Highgate House

We endeavour to reduce carbon emissions in excess of the standards within current building regulations and where possible, we explore the incorporation of renewable sources of energy from the outset of for future inclusion.

In order to achieve our environmental goals we work closely with our client and the professional design team to champion sustainability and where practicable, monitor outcomes. In practice this approach encompasses everything from site sustainability, such as Sustainable Urban Drainage, or increasing biodiversity through a landscape strategy, to specifying taps that minimise water use. We are also committed to working with the construction team to design with buildability in mind to reduce waste during construction.

As part of the design and construction of the Highgate House the mechanical and engineering consultants, Environmental Engineering Partnership, incorporated ground source heat pumps, solar Photovoltaic panels and solar thermal panels to meet energy and carbon saving ambitions.

The GSHP installation relies on three individual circuits transferring heat from six newly drilled boreholes, (depth greater than 100m). The heat pumps are used to supply heating and domestic hot water to the building. Solar thermal panels, rated at 2.67kW and consisting of three panels, have been installed to heat the thermal store, serving the heating and domestic hot water to the house.

Solar Photovoltaic panels, rated at 4.9kW and consisting of 15 panels, have been installed to offset the usage from grid supplied electricity, providing direct CO savings.

With these energy savings the building sees a 13.4% saving in carbon emissions when compared with a notional building of the same type.