EnerPHit Dublin Residence Features Partel’s Structural Insulation

Pat Doran Construction were chosen to upgrade this south Dublin residence. The project had been proposed as Enerphit but suggested additional costs had brought this into doubt before the involvement of Pat Doran team. “We said it might be possible to do Enerphit without it costing more, “From our experience and knowledge we were able to say that the budget was sufficient, that the house had a good orientation and form factor for a Passive House” says Paul Doran.

Pat Doran Construction specialises in Passive house, Enerphit, and nZEB building and through experience and specialist training are offering real low-energy building expertise at an affordable value.

The upgrade featured external insulation to the original brickwork walls, a new externally insulated blockwork extension, a partially reconstructed roof heavily insulated with mineral wool insulation, and boasted airtightness of 0.99 air changes per hour.

Enerphit projects are more challenging as details must accommodate the existing building and find ways to sympathetically upgrade the junctions to appropriate levels. The importance of having either an experienced or extremely knowledgeable contractor and design team is important. This skillset enables cost-effective solutions for these difficult junctions. Airtightness and thermal bridging detailing are often the most challenging issues.

An example of one such junction was the large steel posts which while internal were connected to the new foundation. Pat Doran Construction opted to use CompacFoam to support the steel. CompacFoam solution is possibly one of the highest performing thermal isolation materials with thermal conductivities as low as 0.038. It is available in different density classes from CF 100 to CF400. CF 100 is typically used for thresholds and CF400 for point loads. CF400 is shown in the above photo.

Just how strong is CompacFoam? It’s surprisingly so – there is a  Datasheet here but to get a visual – you can build on it, drive on – pretty much whatever you need to do depending on the load and density class.

This building was fully certified to the Enerphit standard and involved an extensive deep energy retrofit. Its BER rating was also improved from a G to an A2. It has been awarded “Best Residential Project” by the Irish Construction Industry Awards 2016 and “Home of the Year” at the Irish Design and Building Awards 2016. It was also featured in Passive House Plus.