Title
Peasecroft - Piloting the Future Homes Standard
Client
Latimer by Clarion
Year published
2024
Authors
Pollard Thomas Edwards, Latimer by Clarion
Design
Pollard Thomas Edwards
Following the release of the Future Homes Standard consultation in 2020, the Peasecroft development site provided Clarion with an opportunity to pilot the standard. The homes were constructed over a year March 2023-2024. Capital and operational expenditure data will be collected and analysed, along with post occupancy evaluation over a 12 month period to inform the standard and construction of Clarion’s future development programme.
The Peasecroft development provides seven new homes for affordable rent. The development sees the construction of five 3-bedroom terraced houses and two 2-bedroom semi-detached bungalows. The houses have been designed with a fabric first approach with direct electric solutions (electric heaters and infrared panels) and the bungalows have adopted a technology led approach with air source heat pumps. The homes on Peasecroft are zero carbon when modelled in the new Home Energy Model. The ventilation systems used are more efficient than the FHS notional specification, with the MVHR in the houses providing significant benefits in retaining heat and comfort levels. The project has demonstrated a cost-effective, scalable approach to delivering sustainable energy homes.
The development required the following initiatives and significant commitment from the client, design team and contractor to enable the project to be delivered:
- Clarion engaged the design team and main contractor to ensure the required construction quality and monitoring was set in place.
- The construction has met world leading standards of airtightness, which required innovative design and installation of innovative products i.e. the passive purple membrane.
- Clarion and PTE had to work with the contractor to set out new methods of construction and evaluating construction quality.
- Clarion and PTE carried out site observations, interviews with site workers and building performance evaluation (BPE) to exceed BS40101.
- Clarion set up workshops with designers, main contractor and sub-contractors to evaluated lessons learned to take onto next developments at larger scale.
The post occupancy evaluation is being carried out with customers, including 12 months of energy and environmental measurements to understand the performance gap for energy and how the customers are using the homes. Feedback from this study will ensure that these homes and future development is appropriately designed to be flexible to suit the diverse range of residents living in them.
