Greenwatt Way, Slough

Greenwatt Way is a development of 10 homes constructed to Code Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes and is part of a two-year monitoring research project to understand the real life, day to day experiences of low carbon living.

The project comprises terraced and detached houses and one-bed flats. The initial design phase was constructed to a high fabric performance specification in either lightweight concrete block cavity wall or lightweight timber frame. Both construction methods were included to explore different building techniques and their performance.

Walls in the concrete homes are constructed using 100mm concrete blocks with 150mm full-fill cavity and low thermal conductivity wall ties. An internal render or parge coat provides a permanent air barrier, under an insulated finishing board, and achieved airtightness of 2m3(h.m2). The homes were fully rendered externally and the overall wall thickness is 443mm.

The houses are expected to have a very limited heating demand, in the region of 80% less than homes built to 2006 building regulations. An energy centre was constructed on site to test a variety of renewable energy supplies, including biomass boilers, ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps. Photovoltaic panels are used on the roofs of all properties.

Monitoring data is not yet publically available, but the feedback from residents is positive. The concrete wall construction has since been chosen as the preferred method of construction for the next phase of the project, a much larger Code 6 development.