Comparing a new house with

an Eco house

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Milton Keynes has over the years developed a reputation as a national leader for innovation in low energy buildings. Home World (1981), the first housing exhibition in the city, showcased innovation in energy efficient homes and featured groundbreaking homes - the Ideal Home, the Autarkic House and the Futurehome 2000.

comparing-new-house-with-eco-house
comparing-new-house-with-eco-house

Oxley Gate, Milton Keynes

In 1986 the second energy efficient housing exhibition opened, Energy World. This was an international showcase and houses were built to perform at least 30% better than the building regulations at the time. This was a significant milestone for progress in the design and construction of low energy housing.

Milton Keynes have recently produced a glossy document saying just how Green they are, with unique insights into what has shaped the city, what is going on today and what is planned for the future. For example, did you know Milton Keynes was the first town/city in the UK to have a solar powered house?

We thought we would pay a visit to Milton Keynes to see the latest in commercial and residential housing building on offer with an emphasis on Eco friendliness.

Our first stop was Oxley Park , a district of Milton Keynes which is home to recently developed unusual so called Eco homes, and conventional looking housing typical of a brand new house that you can see across the country. This meant we could compare the two.

The latest energy efficient houses in Milton Keynes

Whilst the new houses we were looking round were not marketed as being Eco houses or even houses built with sustainability in mind it is a factor that is considered in all new houses today through building regulations and the planning application process.

We duly arrived at the Milton Keynes show home and were shown around, the house was not sold specifically on its Eco credentials mentioned as more focus was given on the usual desirability factors such as the en suite bathroom, large kitchen and dining area, high ceilings and large windows giving good natural light. But what about levels of insulation and energy efficiency?

There was no major sell on the Green factors we have seen in other houses that we have viewed in Milton Keynes . We have been subject to an Eco salesmanship ranging from how great thermal properties of the house are to bins being designed to separate the waste as required in Milton Keynes and we have also been advised that it was one of the first places to introduce recycling and is still at the forefront of sustainability issues.

If these benefits are provided why aren't they marketed?

Eco houses Milton Keynes

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Large windows that do not open

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Echo hat at Oxley gate

As you approach the Eco house estate you realise it is very different as it is not built in brick at all it is built in a cladding panel that would more commonly be seen on a commercial property such as a school or an office and in this case they really stand out with their colours although they are not bright colours they are certainly more colourful than the traditional brick reds and render colours. Also the joints of the panels stand out as they are relatively large as are the comparatively large windows so there is what we would describe as red skips that look to be sitting on the roofs which we later discovered are known as Eco hats' and serve a very useful purpose.

The kitchen/dining room with windows that do not open!

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Vent in shutter next to the window

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Window shutter

We arrived at the Milton Keynes sales office/show home and were duly shown around the sales lady telling us about the various Eco features which ranged from K glass (to give it its full title Pilkington K glass). Pilkington say on their website that it has been established since 1995 and is used in both residential and commercial properties and is a low emission coated glass. K glass usually forms the inner panel of double glazed units and the K glass coating lets in the sun's heat it but does not allow the heat generated in the room and indeed the solar heat that we have just mentioned to get out reflecting it into the room. This means that the glass complies with the Building Regulations Part L and there have been various enhancements. The Pilkington website also mentions energiKare, which is trademarked to Pilkington's, which involves the K glass already mentioned and it also uses a Optiwhite (trademarked to Pilkington's) glass which is extra clear and allows in more solar heat which sounds impressive technology. We would just add that we are aware that triple glazed glass is also popular in some countries and wonder why it never seems to make an appearance in England , in fact we have never seen any in all the years of surveying. We have a friend who lives in Sweden who advises us that it is common there and we also believe in the Netherlands . Pilkington's have a product known as the energiKare Triple which in this case comprises of two panels of Pilkington K glass with an outer panel of Optiwhite with, and this is the interesting bit, an argon gas fill-in in both cavities (ecotherm.co.uk). We are aware that argon makes the performance much better. There are all sorts of other things talked about on the website such as space bars to the perimeter which produce the risk of edge condensation but we will more on and look at some of the other features of the Eco houses in Milton Keynes.

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External view of large windows

By the way these windows are non-opening which we were advised is good for security, for those of you wondering you were able to allow fresh air in via trickle vents and via a side timber window that I would call a shutter (for air circulation see our comments later on, on the red skip' or red hat').

We would comment that the house certainly seemed warm enough even with the very large windows and we particularly liked the large windows as although it was a dull overcast day there was lots of natural light coming in. Another great feature with regard to the natural light was the roof light over the staircase that completely lights it up and in fact if I had not of known better I would have thought it was sunny outside with the amount of light coming in.

LED low energy lights

There are lots of low energy lights in the property, although these are not the traditional low energy lights as you can see in the clip art they are LED lights which means they are very low energy. Whilst there are probably too many for our liking, as we are not overly keen on ceiling lights, we are also advised that due to the size of the windows and general lightness in the property one should not need to use them as often as in a traditional building. This certainly seemed true as we viewed the property on a particularly grey day.

ask-jeff

The cloakroom that is also the utility room

Next we were shown the downstairs cloakroom which was large enough to double up as a shower or utility room. The house has been designed to 'Lifetime Homes' standards which mean that it can be adapted to suit occupiers' needs throughout their lives. However having said that the use that it had in the Eco show home was of a utility room and WC which worked really well and we were very impressed with this idea and it was the first time we had seen this design.

Bathroom but no shower room!

