{"id":2672,"date":"2012-11-01T09:08:52","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T09:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markstephensarchitects.com\/?p=2672"},"modified":"2012-11-01T09:08:52","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T09:08:52","slug":"sometimes-following-cpd-you-have-a-big-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markstephensarchitects.com\/sometimes-following-cpd-you-have-a-big-rethink\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes following CPD you have a big rethink! Mention for @ecologicalbuild"},"content":{"rendered":"
A sort of follow-up to the Post on CPD<\/a>; sometimes following a CPD session it really pushes you into a rethink on the way you’re doing things.<\/p>\n After a CPD session on #PassivHaus we had a site visit to the lovely, in-construction, soon to be certified, passive house of Architect Cuala McGann and it really made me think about u-values we’re currently working to.<\/p>\n What’s amazing in Ireland is the overwhelming use of blockwork, cavity construction. No matter how much you try it’s very difficult to get the client mindset to adjust to a warmer, easier to airtighten and faster to construct method that is timber frame. What was incredible at Cuala’s house were the resulting u-values of such a construction – what could possibly be the lowest u-values in Ireland, if not Europe.<\/p>\n Let’s go back only a few years; 2008 regs had wall u-values at 0.27 W\/m2K; to achieve 2012 compliance you’re looking at practically Passivhaus standard of 0.15 W\/m2K. Remember that you can’t now rely on backstop u-values to ensure compliance HERE IS A BLOG POST ON THAT TOPIC<\/a>. Cuala’s house has a wall u-value at 0.07 W\/m2K; that’s nearly a 400% improvement on a value only 4 years ago!. And it’s done in a wall construction and materials that are entirely naturally-made! ( Gutex from Ecological Building Systems<\/a> ).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although not complete, the house is well on the way (photo above taken at the end of the day), a special thanks to Cuala McGann for showing us around the benchmark of passivhaus construction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A sort of follow-up to the Post on CPD; sometimes following a CPD session it really pushes you into a rethink on the way …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15,64,73,78,79,80,81],"tags":[217,459,533,599,676,703,883,897,958,1403],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n