Services · 05
Low-energy builds
High-performance, low-energy homes built to a standard you can feel
The firm describes its own specialism as passive-house-style building — high-performance, low-energy homes using current technology. We use that wording carefully: it's a description of how the team likes to build, not a claim to a certification scheme.
What matters on site is unglamorous. The insulation line has to be continuous. The airtightness layer has to be genuinely continuous too, and taped where it's penetrated. Thermal bridges have to be designed out at the foundation, the eaves and every opening.
Continuous insulation and airtightness
We draw the insulation line and the airtightness line on the section and then follow them round the whole building without a break — under the slab, up the walls, over the roof. Where a joist, a cable or a soil pipe crosses it, it gets sealed properly rather than squirted with foam.
Glazing, orientation and shading
Triple or high-performance double glazing, installed in the insulation line rather than hung off the inner leaf, with sensible attention to south-facing glass and summer overheating — a problem more new low-energy houses have than admit to.
Ventilation and heating sized honestly
Controlled ventilation with heat recovery where it suits the project, and heating sized to what the building actually needs afterwards — which on a good build is far less plant than people expect.
Built as drawn
Low-energy building is not a specification you buy; it's a standard of workmanship over several months. That's the argument for a team who stay on one site until it's finished rather than moving between three.
What's included
- Insulation and airtightness strategy agreed before the slab
- Thermal-bridge-free detailing at foundation, eaves and openings
- High-performance glazing set in the insulation line
- Sealed and taped service penetrations
- Controlled ventilation, with heat recovery where appropriate
- Heating and hot water sized to the finished building
Knaresborough family builders · Rated 5.0 ★ on Google · serving Knaresborough, Harrogate, York & Leeds
From the project gallery
Related work — W T Hall's own photographs.
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