The recent ESRI report HERE forecasts that Ireland will need 90,000 new homes by 2021 and recently in the Nzeb conference last week Minister Damien English called for the passive house standard to be introduced in housing (link to BRegs blog post HERE) and also called for ”[getting] construction right – this time“ and for upskilling of the design and construction workforce.
Let’s look at the numbers:
• 90,000 houses gives an average of 12,500 per year (up until 2021)
• There are 307 certified Passivhaus Consultants and Designers in the Republic of Ireland (of which I am one)
• This gives 40 houses for every Passivhaus consultant/Designer per year for 7 years
So if the Government really wants to “build right” then they need to start contacting the Passivhaus Consultants/Designers. I as one look forward to your call.
To help you find the 307 across the country CLICK HERE FOR A MAP
ps I’m happy to work on projects in Dublin which is where the majority of the houses are required; please CONTACT ME…
90,000 local authority homes are required immediately not in 5 or 6 years time. How many privite homes do we need? now you can adjust your assigned certifiers figures. Irish governments always put the cart before the horse and in this case it is no different. Bring back the clerk of works to look after the local authority requirements and this will take the pressure of the architects and assigned certifiers for the private contracts. Minister Damien English should look at the quality of works being carried out on new schools before diving into passive house standards. If we cannot get the simple task of applying basic insulation passive standards is a big ask. The design of our new homes will need an upgrade. Design the building around the insulation not the otherway around for best results. The lack of joined up thinking, poorly written insulation and associated building material specifications, common sense basic training and almost nonexistent building inspections are in my opinion the main reasons behind many insulation failures. By this I mean there is not enough focus and consideration given to the selection of the insulation type and suitability along with the associated building materials such as the vapour permeiable roof and wall membranes and the airtight/vapour control membranes at design stage.
The idea of what we did in the past works for me must change and quickly if we are to truly build good quality energy efficient buildings in the future.
Stop chacing the U-value and focus more on quality of build.
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Hi Dermot
Excellent points
Mark
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