Saffron
Acres is a social housing development in Leicester that is set to be
the largest affordable Passive House scheme in the country. Playing
an integral role in this Passive House attainment is the high
performance range of MVHR units from Airflow Developments, which
allow for maximum air tightness levels, whilst ensuring residents
live in healthy and energy efficient homes.
Built
on a former derelict allotment site belonging to Leicester City
Council, Saffron Acres is a 13-acre affordable housing scheme
situated off Whittier Road and Heathcott Road in Leicester. Sold for
the nominal fee of £1 to emh homes with a view that the housebuilder
and appointed property developer Westleigh provide affordable living
to the area, the development will predominantly comprise of
semi-detached houses, as well as four one-bedroom flats and two
bungalows - with the total 68 dwellings attaining to Passive House
standards.
Passive
House buildings must provide a high level of occupant comfort while
using minimum energy for heating and cooling. As such, the dwellings
at Saffron Acres are being designed to optimum thermal efficiency and
exceptional air tightness. This will ensure residents will not use
excessive energy heating their homes - reducing fuel bills and
mitigating the risk of fuel poverty.
Giovanni
Corbo, Business Development Manager at Westleigh commented:
“Leicester City Council challenged Westleigh and emh homes to
provide an exemplar development, so it was logical to choose Passive
House as the standard we wanted to achieve. Airflow and D.R.
Ventilation have proved invaluable by helping us to select the
appropriate Passive House approved MVHR system and design duct
layouts that can easily be accommodated and installed within our
dwellings.”
To
achieve a Passive House build and meet airtightness criteria, each
dwelling at Saffron Acres cannot exceed 0.6
air changes per hour at 50 Pascals pressure (ACH50). As a result,
Passive House consultants Encraft were employed by Westleigh to help
deliver the accreditation, and specified industry leaders Airflow
Developments’ state-of-the-art DUPLEXVENT
Professional
Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) units.
“We
need to use Passive House certified units because otherwise you
receive a penalty when you undertake the energy modelling,” said Dr
Sarah Price, Senior Consultant at Encraft. “Airflow’s DV96SE unit
is ideal because it has a 100% effective summer bypass mode, which
allows cool air in automatically in the summer; a post-heater that
provides 50% of the space heating and frost protection integrated so
the unit doesn’t freeze in the winter.”
Jason
Bennett, Specifications Manager at Airflow continues: “An
effective MVHR unit is capable of extracting harmful indoor air
pollutants and providing fresh, healthy air whilst
recovering
valuable heat energy. When designing eco-friendly,
affordable homes like the ones at Saffron Acres it is imperative that
exemplary - preferably Passive House approved – MVHR units are
specified to help achieve optimum build standards, maximise internal
comfort levels and reduce energy wastage.”
When
attaining to Passive House construction standards there are multiple
challenges to overcome. Therefore it is critical that a company with
the knowledge and experience of how to install MVHR units on a
Passive House is appointed as a contractor early on in the
conceptualisation stages. As Mark Phillips, National Sales Manager at
D.R. Ventilation concludes: “an MVHR system is only as good as its
install.”
To
view the full video case study visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8fMprlKHos
For
further information on Airflow’s MVHR systems and ventilation
products visit: www.airflow.com
