Energy and sustainability assessments for residential development

Woodside Square comprises 161 elegant and contemporary one, two, three and four bedroom homes and a new common house. The site includes a mixture of new build and refurbished buildings (some of which are grade II listed).

RPS carried out Energy and Sustainability assessments across the development and advised on how to maximise the sustainability rating of the historic and new build elements while giving it vibrant new life as a modern, sustainable community.

Solution

Sustainability is central to the vision of Woodside Square, and reducing energy usage was a prime objective.

Our team engaged with the project design team at the earliest possible stage to establish how the Sustainability (Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4, BREEAM Excellent) and Energy (>40% reduction in CO₂ emissions over Building Regulations) targets could be realistically achieved.

To ensure buy-in from all project teams in the initial stages and to avoid complications during later development, a sustainability workshop with all disciplines involved was carried out in the early design stages.

The main energy strategy included high insulation standards – significantly beating building regulations - and a communal heating system, serving all properties. As a way to reduce CO₂ emissions, we recommended a highly efficient Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit and communal gas boiler systems with new insulated pipework for heating and hot water. Electricity consumption in communal areas can be a big draw on power, and to mitigate that we are supplementing the supply from photovoltaic panels.

As a result the impact on the character of existing properties was negligible whilst energy savings were maximised.