This build was completed in 2022 and became an inspiration for the 2 Bed Ashley Plan in our High Performance Plan Range.
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When investing in a high performance home the owner wanted confidence that her home would perform as intended and she would be grateful of her investment in warmth, energy efficiency and a healthy interior. To ensure this was the case she sought us out for our expertise. We designed and built her high performance home at arguably one of the coldest locations in Canterbury.
The owner intends to fully retire here but is not quite there yet. However, despite periods away the home still manages the interior comfort well – even in the winter she arrives to a warm, fresh, healthy sanctuary.
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Structural insulated panels form the walls and ceilings of this highly insulated house, along with in-slab and slab edge insulation.
SIPs panels are extremely suited to many design features as they are extremely strong and require less bracing elements as the panels themselves can, in many cases, serve as the bracing. They can also span large distances. Whilst this house had flat ceilings, which are more cost effective, raking ceilings would be easy to achieve with this design.
The windows in this home are aluminium framed but are still thermally broken with Low E and Argon filled. Importantly they are recessed into the insulation layer to help reduce thermal bridging. Whilst the performance of uPVC would be higher, in 2021 and with less competition the cost difference between aluminium and uPVC was a lot greater than today.
Airtightness is important to ensure that the Mechanical Heat Recovery Ventilation system works optimally. These systems transfer the heat from stale outgoing air to a continuous supply of fresh incoming air, producing warmed clean filtered air for a healthy and comfortable indoor living environment. They also control allergens entering the home and manage humidity. Drier air is easier to heat so when additional heat is required it does not take long to bring the inside temperature up. Having no risk of condensation provides peace of mind.
The home is a simple rectangle, a form that is very thermally efficient. A T-shaped overall design is achieved through the placement of an attached garage off the living area. The garage is not part of the thermal and air tight envelope and is separated by a sealed poly core internal access door.
Polished concrete floors throughout the home are a key design feature, and despite the extreme temperatures experienced in the MacKenzie, the surface temperatures of these homes are intended to be the same as the air temperature so it is not as crazy a choice as might be thought.
The owner was kind enough to send us through an image of her interior monitoring on a winters day in the basin. -10 outside and despite having no heating on the inside temperature was still 18.7 celsius first thing in the morning (7.39am on 4th August 2024)! The owner did not realise it was going to get so cold and did put the 4kw heat pump on stating it did not take long to get to 20.
