Development Corporation's 'Upside Down, Energy
Efficient House'
By Tim Cotter
November 2003
The popularity of energy-efficient house design is
growing in the Falklands with measures introduced in a number of new homes
in the East Stanley Development. The low energy house at 8 Biggs
Road was a Falkland Islands Development Corporation (FIDC) initiative,
designed to test a number of features that could be encompassed within a
reasonable house building budget.
It is a large house with four bedrooms (one en-suite)
and a bathroom downstairs. Upstairs there is a separate kitchen,
lounge and dining room, utility room, toilet, sunroom and study. It
was not a standard design but one based on a range of ideas. The
building was completed in 2000 at a cost of £88,365 excluding carpets,
curtains, furniture and the price of the land.
The house has a number of energy saving features which
were incorporation from observations of building use and members of the
Energy Advisory Committee, especially the then Building Adviser Graham
France. These include:-
Cross-quilted loft insulation (2 x 100mm) to reduce
heat lost in gaps and thermal bridges
A build tight philosophy, especially where services
enter the building
Insulated internal drain vent pipe. This feature
is often forgotten but can introduce cold spots in bathrooms and toilets
causing condensation and mould as well as energy loss.
The house would be as cubical as possible. This
means the building has a high volume to external surface area ratio.
This has the effect of reducing the external heat loss from conduction
while maximising on internal volume.
The habitation is upside down with the living
accommodation upstairs and the sleeping accommodation downstairs to take
advantage of heat distribution by convection. It is recommended that
a bedroom temperature be no more than 18C whereas the living accommodation
should be 21C. This is a difficult balance to achieve with a
conventional two-storey house design but inverting the floor use helps
solve this problem.
East-west
orientation and sunroom with roof lights to maximise on passive solar
gain.
Solar thermal hot
water heating. The Thermomax panel cost £1,600 with a further
£1,400 labour costs for its installation. A double coil hot
water cylinder has been used. The kerosene boiler heats the
upper coil, and the Thermomax solar panel heats the lower coil.
On a hot day, the solar panel will heat all the water in the
tank. Even on a day with a low solar gain, the colder water at
the bottom of the tank is partially heated by the solar panel leaving
the kerosene boiler to top u the heating. The Thermomax solar
panel is reputed to be the most efficient on the market and is the
only solar panel used in Antarctica. However, the cost
effectiveness of the solar thermal heating is difficult to measure and
has not been fully evaluated.
A number of standard
energy-saving features, including wall and floor insulation,
thermostatic radiator valves, programmable thermostat, double-glazing
with low E-glass, good quality door seals and low energy lighting
The central heating
is powered by a kerosene pressure jet boiler on the first floor some
two metres above the fuel tank. A track has been made of oil
consumption and this equates to around £1,000 per year which is on a
par with a smaller 3-bedroom Brewster bungalow (a popular house design
in the Falkland Islands, dating from the immediate post-1982
reconstruction period) so it represents a significant energy saving
Annual electricity
consumption is around £360 per annum, which is lower than would be
expected for a house of this size. The low energy Class A
freezer is a major contributor towards this low electricity
bill. Typically freezers (and refrigerators) are the largest
consumers of energy in the house.
All internal pipe
work is insulated and plumbing runs were kept as short as possible for
two main reasons (1) cold water pipes absorb heat from the house; they
will also cause condensation when in contact with warm damp air (2)
hot water pipes will lose heat; excessive pipe lengths require cold
water to be run off before delivering hot water and the retained hot
water after use is wasteful
A key aspect in the
house is the use of a programmable thermostat to control the central
heating instead of a separate timing programmer and wall
thermostat. The programmable thermostat operates to preset
temperatures at different times of the day. This means that on
hot days, the heating doesn't come on but can operate on cold
nights. It can be overridden but reverts to the programme after
a suitable time. This improves the flexibility and economy of
the heating system. These devices are commercially available for
around the same price as a thermostat and timer.
The quality of build has
resulted in a trouble free house that appears to save energy when compared
to traditional and some more modern houses. It offers comfortable
accommodation with a good level of natural light and ambience. It is
not possible to focus on one particular feature as being paramount as it
is thought all the details played a part. None of the additional
factors were over complex, extravagant or expensive. The
construction costs were no more than expected for a house of this size,
and no specialist labour was required. Comfort has not been
sacrificed to save energy.
It is impossible to be
completely objective as there is no definitive base line or typical energy
costs from which to make a comparison because there are so many different
types of houses in the Falkland Islands. Performance seems slightly
better than a Brewster house but it is apparent that some of them are
unnecessarily drafty. Energy costs are very variable and will depend
on personal habits, occupation level and at what temperature people
consider themselves warm.
Stanley resident Tom
Chater who recently constructed a house with the living area upstairs
agreed with the obvious reasons for building such a house, in particular
the heating advantages. However, he added "It improves your
view if you have houses in front of you and increases the privacy of your
living room as people walking and driving by cannot look straight in on
your life."
Our thanks to author Tim Cotter for allowing us to republish this
article which originally appeared in Penguin News
