Passfield Drive showing No 3 in the centre of the picture with lighter coloured render over the external insulation.

On a recent visit to Passfield Drive the house was noticeably warmer than it was at this time last year.  On the visit the Muhammads said that they have not yet needed to put any heating on.  Mr Muhammad noted that the Bangladeshi meals which Mrs Muhammad prepares at least once daily are enough to keep the house warm throughout the day. This clearly shows that the Muhammads are already benefitting from the Passivhaus energy saving measures employed in the retrofit.

Previous to the retrofit the Muhammads would have opened windows to expel the steam that the frequent cooking produces. With Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV) in place the Muhammad’s are now able to expel this steam and smells from the cooking without losing valuable heat. The HRV unit has an easy to activate boost function which can be turned on for short periods whilst cooking.  The HRV system has the added benefit of being a lot quieter than most cooker hoods.

Temperature monitors within the house show that internal temperatures are remaining at around 22°C throughout the day and night. From the perspective of comfort this is good but it is surprising as we would not expect the temperatures to remain this warm throughout the night.  We are in the process of further analysing the monitoring data of the solar thermal system and will post more information here at a later date. We are also looking forward to soon being able to access gas, electricity and water monitoring data. Having access to this data will increase our understanding of the energy use of the post retrofit property.

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