ConstructIreland Issue 8, Volume 5

News

A new blog has been created to follow in de-tail the progress of a planned ultra low energy,ecological passive house in Craughwell, CoGalway. Niall Dolan of GreenTec Eco Homes isplanning to build the house, dubbed An TeachGlas, for himself. The house is designed byMiles Sampson Ecological Architecture.

The house design boasts a lengthy array ofgreen features, such as a grass roof, solar PV

panels, triple-glazed �mber windows, low car-bon cement and solar thermal collectors.Dolan will be aiming for the house to be cer�-fied by the Passive House Ins�tute, and he’salso hoping to achieve an A1 building energyra�ng. You can follow the project’s progressat www.zerocarbonpassivehouse.com

(above) A rendering of the zero carbon passivehouse GreenTec Eco Homes

Munster Joinery becomes Ireland’s firstpassive certified window makerLeading Irish window manufacturer MunsterJoinery has received Passive House Ins�tutecer�fica�on for its uPVC PassiV Future Prooftriple-glazed window. The company has beenmanufacturing the units for three years, andachieved the cer�fica�on in July. "It's an Irishwindow available to the Irish passive housemarket," said Munster Joinery’s Marlene O’Mahony.

The Future Proof window was the first Irishmanufactured window to be cer�fied by thePassive House Ins�tute as suitable for use inpassive buildings. "It is cer�fied as a passivehouse suitable component,"O’Mahony toldConstruct Ireland. "It's now on a list of passivehouse suitable components from which archi-tects and specifiers can select products."

For cer�fica�on of windows, the Passive HouseIns�tute requires windows to have an overallU-value no greater than 0.8 W/m2K for a ref-erence sized window, or an actual installed U-value no greater than 0.85 W/m2K.

The Passive House Ins�tute classifies productswhich it considers to be suitable for PassiveHousing as either phC for a cer�fiable compo-nent, phB for a basic component or phA for anadvanced component. The Passiv Future Proofwindow achieved a phA efficiency class.

Founded in 1973, Munster Joinery has a 910,000square foot produc�on facility on a sixty fiveacre site in Ballydesmond, Co Cork, largely pow-ered by two wind turbines. The company hasa further 230,000 square foot facility on atwenty acre site at Wellesbourne in the UK.Munster Joinery employs 1,600 people.

(above) Wind turbines working at Munster Joinery’sproduction facility in, Ballydesmond, Co Cork;Munster Joinery’s Future Frame PassiV win-dows were installed in Michael Bennett Group’sIsover Energy Efficiency Award winning certifiedpassive house in Rosslare, Co Wexford

Eco build blog

Irish heat pump association launchedThe Heat Pump Associa�on of Ireland hasbeen founded, to coordinate and promote theinterests of the heat pump industry in Ireland.

Founded on 28 July in Dublin, the new associ-a�on’s stated aims and objec�ves include rais-ing awareness of the "features and benefits ofheat pump technology by freely sharing accu-rate informa�on and guidance to the generalpublic", and to co-ordinate technical and mar-ket research with the aim of improving mar-ket opportuni�es and overcoming barriers tothe adapta�on of heat pump technology inthe Irish market. The associa�on is being setup with the involvement of the leading heatpump brands and distributors on the Irish market.

The associa�on aims to freely transfer and shareinforma�on on interna�onal best prac�cewithin the Irish heat pump industry, and toprovide advice and technical cos�ng informa-�on to na�onal government, local authori�esand public bodies in legisla�ve regulatory andenergy efficient ma�ers, to facilitate informeddecisions in the prepara�on of energy, envi-ronmental and trade policies affec�ng the heatpump industry.