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Wednesday, 01 February 2012 |
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Page 3 of 10
This 1970s bungalow provided Steve O’Leary with his refurbishment
challenge. He is in the process of adding a large extension onto the
original 1,000 square foot bungalow, and ensuring both are highly
insulated and airtight. The plan, says O’Leary, was to minimise cost and
waste, maximise value for money and do as much DIY as possible. “I want
the house to be filled with light, maintain a stable temperature all
year round, and favour insulation and cold bridge removal as an upfront
cost rather than investing in heating systems that would need ongoing
maintenance and eventual replacement.” O’Leary invested a huge amount of
his own time researching and assisting on the build, and introduced a
wide range of materials in order to deal with the differing conditions
in the new and old parts of the house.
Working out a window detail
According to O’Leary, the involvement of Archie O’Donnell of Integrated
Energy had a key influence on the energy efficient approach and the
overall success of the build. “I got in contact with him through the
Construct Ireland forum. He brought considerable industry knowledge of
what worked and what didn’t work,” he says. “A lot of people try to go
it alone and turn their nose up on paying someone to advise them on
insulation and energy efficiency, but I think it was money well spent.”
Triple-glazed Unilux windows and doors
He also relied heavily on carpenter/roofer Andrew Griffin on site. “He
almost became a co-project manager and he was an invaluable source of
contacts and expertise,” said O’Leary.
Training was one of the central elements of the project. “Engineer Hugh
O’Rourke of Thor Designs in Birr and I visited Liam Keating’s (of
Keating Insulation) low energy 200mm cavity wall house in Wexford to
look at structural issues, together with issues such as window
installation and cavity closing. Hugh, Andrew Griffin and I attended the
one day Siga airtightness course so all of us were up to speed on that.
For €50 including lunch, it was a bargain. Later in the build I
attended an Itho one day heat recovery ventilation installers course in
the UK, and afterwards I installed the Itho unit myself.” PHPP
calculations are showing a heat energy load of 25kWh/m2/yr, right on the
EnerPHit target.
225mm cavity walls with stainless steel ties
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