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Next we were shown into the bathroom, the particular bathroom did not have a shower and we were advised that was for Eco reasons although we did not quite understand that as although we were advised that the bath was shallow and smaller and therefore used up less water we always thought that a shower would use up even less water. However, we were advised that the taps were restricted or low flow and this is created by having aerated water however we were advised that some of the properties did have showers.

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comparing-new-house-with-eco-house

The reason for this is that the houses have been designed to use less than 120 litres/person/day internal water and this is measured as a combined total for all water consuming fittings and appliances in the home. Showers consume less water but the calculator will demonstrate lower water demand for a bath only than a bath and a shower.

Storage space

We were also advised that there was more storage space than you usually find in many modern properties. This may be true but there did not look to be that much!

The houses do not have a roof space either so nowhere to store things there either.

Rain cladding

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comparing-new-house-with-eco-house

We mentioned as you approach the property that it was not built from brick but it is built using cladding panels much like on an office or school these cladding panels are in fact laminated panels, the trade name for these is Trespa'

These are fitted to a timber frame system with 145mm Warmcel insulation made from recycled newspaper, with an overall U-value of 0.2 W/m2K. This is very good much better than building regulations.

Trespa panels- taken next to a light so you can see how big the gaps between them are- Trespas panels are a form of rain cladding

Eco hat

One of the features that we were particularly keen to hear about was the Eco hat' which is an air recycling unit that uses warm air that has been heated up within the property and re-circulates it around the house and is quite a unique feature and something we have never come across before. We were advised that it only cost 2p a day to run which seemed a great deal to use when you are using warm air that you have already heated up!

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Air vents- air recyded via
Eco and red hats

The Eco hat was developed by Rybka, who advertise themselves as a leading building services engineering low carbon and sustainability consultancy, allow hot air to be reused to optimise energy consumption and provide passive solar water heating. As a result the Milton Keynes buildings omit less carbon dioxide than a conventional development of this size.

The man who lives in the Eco Milton Keynes house

We were lucky enough to be able to chat to someone who had been living in one of the Eco houses about what it is like to actually live in the house. His overall impression was having lived in many different eras of property he was very happy with the house and was particularly happy with the natural light throughout the house and generally the warmth.

Teething Problems or are they standard problems for this sort of Eco House?

However he had problems with the property and from the forums we could see on these properties so have other people.

Oxleywoodsliving.co.uk

The man had problems with a front door that did not fit correctly which created an air draft. With this type of property it is very important that it is air tight.

When asked about the Eco hats he felt they seemed very good but could hear a slight noise from them but nothing major.

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Energy Efficient

Interestingly we were advised that the fuel bills on a two/three bedroom house were running at approximately £40-£50 per month all inclusive which seemed very reasonable.

Eco Windows

We also spoke about many of the other features and he advised that it had seemed a bit strange with the windows not opening and having the shutters to the side that could open and was getting used to this feature.

Filling the kettle not what it used to be in an Eco house!

Another matter that he had experienced was filling the kettle seemed to take ages as this is with the low pressure water, if you recall, this is where the water is aerated so although it appears like a lot of water not as much is being used. It was interesting because he worked from home as we do and although we work in a modern house it is not as warm as we would like during the day sometimes he seemed perfectly happy in his shirt sleeves and certainly not a temperature that we achieve in our relatively modern house.

Room Height

Sitting in the room is very noticeable that the room height is higher than one would normally expect. Downstairs the ceiling height was even higher having a vaulted ceiling which we personally like as it gives a great feeling of space.

Too hot in the summer

comparing-new-house-with-eco-house
comparing-new-house-with-eco-house

A very interesting point made by the man living in the Eco house was that he thought that the property might be too hot in the summer although he had not experience this yet. Interestingly we were speaking to an Eco expert who advised that houses becoming too hot in the summer may be one of the future problems.

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interesting postion of radiators-some of them are positioned beneath and some of the, are not, Those that have read  other artides will appreciate that we are keen that radiators are positioned beneath window to help to radiate heat around the property.

Storage space

It was interesting that when we discussed about living in the property one of the things raised as often in a modern house, was the lack of storage space and his comment was that it was almost at a point where he felt like an Ikea employee and we have to confess we are also a great fan of Ikea with their different solutions to storage problems.

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Experimental stage

Another comment was that lots of things are purpose made in the property and he did feel that it was still in the experimental stage and that the builders/developers/architects were very much learning as they proceeded with the work and had to come back and amend.

In summary new verses Eco Milton Keynes style verses old houses

The Eco houses are designed to be more energy efficient but it would be interesting to compare actual energy bills for similar houses in both parts of the development. Both the conventional house and eco house were nice and light but the large windows and roof light in the eco houses were a particularly nice feature. Windows in traditional housing tend to be smaller but lots of natural light can make spaces much nicer to live in and reduce energy bills because you don't need to turn on lights. Too much glazing can also be a problem though on north facing elevations windows should be smaller to reduce heat losses, and on south elevations if no shading is provided in the summer internal spaces may overheat. This can be a problem in particular with conservatories.

Both houses had minimal storage as unfortunately seems to be the norm in new housing, but the eco house did not have any loft space either where do you put your suitcases and boxes?

The traditional houses had high ceilings which added to the feeling of space and light but it is worth noting that this is extra space to heat and could contribute to higher energy bills.

Other people that live in this Milton Keynes Development

Oxleywoodsliving.co.uk

There is lots of interesting debate

Buildingforlife.org

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