| CASE
STUDY |
Essex
Disability Adult Community College |
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| |
| LOCATION |
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Rochford |
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“The high performance of Perimeter
Plus made Knauf Insulation’s blow-in system the ideal choice for
this particular project due to the stringent criteria. Being
quick and clean to install with excellent coverage the product
further supported the specification.”
Andy Simmonds, Partner at Simmonds.Mills
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PRODUCTS USED |
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Perimeter Plus |
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INSTALLER |
|
Miller Pattison |
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PROJECT SPECIFICATION |
|
Passivhaus |
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CHALLENGE
The Essex Disability Adult Community College in Rochford is a
pioneering eco- building built to the Passivhaus Standard, and
predicted to operate using only approximately 5 per cent of a
traditional building’s energy costs. As a result the project
required stringent U-values and environmental standards.
Originally a competitor’s cellulose blown system was specified,
but following a need to further reduce the heat losses from walls
and roofs to keep the building safely within the parameters of the
Passivhaus Standard, and without increasing the thickness of the
walls, the specification was switched to Knauf Insulation’s unique
and innovative offering - Perimeter Plus™. This system provided the
excellent R values (thermal resistance values) required - 10.00m 2
K/W in the walls and 12.85m 2 K/W in the roof.
SOLUTION
The BBA certified product was installed by Miller Pattison who
regularly use Knauf Insulation’s products. The project required
240m 2 of Perimeter Plus blown into 350mm void areas between
Larsen Truss Walls, which had previously been sheeted up as per the
specification. In addition, 755m 2 of Perimeter Plus was
blown into a 450mm void area between the roof’s I beams on the two
blocks of the disability centre.
Richard Boyd, CEO at Essex Disability comments: “We wanted to
ensure the building’s energy consumption was extremely low, wasting
as little energy as possible. Utility and energy bills can be a
drain on a charity’s resources, so we wanted to have a building
that had minimal associated costs and created 95 per cent less CO2
than a similar ‘average UK stock’ building - performing at the top
rating for the Code for Sustainable Homes.” The project also drew
on strategic and detailed ‘CarbonLite’ guidance provided by the
AECB – the Association for Environment Conscious Building.
Perimeter Plus is a patented, specialist, high performance loose
glass mineral wool, that is designed to be blown into timber frame
walls from the interior during construction. Perimeter Plus has
optimal thermal properties and excellent coverage and blowing
characteristics. The product is blown in behind translucent
netting, which gives visual assurance of a quality installation in
every area.
The advantage of Perimeter Plus is its ability to compress
around pipes, wiring and other services and fittings, ensuring a
complete fill, thereby maximising thermal and acoustic performance
as well as fast installation of wide cavities. Unlike other blown
insulation systems, Perimeter Plus does not require adhesives or
additional moisture meaning that working even in a cluttered
internal environment does not present a problem, and there is are
no associated settlement problems. Plus, there is zero waste and no
need to allow additional time for cleaning up of the working
area.
The build for the charitable disability centre was for
‘Exceptional Energy Performance and Sustainability’, which required
the building to be constructed using locally sourced and
sustainable resources including recycled materials. In addition to
the fundamental and more cost effective measures, such as
dramatically minimised heat loss, high levels of passive solar gain
and design to minimise overheating risks, the project also made use
of of renewable energy, through the installation of a solar
pholtaic system mounted on the large ‘solar pergola’ and solar
thermal tubes on the building’s roof.
Images courtesy of Green Building Store
