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Photo. SEArch. 21TS – Front and Rear Elevations Pre-Adaptation

Pre Adaptation Condition

21 The Street is a two storey, end terrace house with an original floor area of 72m2 and located in the Norfolk village of Ringland tow miles west of Norwich (Latitude North 52 degrees 39 minutes, Longitude 1 degree 12 minutes). It was constructed in the 1930’s, is of typical construction with nine inch loadbearing brick external solid walls, corbelled brick foundations, a raised collar timber roof and clay pantiles. Internally a quarry tiled floor, no membranes or insulation, brick internal walls, lime plaster and ceilings of lathe and plaster.

Space and water heating were provided by a solid fuel burner with combined backboiler, built into the chimney breast and the property is appropriately referred to as ‘a hard to heat, hard to treat’ building.

Floor Plans. SEArch. 21TS – Pre-Adaptation

Post Adaptation Construction Work

Photo. SEArch. GTB Ringland – Front and Rear Elevations Post-Adaptation

Adapting the building fabric to achieve the aspirational performance standards, comprised modifying fenestration, enveloping the external walls with insulation and increasing the buildings thermal capacity.

These modifications facilitate an increase in solar gains, reduce the buildings rate of heat transmittance and moderates internal ambient temperature fluctuations. As a result, the building’s heating load requirement is reduced while sunlight and daylight levels inside are elevated.

These techniques are explained in more detail;-

Floor Plans. SEArch. GTB Ringland

Fenestration Modification

Rearrangement of windows to the south assists in optimising available passive solar heat gains while reductions in glazing to the north reduces heat losses. A 50% reduction in north glazing combined with the higher specification replacement glass (24mm low–E double glazing), reduced the heat transmittance through the north windows collectively from 34 W/K to 11 W/K

This is a 68% reduction in the rate of heat loss from the north windows alone.

Insulated Envelope

1. Increased thermal mass
2. Reduced thermal-bridging
3. Enhanced aesthetic

By adding external insulation the buildings’ average U-Value reduced from 2.24W/m2K by 83% to 0.39W/m2K.

Effective Thermal Mass

The properties thermal mass only marginally increased by 9% from 50.86 MJ/K to 67.59 MJ/K

However, the effectiveness of that mass in the thermal performance of the post adapted property is quite different from the role played by the mass of the property in its original state. In its pre-adapted condition, the absence of any insulation to the perimeter of the solid external walls and any below the ground floor slab meant that both building elements would have been instrumental in cooling the building during the winter heating season and during the summer nights.

This differs, in the post adapted building where the externally insulated walls and floor are performing the role of a heat reservoir, making a positive contribution to moderating internal ambient air temperatures throughout the year, for both heating and cooling.

Other adaptation techniques:-

• natural ventilation – cross and stack
  Passive stack vents are installed in the kitchen, utility, and bathroom. A passive cross ventilation regime is possible by virtue of the building layout enabling the residents to induce passive cross-ventilation through the movement of air across the building from the south side to the north side by opening windows, doors or vents.
• solar water heating
  A flat-plate solar water heating collector (5.2m2) is built onto the south- facing roof, supplementing hot water heating costs and subsequent demand for electricity from the grid. It is estimated that annuall, 1,433kWhrs of heating energy could be replaced at a cost of £229.28 with a concomitant reduction in CO2 of 803kg CO2
• photovoltaic’s (PV’s)
  A total area of 7.2m2 of monochrystaline pv roof panels, are to be fitted to the south roof slope, rated at 1.26kW peak they are predicted to deliver 1,050kWhrsof electricity per year displacing 590Kg CO2 annually.
• rainwater harvesting
  Rainwater collected from the roof is stored in a proprietary water tank (1100 litres capacity).
• underfloor heating
  A thermostatically controlled, low-grade electric underfloor heating system is embedded in the concrete floor slab. In the absence of a central heating boiler there is no pipe-work, radiators, switch-gear, boilers, flues, fuel and none of the associated emissions.