Passivhaus in the UK: the Challenges of an Emerging Market a Case Study of Innovation Using Mixed Methods Research
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UCL Passivhaus in the UK: The Challenges of an Emerging Market A Case Study of Innovation using Mixed Methods Research Henrietta Lynch I would like to thank everybody who has helped me with this thesis. Personal Statement Henrietta has a multi-disciplinary built environment design background. She has degree and masters level academic qualifications in Fine Art, Architecture, Lighting Design and Environmental Design and Engineering. During her career she has worked with designers, architects and engineers in the UK and Germany. In addition to this she has also taught in UK higher education as a visiting lecturer at the University of Westminster, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (SABE), University College London (UCL) and as a lecturer at The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) and at the University of Hertfordshire. 1 ‘The principle lesson perhaps being that, while it is all too easy for me to carp on about what is wrong with the Passivhaus standard, or why it is not quite the dog’s bollocks (try translating that!), they have built loads of them. And the more they build, the less theoretical it becomes and the more practical it appears. Whereas we may be full of good intentions, the Germans (and the Austrians, who seem to be even more enamoured of Passivhaus than the Germans) have now built around 6,000’ (Brinkley, 2007) 2 Abstract In 2006 the UK government announced policy intentions and introduced associated building design standards and up-dated Building Regulations for all new housing to be ‘zero carbon’ by 2016 and all new non-domestic buildings to be ‘zero carbon’ by 2019. Since this time the UK build standard for ‘zero carbon’ compliance for housing is the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) and the pre-existing, but evolving, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) is the standard for non- domestic buildings. These standards have been developed by the UK government in conjunction with BRE and other industry consultants to allow building designers to introduce incremental changes to the energy design performance of their buildings. These include for the use of higher levels of insulation (leading towards super insulated fabric design), the use of on-site renewable energy technologies and eventually ‘allowable’ off-site low energy and renewable energy technology solutions to achieve ‘zero carbon’ buildings. Since the introduction of these policy intentions and standards, the UK building design and construction industry has debated both their validity and the actual definition of ‘zero carbon’, with some believing that a ‘fabric first’ approach to housing and building design using standards such as the German Passivhaus to be a more effective and simpler way to deliver ‘zero carbon’ new buildings in the UK. Despite the fact that many of the technologies leading to the development of the first super-insulated house designs and eventually the Passivhaus standard originated in the USA and UK, (culminating in the construction of a number of exemplar super-insulated homes in these countries from the 1970’s), the Passivhaus standard is currently less well known, accepted or understood in the UK than in Norhern Europe. The technology is however beginning to gain credence with a small but growing number of early adopters in the UK. 3 With a focus on these early Passivhaus adopters, this thesis seeks to identify barriers to the uptake of the Passivhaus standard at the time of this research. The research has been conducted using social science mixed methods research, including for the use of the psychometric assessment tool Q-methodology to assess the opinions of early Passivhaus adopters. The broad conclusions from this research are that barriers are cultural and linked to both social and technological constraints. These include for understanding of and installation of Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR), which is a technology intrinsic to the Passivhaus standard, but also levels of construction industry skills training and education and existing legislation and processes in the UK. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 5 List of Charts, Graphs and Images........................................................................................................... 6 Synopsis .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Contribution to Research ........................................................................................................................ 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 9 Innovation ............................................................................................................................................. 13 Passivhaus a Brief History ..................................................................................................................... 50 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 93 Case Studies ........................................................................................................................................ 134 UK Case Studies ................................................................................................................................... 136 Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 203 Discussion............................................................................................................................................ 252 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................................... 267 Opportunities ...................................................................................................................................... 279 Limitations of Research ....................................................................................................................... 282 Further Research ................................................................................................................................. 285 Postscript ............................................................................................................................................ 290 Glossary ............................................................................................................................................... 291 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 293 5 List of Charts, Graphs and Images Figure 1 - The Gaussian Curve - Normal Distribution ........................................................................... 21 Figure 2 - The Different Phases of Adoption ......................................................................................... 28 Figure 3 - Table of design parameters for Kranichstein Passivhaus dwellings ..................................... 53 Figure 4 - Table of design parameters for CEPHEUS housing ............................................................... 57 Figure 5 - Results of CEPHEUS testing ................................................................................................... 61 Figure 6 - Shurcliff's findings in relation to the performance of the super insulated house ................ 65 Figure 7 - Comparison of Peterculter Zero-Heating House with alternative dwellings ........................ 73 Figure 8 - Comparison between Passivhaus and CSH Homes ............................................................... 78 Figure 9 - Comparison table between CSH Level 5 homes ................................................................... 85 Figure 10 - Q- Matrix of Normal Distribution ...................................................................................... 101 Figure 11 - Table of Focus Group Events ............................................................................................ 112 Figure 12 - Seating Diagram for Focus Groups ................................................................................... 113 Figure 13 - Photograph of focus group respondents sorting Q-statements/set ................................ 115 Figure 14 - Photograph of a completed Q-matrix from the focus group above ................................. 115 Figure 15 - Process Diagram from ‘Renewable Energy and Discourses of Objection – Towards Deliberate Policy Making’ ................................................................................................................... 121 Figure 16 - Research Process Diagram ................................................................................................ 122 Figure 17 - Topics of Discussion in Pilot Focus Group ......................................................................... 124 Figure 18 - Pilot Q-Concourse ............................................................................................................