28 unit passive house scheme completed on Isle of Wight

 All of the homes on Cameron Close have been built with 500mm thick external walls, have triple-glazed windows, a ventilation system with heat recovery, and low capacity condensing boilers to provide hot water and minimal topup space heating. The family houses feature front and back gardens, the apartments have landscaped kitchen gardens and the entire site has been designed to encourage a cohesive community.

Alan Townshend, development director at Southern Housing Group, said: “We decided to make Cameron Close a passive house development as it best meets the group’s sustainability objectives[…].

“Given the current focus on sustainable housing on the Isle of Wight, we decided to take the opportunity to redevelop one of the Group’s existing sheltered housing schemes. We moved our current residents to a new modern sheltered housing scheme, Whitmore Court, that best met their needs and used the existing site to create these environmentally friendly family homes.

“The Isle of Wight Council supported our approach and provided us with some supplementary funding to help us achieve the passive house standard.

“As part of our aim to provide sustainable tenures, the group is always looking at how we can improve the quality of the homes we provide, so not only does this fabric-first approach provide an environmentally friendly solution for building these homes, it will also give the residents of Cameron Close significant and long-term savings on their energy bills.

“Our initial estimation is that the entire scheme could save up to £25,000 a year in energy costs, with some residents being able to save up to £900 in a three-bedroom home.” The development is currently awaiting passive house certification. The group is carrying out detailed post-occupancy monitoring, in association with passive house consultancy Warm, to study the performance of the houses.