UK - passivehouseplus.ie

The UK’s Passivhaus Trust has announced the finalists for its 2014 Passivhaus Awards, which are sponsored by Saint-Gobain.

West Midlands-based independent consulting engineers Encraft have organised a passive house conference in Birmingham on 30 May 2014. The event, featuring some of the leading speakers and projects in this emerging area, is supported by Climate KIC, Passivhaus Trust and Passive House Plus magazine.

Kensa Heat Pumps has announced Lord Taylor of Goss Moor as its new chairman. According to Kensa the peer's appointment will be instrumental in the Cornish company’s growth as the UK’s leading supplier of ground source heat pumps.

Four industry leaders will launch their drive for better retrofit standards across the UK at Ecobuild next week with a pledge to assure the post-retrofit performance of traditional solid wall buildings.

A new 100kW solar photovoltaic system is helping to cut carbon emissions at the Snowmountain Enterprises cold storage warehouse in Cambridgeshire. 

The Universiy of Leicester Centre for Medicine will become the UK's largest non domestic passive house building when it is completed in 2015. 

RainWater Harvesting Ltd has announce that both its direct feed and award winning gravity-fed Rain Director system have achieved Water Regulation Advisory Scheme approval, ensuring that they comply to all UK regulations.

A virtual, online green building trade fair will take place across Europe on 18 and 19 February 2014. 

The Lancaster Cohousing development of 41 certified passive homes, featured in issue four of Passive House Plus, has been announced as the winner of the UK National Self Build Association's Murray Armour Award. This comes on the back of the project picking up the social/group housing prize at the 2013 Passivhaus Trust awards.

The UK's largest passive house scheme, developed by the Broadland Housing Group and designed by Ingleton Wood architects, has been approved for a brownfield site in Norwich.

Ed Miliband has said that the UK will build 200,000 homes per year if Labour gets into government, while promising to make the UK a “world-leading green economy." If such assertions are mutually exclusive, then they must be treated as hollow rhetoric, indistinguishable from David Cameron’s husky hugging stunt and unfulfilled pledge to lead the “greenest government ever.”

The pioneering passive house retrofit of a derelict farm building to create a visitor and education centre at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's Stirley Community Farm, Huddersfield, is nearing completion and will be open to the public on Sunday, 1 September 2013 from 11am to 3pm.

The winners of the 2013 UK Passivhaus Awards were announced last Thursday at a ceremony at the residence of the Austrian Ambassador in London.

Predicted energy usage seldom reflect actual consumption, whether in the case of typical stock or notionally low energy buildings. But how well does passive house turn theory into reality?

The Passivhaus Trust is calling for entries to the second UK Passivhaus Awards – the only dedicated awards for passive house in the UK, with a focus on as-built performance. The deadline for applications is 15 May 2013.

Roof window manufacturer Fakro has announced the award of a Passive House Institute certificate for its quadruple-glazed FTT U8 Thermo roof window, which has a U-value of 0.58.

The passive house standard may be growing in popularity, but the UK could struggle to follow Germany’s lead and build large numbers of passive homes because of its different social, political and financial drivers and general attitudes, according to a report published by the NHBC Foundation.

Baumit will showcase an "innovative" new external thermal insulation technology on 5-7 March at EcoBuild 2013 in Excel, London. The Baumit OPEN external wall insulation (EWI) system is a thin coat render system for solid wall construction.

With the deadline fast approaching, the bulk of the editorial content for our inaugural UK edition has been confirmed. Curiosity getting the better of you? The following issue overview may make the anticipation unbearable…

Professor Wolfgang Feist has been awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects. The award ceremony took place on 6 February.

Welcome to the website of Passive House Plus, an award winning magazine about building and upgrading to the highest standards of energy efficiency, health, comfort and sustainability. At the time of writing the site has been published as a beta version, and can be viewed on PCs, laptops or tablets, with formatting for smart phones set to follow imminently. 

Velux has warned that if the British government's 'green deal' fails to win the confidence of consumers it could be a "kick in the teeth" for the energy efficiency retrofit market. The green deal will allow homeowners to pay for energy upgrades via loans paid back through their energy bills. 

Construct Ireland is to be renamed Passive House Plus, with separate editions published for the Irish and UK markets.

The first issue of Passive House Plus will be published as an Ireland only edition in October, with separate Irish and UK editions set to be published early in 2013.

Leading Irish timber frame manufacturer Cygnum is launching a pioneering closed low embodied carbon panelised building system that integrates cellulose insulation.

The Precision system has been developed by the company to drive down the costs of a building system that’s becoming increasingly popular due to its thermal performance, healthiness and low environmental impact.

Environmental groups have criticised the EU's new Energy Efficiency Directive for failing to mandate member states to make big energy savings over the next decade.

According to the European Commission, the plan will deliver 20% energy savings across the union by 2020. However, Friends of the Earth said the directive would "not make savings to the extent promised, or on the scale needed to fight climate change".

The energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, has announced details of a "green loans" scheme to help people pay for improvements to their homes to make them more energy efficient.

The scheme, which would see loans remain attached to the house where insulation, solar panels or other green technology was installed, aims to overcome the financial barriers and upfront costs people face when trying make their homes greener.