Offering a blueprint for zero carbon luxury homes

In the growing drive to conserve and protect our environment, many clients looking to buy a new luxury home are also interested in sustainability and eco-friendly design solutions.  Building a green home not only reduces impact to the local and larger environment but can also be cost effective with energy savings for the home owner.

The range of eco-energy solutions on the market however can be mind-boggling for the customer – from solar thermal and photovoltaic panels, to biomass wood pellet boilers, state of the art insulation options, rainwater harvesters and ground source heat pumps.  In the same way, for the construction industry, there is much to take on board when building a luxury eco-home, in terms of how these technologies work together to enhance the quality of the home, create a luxurious environment and reduce carbon footprint.

A recent guide from the NHBC Foundation called ‘Designing Houses for the 21^st Century - Lessons for Low Energy Design’ calls for a complete review of housing design and construction practise in order to achieve zero carbon homes.  This guide argues that too many houses are being built with green solutions “bolted on” later on down the construction process so that new eco-technology is not being given a chance to perform at the highest possible level.

This NHBC guide advocates a “fabric first” approach, where the insulation, air tightness and ventilation are considered at the very start of the process and thus designed to give optimal performance before any other green energy solutions are incorporated. The result is an eco home thoughtfully designed with the passive aspects of the house, such as the external walls and insulation, working in an effective partnership with the active systems like ventilation and heating.

At Richmond Homes we’ve been following this holistic approach for sometime in designing and constructing luxury green homes. Each new project is regarded as a whole with careful thought given to every stage of construction and design, working closely with clients to ensure their needs are understood and transformed into ecological solutions for everyday living.

We work with a very talented and reputable firm who produce sustainable eco-timber frames for our luxury houses, Rob Roy Homes. Their timber frames have excellent performance credentials and combined with their ULTRAwarm thermal and acoustic performance insulation, produce a home that has efficiently controlled internal temperatures, noise control and improved air quality. With these essential factors in place, the home is a blank canvas for a number of low carbon technological solutions to maximise reduced impact on the environment and energy costs for the home owner.

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