Five families have toured VELUX’s CarbonLight Homes in Northamptonshire with a view to being the first to trial the company’s innovative carbon neutral home design in the UK.
VELUX will recruit two local families later this month to live in the three and four bedroom semi-detached homes with the first family set to move in before Christmas for an 18 month period.
Architect HTA will monitor carbon emissions and atmospheric conditions while the test families will provide qualitative feedback by uploading blogs and video diaries to the VELUX website.
All of the findings will be made available to the industry and help inform the future of sustainable home design that balances energy efficiency and occupant health and wellbeing. The second test family will move in next spring for a 12 month period.
Keith Riddle, Managing Director of VELUX, commented: “The proof of the pudding is in the eating and the monitoring and feedback programme we are embarking on at the CarbonLight Homes will determine whether we have achieved the rigorous energy standards and comfort levels we set out to at design stage.
“With post construction testing likely to become standard for all new homes built in the UK in the near future there is much we and the industry can expect to learn over the next 18 months that will contribute to making future new homes even more attractive places to live.”
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by the VELUX Group as part of its strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is its vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live, through use of daylight and fresh air. The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles, referred to as Active House.
The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate-neutral.
Mdel Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. The two experiments in Denmark were built in a partnership between the VELUX Group and VELFAC. Each of the Model Home projects was implemented in close cooperation with local and regional partners, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers.
The CarbonLight Homes have been designed and built to the new Government definition of zero carbon. They are intended to be real homes for real people, which use nature in an intelligent way to maximise daylight and encourage a sustainable lifestyle.
The design is open plan and incorporates high levels of daylight and natural ventilation in order to minimise energy consumption among residents and generate a sense of community. The homes show that common-sense design can be used to create inspirational sustainable houses that can be easily replicated by the UK’s volume house builders.
The CarbonLight Homes were developed in a strategic partnership between the VELUX Group, HTA Architects, Kettering Borough Council, Willmott Dixon and the North Northants Development Company, WindowMaster, VELFAC, Drexel and Weiss and Sonnenkraft supplied the products for the house.
The CarbonLight Homes are one of six buildings in Europe to be constructed by the VELUX Group as part of the Model Home 2020 experiment.
