Building eco-friendly timber frame houses

Setting the standard for eco-friendly and sustainable living

Not that all Visit England assessed properties need to be fitted with the highest standards of heat recovery and ventilation, but when our Managing Director Tim Crump was having our Show Home designed, he figured what with 99% of the visitors being future self-builders he was going to make sure that their experience of living there was going to be full of possibilities and options for what they could achieve with their own oak frame home.

Our Heat Recovery System

The Villavent Mechanical Ventillation Heat Recovery (MVHR) system at our Show Home works quite simply by extracting the air from the ‘polluted’ sources e.g. kitchen, bathroom, toilets and utility room and supplying air to the ‘living’ rooms e.g. bedrooms, living rooms, study etc. The extracted air is taken through a central heat exchanger and heat is recovered into the supply air. This works both ways, if the air temperature inside the building is colder than the outside air temperature then the cool environment is maintained in the building.

Achieving Airtightness to Passivhaus levels

An MVHR system ensures high air quality in very airtight buildings, whilst also conserving energy by recovering heat from extracted air and transferring it to the incoming air. In ultra-low energy buildings like Passivhaus, the level of efficiency of this heat recovery is very important.

Although MVHR could be installed in any building, there is a rule of thumb that its use is not justified unless the airtightness of the thermal envelope is at or below 3 air changes per hour when tested at 50 Pascal (equivalent approximately to 3 m3/m2.h @ 50 Pa for average dwellings). If this level of airtightness is not achieved then alternative strategies to ventilation are more appropriate.

Our SIPs panels – Encapsulation Systems for Oak Framed Houses

Through our WrightWall and WrightRoof encapsulated panel systems, an airtightness of less than 3 air changes per hour at 50 Pascals can be achieved. As we proved in 2017 when an Oak Frame Passivhaus in the UK was no longer a dream and it became a reality for Dr and Mrs Garnett. Read their story here.

For more information, contact our team by clicking here, calling 01432 353 353 or emailing enquiries@configurator-oakwrights.nzi.me