Retrofit Insights: Perspectives for an emerging industry is a major report on the performance, health, comfort and employment potential of mass retrofit in the UK, as well as the deep carbon-cutting potential, based on actual case studies built and monitored with funding from the Technology Strategy Board. This important report is produced by the UCL Energy Institute for the Institute for Sustainability, with funding from the Technology Strategy Board and the European Regional Development Fund.
2 of the 8 projects (D & H) were initiated, designed and led by bere:architects using the Passivhaus approach.
The publicly-funded report needs to try to keep the projects anonymous and their statements even-handed, but right from the beginning (3.1) states “The strategy which stands out most is Passivhaus” (our 2 projects). Page 23, fig 6.1 (one of our buildings) illustrates the fact that our buildings remained cool in summer and page 24, fig 6.2 (another of our buildings) illustrates the fact that our buildings remained very warm in Winter. Warm, dry, condensation-free winter temperatures and bountiful fresh air were found to be easily and cheaply maintained in our buildings (even when unoccupied). It is well-understood that this is almost impossible to maintain 24 hours a day in an ordinary building in the UK, or even in most so-called energy-efficient new and refurbished buildings.
Almost all the graphs in the report are from the in-use performance of our two case study buildings - 6.7 shows the massive energy savings in one of our buildings, fig 6.8 shows the 100% overall level of occupant satisfaction with both of our buildings and item 10 of the conclusion singles out the potential for making our Passive House approach routine in all retrofits.
At bere:architects our years of research and practice have brought us to the point where we have embedded the processes necessary to produce beautiful buildings that perform brilliantly.