The Renewable House
The Renewable House aims to demonstrate that low costs and renewable materials are compatible in sustainable housing delivery.
The house is being built by a consortium of partners, including the Department for Energy and Climate Change, the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC), developers Empire Homes, the Linford Group and Lime Technology. It will showcase renewable materials like timber, hemp and wool. The consortium is aiming to achieve Level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes with the house in its basic form, with additional, optional packages available to achieve Levels 5 and 6. It also aims to show how sustainable housing can be affordable, with a lower target build cost than a conventional mainstream build.
‘The construction industry faces challenging times,’ says Dr John Williams of NNFCC. ‘New homes must be built, but at low cost and with a low carbon footprint. This house will show how innovation in the UK construction industry can meet all these aims by using renewable materials. What’s more, we can grow the crops here. If just 1% of the UK’s agricultural land was used to grow hemp, it would be enough to build our entire target of 180,000 homes per year. The house will have many environment-friendly qualities, including being carbon negative because the hemp plants absorb carbon dioxide while they grow.’
Key features
- This three-bedroom detached house can be linked to offer semi-detached or terraced housing.
- The timber frame structure with Hemcrete® walls provide high levels of thermal efficiency with low embodied energy. The material can be recycled.
- The house will be easy to construct, requiring a low skill base.
- It uses lime render externally.
- The house is equipped with under-floor heating.
Given the use of Hempcrete in it's construction, some refer to this house as The Hemp House. You can learn more about the Renewable House from the partners' website: www.renewable-house.co.uk/
