July 2023. Councillor Wilson attended an event in Halton marking the completion of a twenty-home affordable Passive House (PH) building development called Lune Walk. The project was run by the South Lakes Housing Association, in partnership with the Lune Valley Community Land Trust, whose chair Charles Ainger cut the celebratory ribbon.
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Passive Houses are built to the highest standards of floor, wall and roof insulation, with triple-glazed windows. Doors and windows are perfectly sealed, as are other possible leakage points such as entry holes for pipes, ducts and cables, so the house needs only tiny amounts of heat to keep it warm in cold weather – provided at Lune Walk by air-source heat pumps. Passive houses are virtually airtight, so fresh air is provided by a mechanical ventilation unit which sucks in air from outside and blows out stale air from inside via a heat exchanger – the outgoing warm air heats the incoming cold air, and very little heat is lost.
Are Passive Houses more expensive to build? Yes, but the difference compared with building to current minimum standards is less than 10%, and decreasing as demand grows for PH materials. With energy costs likely to increase in the long term, Passive Houses could repay the extra build cost very quickly. So why are leaky houses still being built to inadequate government-mandated standards? As part of Lancaster’s effort to fight global heating, planners want to set the bar higher (though still short of PH) but government inspectors are blocking any deviation from national policy. Click here to make a representation in support of Lancaster’s position – takes two minutes!
Guest speaker Professor Mike Berners-Lee of Lancaster University reminded us in his talk why housing standards matter. The world had just experienced its hottest-ever June, and its hottest-ever day; these are not just blips, but a trend. Action is promised, feeble efforts follow, but the trend is inexorable. Housing accounts for around 20% of UK carbon emissions, yet efforts to stop the planet heating are blocked so that energy-wasting houses can be cheaply built.
The open market value for shared ownership (with the housing association) of a 3-bed Lune Walk Passive House? £270,000