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Watford, just over 30 kilometres north of London, is now home to an aspirational new house, developed by an Irish company, designed to completely remove carbon emissions from the home. Jason Walsh visited the site to learn more
The house lies in the grounds of the Building Research Establishment's testing centre, a former government site, and is named the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse is Kingspan Century's mould-breaking new model for zero carbon housing.
Developed as a response to the British government's 'Building a Greener Future: Towards Zero Carbon Development' strategy, the zero carbon, 93.3m2 two-and-a-half storey two bed Lighthouse, developed by Kingspan Offsite, meets the plan's requirements for 'level six', the top tier of the plan to eliminate carbon emissions from the home.
This is quite a few years ahead of the legislation: level three calls for a 25 per cent improvement on 2006 regulations by 2010 while level four demands a 44 per cent improvement on 2006 regulations to be in place by 2013. Level six, zero carbon, is due in 2016 for private house and 2013 for social housing. Here and now in 2007 Kingspan has met level six with the Lighthouse.
But what, exactly, is a carbon neutral house? And how does the Lighthouse achieve this status?
According to the British government at least, a carbon neutral house will need to deliver zero carbon (net over the year) for all energy use in the home – cooking, washing and electronic entertainment appliances as well as space heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting and hot water.1
The Lighthouse achieves its carbon neutral status through a range of measures including higher build standards and offsetting via the use of renewable energy.
The fabric of the building is highly insulated and airtight. The high level of insulation means that the Lighthouse requires 60 per cent less heat than a traditional building of a similar size. The building is constructed using Kingspan's TEK building system based on structural insulated panels to deliver the required high levels of thermal insulation and airtightness.
A mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery keeps the house fresh and warm and photo-voltaic solar panels contribute to meeting the occupant's electricity needs.
Reliance on artificial light is reduced by designing for the provision of large amounts of daylight.
Solar thermal panels heat water for the home's owners, while water efficiency devices such as rain-water harvesting for WC use reduce waste and a wood pellet boiler provides additional space heating to the house.
PV solar panels for generating electricity are a key part of the Lighthouse's claim to carbon neutrality
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