient factory conditions where they are precisely cut and assembled. No delays for bad weather, less mistakes, less travel, and far less waste.
Solid Workmanship – the key to energy efficiency
A successful energy efficient building needs more that just good design and high quality materials. Care and attention fitting everything together is crucial.
An innocent mistake by a well meaning workman can cause a thermal bridge and compromise the careful design and expensive insulation. Similarly a high specification window may perform no better than an ordinary one if badly fitted. We place a huge amount of importance on the quality of our workmanship.
