Fingal CountyCouncil is arguablyone of Ireland'smost forward-look-ing local authori-ties when it comesto sustainability.Pioneers of localenergy standardsthat later led to

drastic improvements in Part L of theBuilding Regulations, the north Dublinlocal authority has also been at the fore-

front of developing its own energy effi-cient public housing.

Local issuesIn today's gloomy house-building climateit's easy to forget that the demand – and,in fact, need – for more and better hous-ing continues. As Niall Keenan of KeenanTimber Frame points out, although thepace of private developments has cer-tainly slowed, there remains a publichousing requirement. "The local authority

is where the ball is going to bounce at theminute," he says.

Local authority housing can be viewed ina number of ways. As Lynsey Hanleydocuments in 'Estates: An Intimate His-tory'1 her outstanding history of councilhousing in the UK, public housing hasgone through a number of image changesover the course of the past century, fromthe 'homes fit for heroes' of the post-First World War era to the 'property-own-ing democracy' of Harold Macmillan, a view

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SOCIAL

FINGAL COUNCIL HOUSING PUSHES UP ENERGY STANDARDS

With some of the most impressive moves toward sustainability over the last few years com-ing in the form of planning requirements, it should come as no surprise that many local au-thorities are pioneering energy efficient housing in their own housing stock. Jason Walshvisited a site in Oldtown, County Dublin, to see how Fingal County Council is putting sus-tainability into practice with help from Keenan Timber Frame, Ecological Building Systems,Nutech Renewables and others.

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later espoused by Margaret Thatcher whodecimated Britain's public housing stockby allowing tenants to buy on the one hand –itself no bad thing – but, crucially, for-bidding councils from using the revenuegained to build more houses.

By the 1990s, 'council house' had becomea pejorative term. CJ Stone's 'HousingBenefit Hill'2 details life in what it is nowpopular to refer to as 'sink estates', bleakfortresses of unemployment whose in-habitants lead dim lives, alienated by ar-chitects and isolated by planners.

Ireland has perhaps had a somewhat lessantagonistic relationship with publichousing and yet 'the Flats' – note the def-inite article – loom large in the Irishurban imagination. The Fatima Mansions,the 'Mun – these places have been short-hand for poverty and despair in the lexi-cography of Irish psycho-geography.

It wasn't always this way. Ireland's publichousing programme was initiated as a re-sponse to the continued existence of ten-ement dwellings – otherwise known asovercrowded slums. The object of publichousing was that most republican of val-ues: equality. The job of the concreteand mortar was not simply to provideshelter but to raise up, to allow everyoneequal access to the resources of societyas citizens. Unfortunately, things didn'talways work out that way and, for many,state-built housing is seen as at best aplace where lives are dominated bypoverty, loneliness and despair or, worse,a dumping ground for 'problem tenants'.

Here and now in 2008 we can see clear,if tentative, moves to redress the declinein public housing and make-up for themistakes of the past. One important wayof doing this is by providing tenantswith attractive and comfortable houses,and energy, both use and conservation,is a major part of this.

With the Fingal County Council develop-ment in Oldtown a good building energyrating (BER) is the central concern: "A3-rated houses are where it's at, at the mo-ment," says Keenan. "The [forthcoming]2010 regulations will get you an A3-rat-ing, more or less."

Keenan also argues that A3 is not only anattainable standard, it's a realistic onetoo: "In the studies we've done we foundthat A3 is affordable. As you get to an A2or A1 it gets more expensive."

Dublin dwellingsSustainable housing has become somethingof a fixture in the north Dublin area thanksto Fingal County Council, a fact thatmakes the local authority a trail-blazer.

For example, Fingal County Council wasthe first local authority to raise require-ments for planning permission above thenational level by demanding 60% energydemand and carbon emissions reduc-tions, along with a renewable energycomponent in housing under local areaplans. Fingal’s initiative was matched byother local authorities including DúnLaoghaire-Rathdown, Wicklow, Wexfordand South Dublin County Councils, creat-ing an irresistible groundswell which in-evitably forced the hand of nationalgovernment to improve standards na-

tionally. The principle behind FingalCounty Council's move is a simple one:raising standards across the board.

Sustainable building has a longer historyin Ireland than is commonly acknowl-edged – at least for those who could af-ford it. Tim Cooper's Green Building, anapartment complex built in Dublin'sTemple Bar district during the 1990s,shows that given a desire to do so, sus-tainability was always achievable. Theproblem was that not only did it costmoney, awareness was at a low level. Thepeople interested in sustainable housingtended to be relatively well-off greens.

However, if sustainable building was tobecome the norm, Fingal County Councilunderstood that the real changes had tobe made with family homes, includinglocal authority houses. With both its pio-neering changes to planning requirementsand its own high-specification develop-

ments, Fingal County Council intends toachieve just that.

