Sustainable Bristol

Can a hundred year old Bristol property become a PassivHaus?

Posted on 03 August 2010

The Re-habit retrofit project in Bristol is part of the £17m Retrofit for the Future programme launched by the Technology Strategy Board in 2009.

Focusing on the existing social housing stock, the programme seeks to identify 50 prototype whole dwelling solutions, to deliver significant cuts in energy use and carbon emissions, while also providing high levels of comfort and affordable running costs.

The Bristol Re-habit team has selected a typical “2-up 2-down” Victorian terraced property, based in the Easton area of Bristol, which will be used as supported housing for homeless families.

Re-habit has two distinct, but intrinsically linked, aims:  The first aim is to deliver the required cuts in energy use by focusing on the building fabric, structure and energy systems; the second aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of occupant behaviour and psychology, identifying technologies and processes that facilitate low carbon lifestyles and decision-making. 

Combining these two approaches, our objective is to deliver system solutions which address all aspects of carbon emission reductions in the home, while also establishing the potential for cost-effective, large-scale replication of the refurbishment project.

Adopting strategies developed by the PassivHaus system, we aim to:  

• significantly reduce fabric u-values for walls, floors, windows and the roof; 

• provide a ventilation system with two modes:  in winter air is extracted through the bathrooms and kitchen and supplied to the bedroom and living room through a very efficient mechanical ventilation heat recovery unit; in summer the existing chimney stacks in bedrooms and living room are used as passive stack ventilation, by opening  manually adjustable vents.  The mechanical ventilation system is set to by-pass mode and extracts from the kitchen and bathroom only, on demand, and  controlled by a manual controller and humidistat.

• develop an active roof model that creates opportunities for increased natural light, regardless of building orientation; and

• integrate appropriate renewable technologies to support the provision of hot water and/or renewable electricity generation. 

 Re-habit has now successfully reached the second stage of the programme.

The team, led by Bristol-based White Design  and the Self Help Community Housing Association along with Forum for the Future and other retrofit partners, is one of 87 groups in the UK who have successfully come through the first stage to secure further funding to implement these design proposals.

The Bristol retrofit team was drawn together to ensure that the project has the wide range of skills and experience to deliver the project’s aims. Key partners include; Forum for the Future, Sustain, Sustrans, ROK and Arup.  

By considering the significant social challenges faced by people on low incomes and their potential disengagement with low carbon living, our scheme aims to investigate how we can incorporate simple, robust, yet effective sustainable technologies which will encourage supported housing residents to engage with low carbon lifestyles.

For further information please visit the project website  or email - mail@white-design.co.uk