Eco Build

Are you looking to build a new house or non-domestic building? If you want to look at options to deliver lower energy bills, reduced carbon emissions, generate renewable energy, improve health & wellbeing and future proof your development, then we can help.

5 Key Stages of quality and value offering:

Eco Build

Are you looking to build a new house or non-domestic building and are considering an eco-build? If you want to look at options to deliver lower energy bills, reduced carbon emissions, generate renewable energy, improve health & wellbeing and future proof your development, then we can help.

We have helped clients create low energy buildings from simple houses to Passivhaus to off-grid zero carbon builds.

With a range of building systems, methods and improved technology, low carbon living is easier than ever.

You can apply this to your home or even an office, school, community centre or any building type to reduce running costs, improve happiness and welling being and support your sustainability ethos and credentials.

We have almost 30 years experience in architectural technology and backed up with an MSc in Energy & Sustainable Building Design. We provide a simple and proven service, whatever your requirements and knowledge.

Understanding Eco Build Commonly Asked Questions

Why would you want and Eco Build?

There are a number of reasons to look at eco builds. They include:

Lower energy bills
Reducing carbon emissions
Generate and export renewable energy
Improve health and well being
Low running costs and easier to predict energy demand to help future budgets
Set the development apart from normal building standards
Make the development more sellable for the future
Future proof against climate change
Future proof against energy cost rises and reduction in materials & resources.

Providing an eco build will also help you through the planning application process, informing the planners of a suitable reason to support your application to lower emissions and energy demand compared with standard building regulations.

What is a definition of an eco build?

We would define an eco build as a building that:

Uses lower energy due to improvements to the building fabric, energy efficiency and if required, renewable energy
Improves health and wellbeing through good levels of ventilation, daylight and thermal comfort
Improve economic wellbeing through reduced energy bills and an asset that grows in time due to future-proofing compared with standard building stock.

How would we advise and assess an Eco build?

As accredited energy assessors and Certified Passivhaus Consultants, we look at a project from inception to advise on the following aspects in conjunction with the Architect and design team:

Orientation and form of the building to inform heat loss and solar gains
Local weather and environmental analysis
Identify areas to capture passive solar gains in the heating season and shade during summertime
Daylight analysis
Ventilation strategy
Building Fabric analysis (heat loss, thermal mass, thermal bridging)
Building services analysis
Energy Assessment to meet Building Regulations
Gap analysis to determine what factors to enhance to meet client aspirations
Assessment using SAP (Building Regulations) and Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP)
Compare against standards such as Passivhaus and AECB Building Standard
Internal finishes – lowering VOC’s
Electric car charging
Renewable energy
Rainwater harvesting
Ecology
Natural Materials

These are a selection of agenda items when discussing an eco build. Some elements are specialist and require external input, but defining what you want for your new house, office, school or any building type to reduce the environmental impact at early design stage helps deliver robust results with a reduced budget.

How can Low Carbon Box help?

Our lead assessor is an on-construction domestic energy assessor (accredited with Elmhurst Energy) with an MSc in Energy & Sustainable Building Design and over 20 years experience in Architecture. We are also Certified Passivhaus Consultants. Our advice and service is geared around providing solutions for our clients, helping them achieve their goals and input our significant experience to make the process easy, whilst using materials and systems that are readily available.