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Professional Management Renovation & Design
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Going Green... PMRrenovations enthusiastically supports the use of environmentally friendly power sources, design and materials.
Lighting is another considerable
issue. Historically expensive window taxes caused many residents to close up
openings and resulted in dark, gloomy rooms. On the southern, western and
eastern sides of houses, we recommend opening new windows and/or enlarging
existing ones. The result is a lighter, airier living space (think of all
those lovely sunrises and sunsets!), with considerably enhanced solar gains
- we take the orientation into account and favour tall openings for their
greater seasonal efficiency. Large window expanses require higher
specifications of glass, but fortunately technology has progressed in leaps
and bounds in recent years. Essentially, the key feature is that one can now
have very high thermal insulation (keeping the heat in and thus saving on
energy costs), without sacrificing sunlight and natural heating during the
cooler months - or necessary shade in summer.
A healthy mix of these technologies results in a beautifully traditional, yet modern and efficient home. Although we were previously intrigued by the prospect of building or renovating up to the full passive housing standards, we finally decided that the possibility of totally foregoing all heating installations just couldn’t compensate for the more enclosed lifestyle (no open windows, reduced apparent ventilation) that a passive house implies. Instead, we chose to exploit the advantages of environmentally friendly features to the full, but adapt them to the more outward looking lifestyle that France offers. Heat pumps and under floor heating, for example, allow to you keep your windows wide open throughout the day and absorb all the scents and sounds from the garden area (which we integrate into the house plans from the outset), without having to worry about warming the house up again at nightfall…
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In order to respect tough
European Union energy and climate standards, the French government is
pushing ecological solutions with tax credits and (due in 2009) zero
interest loans. By themselves, these incentives are doing much to make green
technologies worthwhile, but when coupled with increasingly erratic
fluctuations in the traditional energy markets (oil, natural gas, and
electricity), environmentally friendly solutions are becoming ever more
financially attractive.
The most exposed part of the
house is generally the attic space - useful for bedrooms and bathrooms - but
which, depending on the season, is all too often unpleasantly hot or cold.
PMRrenovations introduced the concept of extremely thick roof insulation
(300mm, comparable to passive house standards) in a new built house in the
early 2000s, and we have since systematically applied this principle to all
of our house renovations. Living comfort is greatly enhanced while heating
and cooling bills are slashed. Wall insulation can be a greater issue in old
buildings, because of the risk of losing the traditional features –sinks,
cupboards and of course the stone itself. We like to compromise by
installing high quality insulation on the weather walls (north and west in
our area of France), thus keeping the house warm without affecting its
character. Finally, installing green insulation materials, such as hemp,
lambs wool, cork or cellulose lowers the carbon footprint even further and
could well avert respiratory or other health issue.