The dwellings in Oldtown are a combina-tion of 76 square metre two-bed bunga-lows and 98 square metre three-bedroomhouses. A total of 35 dwellings are beingbuilt on the site of which, at the time ofwriting, 24 were complete.

All of the houses in the Oldtown devel-opment use Keenan Timber Frame's Fu-ture Frame system for construction.

Future Frame and Future Frame Plus, bothdeveloped by Keenan Timber Frame aresemi-closed panel timber frame buildingsystems designed with energy efficiencyin mind, particularly with relation to pro-moting air-tightness.

"We take care of air-tightness in the fac-tory and assist on-site," said Niall Keenan."It takes the hassle out."

(opposite) Almost ready: the smaller, two bedroom bungalows see exactly the same levelof care and attention to detail; (above) on the way: a three bedroom house takes shapein Oldtown

(above) John and Niall Keenan of Keenan Timber Frame; (below) built on the factory floor,not the site: Keenan Timber Frame's manufacturing facility

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According to Keenan Timber Frame, old-fashioned open panel systems are nolonger in much demand: "Ninety per centof what goes through the factory is FutureFrame," says Niall Keenan. "Open panel isfinished – it’s had its day, it’s archaic."

Founded nine years ago and employing atotal of 35 staff, Louth-based KeenanTimber Frame developed Future Frameand Future Frame Plus as a result of itsexperience in the timber frame housingmarket. The firm produces around 250houses per year, half of which are for de-velopers, the other half tending to be soldin the self-build market.

Contractor Joe Commins says the FutureFrame system did not result in any par-ticular difficulties: "There were no majorproblems. As it's been our first air-tightjob it did throw-up a few minor challenges– everybody has to be trained and pushedon."

Nevertheless, with on-site support fromboth Keenan Timber Frame and Ecologi-cal Building Systems, Commins says hisfirm was comfortable with the build andis pleased with the results thus far: "I dobelieve they'll be very warm houses – ifthese houses aren't warm, none will be.

"It's not rocket science to get to this level,"he said.

Vacuum packedWhen it comes to maintaining the in-tegrity of the building envelope in orderto provide air-tightness, Keenan TimberFrame chose to work with EcologicalBuilding Systems, a division of McCannand Byrne. Ecological Building Systemshave been a stalwart of sustainablebuilding in Ireland for many years andfor Future Frame and Future Frame Plusit supplies the Pro-Clima Intelligent Air-Tight System.

As Niall Keenan explains: "We went withEcological Building Systems because it'sone thing getting the product but theyhave the expertise."

Ecological Building Systems' Niall Crossonexplained to Construct Ireland during atelephone interview: "We've been work-ing with Keenan Timber Frame for over ayear now, helping them to develop theirFuture Frame product.

"We [also] gave a seminar to Fingal CountyCouncil about air-tightness," he said.

As Crosson explained, the Pro-Clima sys-tem runs the gamut of air-tightness: "There'sIntello Plus, an intelligent vapour check andUnitape for sealing – windows can oftenbe an area where buildings fail to achieveair-tightness. That can be a difficult areato seal. Keenan Timber Frame used TesconProfile to tape all windows and doors."

Crosson explained that one of the majorareas for leakage in timber frame build-ings is floor separations which often re-sult in significant air-leakage through thejoists: "Solitex Plus, which is air-tightand strong, but also vapour permeablewas used over the joists. Vapour transferis allowed but air transfer isn't.

"The connections from the external wallsto the ground floor were [also] important.

(above, left & right) Attention to detail, sadly lacking from typical Irish buildings, is in this case impeccably observed, and guaranteesair tightness – even the mechanical and electrical services are designed so as to avoid puncturing the vapour check

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Orcon F adhesive was used to bond themembrane to the concrete floor."

Crosson is also keen to stress the bene-fits of the timber frame manufacturingprocess itself: "Moving the majority ofthe labour from the site to the factorywas essential," he said. In addition, work-manship on-site remained vital: "Thecontractor on-site was exceptionallykeen to get this right – he got the detail-ing and sealing to the highest level."

At the end of the process, the houses areachieving exceptional performance:"Keenan Timber Frame grasped the de-mands from Fingal County Council as anopportunity. They achieved an air per-meability almost ten times better thanrequired," said Crosson.

Indeed, the Oldtown houses have an airpermeability of of 1.2m3/h/m2 at 50 pascals.

"The upper limit of the regulations is10m3/h/m2 at 50 pascals [and] the demandon this project was for less than 3."

Even when it came to on-site testing forair-tightness the Oldtown developmentsaw innovation. The standard approachto assessing a building's air-tightness isa blower-door test, performed at the endof the building process. Unfortunately,this is often too late and going back tofix problems can be costly.

"KTF have a machine called a Pro ClimaWincon which is used during the actualbuilding process," said Crosson.

