Vivid Green » low energy building

Remote worker award winner moves in to prize office

Russell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:48:36 +0000

Last September Amanda Farren of Ella Announcements won one of our garden offices in the 2009 Remote Worker awards and last month she moved in to her new premises. The office has given 22 year old Amanda much needed additional space as she juggles caring for her three young children and building her business. Amanda said: “It’s great to have our dining room back! Being able to keep the house for the family has been an enormous benefit and I love being able to work in the office and watch my children playing in the garden“. Vivid Green Director, Neil Johnston said “The design works really well with lots of light from the large windows and glazed door and a good view of the garden and house. Also, the installation is a good example of the benefit a garden building offers to separate work from home”. Ella Announcements is run by Amanda, a work-at-home mum to 3 young children from her home in Coventry, where she juggles everything from designing and printing, to hoovering and laundry, with several lunch stops, nappy changes and school runs (4 a day!) in between. www.ellaannouncements.com/

Standard designs and ‘bare board’ reduce investment in insulated garden buildings

Russell — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:32:34 +0000

Standard designs at a discount All of our insulated garden buildings to date have been bespoke but, in recognition that there is a significant cost saving if customers choose a design that we have already built, we are now offering some of our designs at a discount of 10-15%. The other option we are offering is ‘self completion’ or ‘bare board’. We install the insulated garden building, complete with roof membrane, external cladding, windows and doors and customers put in the electrics, internal plasterboard, heating and decoration. For those with the time and capability this offers a further 15-20% saving. In both cass the buildings are just as well insulated as our bespoke designs with the same quality of materials and workmanship. Prices below exclude VAT and are for installation within 100 miles of Harpenden. Call for prices beyond and for detailed specification.

Edden: 2.4x 2.4m; £6,500 complete, £4,700 bare board

Jaray: 4 x 3m; £13,500 complete, £11,500 bare board

Moore: 5 x 2.7m; £14,400 complete, £12,200 bare board

Collier: 6 x 3m; £17,800 complete, £15,320 bare board

McClelland: 3 x 3m; £12,100 complete, £9,900 bare board

Rawlings: 3.2 x 3m; £11,700 complete, £9,500 bare board

Wikinson: 5 x 5m; £23,000 complete, £19,800 bare board

Fowkes: 6 x 3m; £13,500 complete, £11,000 bare board

Russell — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:05:58 +0000

Recent builds

Insulated garden office with verandah

We recently completed this insulated garden office in our home town of Harpenden. With a hipped roof clad in cedar shingles and a verrandah for the client to hang his hammock, the office provides a good sized work space away from the clients two young chindren. Although the building required planning permission because it is higher than the 2.5m limit, this was readily granted. With 120mm of insulation in the roof and our standard 100mm thick walls and floor, the office has been very warm even during the recent cold. External cladding is vertical cedar and the decking is larch. The photo is not great but we shall be taking more if and when the we see the sun again.

Building performance

Neil — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:11:28 +0000

There are many claims for green buildings but how do you know which ones really mean something? As a scientist I look for evidence particularly in relation to a recognised standard. We claim that our garden offices, studios and workshops are low energy because we design them to at least achieve the standard of insulation required for new housing as defined in Part L of the Buuilding Regulations. Most clients opt for the Penthouse 100 spec but some are persuaded by the higher level of comfort and reduced heating costs from adopting the higher Penthouse 150 spec.

specifications

	Penthouse 150		Penthouse 100		Bdg regs standards¹	Typical Garden Office/Room
	Thickness	U value² Wm^-²/K	Thickness	U value² Wm^-²/K	U value² Wm^-²/K	Thickness	U value² Wm^-²/K
Roof insulation	153mm	0.14	128mm	0.17	0.16 – 0.25	45mm	0.57
Wall insulation	128mm	0.17	78mm	0.28	0.30 – 0.35	45mm	0.57
Floor insulation	100mm	0.22	100mm	0.22	0.22 – 0.25	0	1.20
Windows/doors	-	1.15 pane	-	1.15 pane	1.8 – 2.0	-	-
	-	1.80 frame	-	1.80 frame	-	-	1.90 frame

¹ Building Regulations Part L 2002

² U value calculation: BRE U value calculation version 1.08. Calculation method: BS EN ISO 6946

For larger buildings there are several standards which are worth considering.

http://www.breeam.org/

The Government issued the Code for Sustainable Homes last year which, as the name suggests, relates to housing with Level 3 the minimum required for publicly funded housing and Level 6 the aspirational goal.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/buildingregulations/legislation/englandwales/codesustainable/

Finally and, in my view, most relevantly, there is the system being promoted by the Association of Environmentally Conscious Builders (AECB). This is very simple to understand with both a prescriptive and performance based approach and plenty of practical advice on how to use the standards. Essentially Silver should be the minimum to which anyone considers building with the Gold standard somewhat higher in performance than even the German Passiv Haus standard.

http://www.carbonlite.org.uk/carbonlite/

Whether you adopt one of these standards as a goal in its own right or use the guidance as a way of improving an existing design, the benefits can be significant. As with all building, incorporating energy saving measures at an early stage in the design is far easier than adaptation or retrofit in the future. And, in most cases, the premium can be as low as 5-15% of the capital cost for a lifetime of savings.