The Pro Clima Wincon is a high perform-

ance air-tightness testing device(9800m3/h at 50 Pa pressure differential)that provides a simple, cost-effectivemeans of monitoring the consistency ofon-site practices and the quality of theair-tightness layer of any type of con-struction – at any stage of the construc-tion process. Its operation is based on asimple principle: the Wincon generates anegative pressure and thereby enablesun-designed air leaks to be identifiedand sealed.

"It allows the building to be depressurisedand [the user to] identify leakages byfeeling the wind coming in or using asmoke pencil for visual representation,"said Crosson. "You could call it a spiritlevel for air-tightness."

After the buildings were up a blower-doortest was performed as usual and the re-sults were good: "The tester hadn't seenanything like it," said Crosson. "Usuallyyou only get results like this one withbuildings where the owner has gone toextraordinary lengths to do so.

"The passive house requirement has anN50 of 0.6 [air changes per hour], that'snot far off a Q50 [air permeability] of notmore than one. These buildings are ex-ceptionally close to that standard."

Energy in, energy outVital as air-tightness is, it is not the onlyrequirement of a sustainable building:"Air-tightness is only one element of it,"said Niall Keenan of Keenan TimberFrame, "a good U-value is only one ele-ment – you have site orientation and re-

newables also. They're all important”.

The Oldtown houses are insulated withhigh-density fibreglass with a thermalconductivity of 0.035.

Keenan Timber Frame stresses that inthe future natural insulation materialcould replace high-density fibreglassonce it becomes more unaffordable.

John Keenan remains hopeful, though:"This will end at the passive house –that's the objective, but we're maybe be-hind our European neighbours, but we’requickly catching up”.

Windows and doors, supplied by MunsterJoinery are all fitted with low-e, argon-filled glazing, in order to achieve betterthermal performance.

In order to achieve their A3-rating, ofcourse, the Oldtown development alsorequired a significant renewable energycomponent. To this end the houses featurean innovative renewable energy systemdesigned by Nutech Renewables in War-renpoint, County Down.

"We've supplied air-solar collectors thatare linked into heat-recovery ventilationand a solar hot water system," said Nutech'sBill Quigley. "We've integrated a heat pumpinto it also – it's a complete package."

The majority of a household's domestichot water needs can be met by usingsolar panels. During the winter, the solarpanel can heat a hot water cylinder to 30degrees celcius, removing this heatingcomponent from the household’s main

(above) The solar panels which adorn the roofs of each house can supply the majority ofa household's domestic hot water needs; (below) heat recovery ventilation systems, sup-plied by Nutech Renewables, installed in the attic of every house

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heating source of oil or gas. Nutech fur-ther estimates that Ireland has sufficientsolar resource to provide around 60 percent of a typical household’s hot water,mostly during the summer months.

The system used in Oldtown is Nutech’s140 Sunwarm, designed for solar air heatingand ventilation. Sunwarm provides solarthermal energy to heat the house and hotwater through a flat plate panel collectorand integrates a ventilation system thatmaximises energy efficiency. This re-sults in fresh air throughout the housewithout having to open windows to ventilate,something that is important in a housedesigned with air-tightness in mind, and allwith very low running costs in electricity.

In winter as much solar energy as isavailable is collected and is distributed tothe hot water storage and ventilated througheach home to provide preliminary heat-ing. This reduces the amount of inputthat is required from the main heatingsource, so reducing the home’s heating bill.

Conversely, in summer heating may notbe required and a preferred cooling ef-fect may be desired. In this instance allavailable solar energy is used to heat thewater in the storage cylinder and theventilation system circulates cool freshair around the home.

This system has been designed by Nutechalong with Nuaire to provide an innova-tive and environmentally friendly solarenergy home heating solution that is arecognised renewable energy product bythe Reconnect scheme in the North ofIreland, and Sustainable Energy Ireland’sGreener Homes scheme in the Republicfor the purpose of grant aid.

What can be seen with the Oldtown de-velopment is a marker being put downfor higher standards of construction anda clear move toward sustainable housingon a scale that meets the needs of agrowing population, not just salves theconsciences of the well-heeled.

Of course, it is as easy to romanticisepublic housing as it is to demonise it. Inreality public housing has always beensomething of a mixed bag. There is noreason why houses built and managed bythe state should be any worse than thosebuilt by the private sector – but that hasoften been the case. Fingal County Coun-cil's Oldtown development should, if allgoes to plan, show that making a distinc-tion in quality between private and publichousing could become a thing of the past.

PROJECT DETAILS

Client: Fingal County Council

Architect: Fingal County Council

Main contractor: Commins Construction Ltd.

Timberframe manufacturer: Keenan Timber Frame

Heating & ventilation system: Nutech Renewables

Air-tightness products: Ecological Building Systems

Windows: Munster Joinery

References1Hanley, Lynsey 'Estates: An Intimate History',Granta, London, 20072Stone, CJ 'Housing Benefit Hill and Other Places:Collected Columns 1993–1998', Verso, Edin-burgh, 2001