For the past few years Peter Schneider has been looking into how the Passivhaus standard can be introduced to modular homes being built at local factories in the Vermont area of the United States. He explains how they are trying to educate people to realise the benefits and life cycle cost savings of having a better built, energy efficient home.

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Robert Young explains why he decided to build a home for his retirement at the end of the garden and what steps were necessary to create this low maintenance, high comfort dwelling.

There was also one significant constraint on this plot, a mature lime tree, which could not be removed. Ultimately this led to the curved house that was designed.

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Lisa Jackson is a planning consultant and together with her husband, who has a background in construction and planning, set out to build an energy efficient home. What they created was a timber frame home built to the Passivhaus standard.

Lisa shares her experience of the process and is also able to provide useful tips about getting through the planning process. 

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In 2012 Cambridge City Council advertised for potential members for a new cohousing scheme on a plot of land within an existing development. Chris Wilson was struck by the idea of building a consensus based community and is now Chair of the K1 cohousing group. He talks to us about the processes they have gone through to get the scheme to its current stage.

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Helen Brown heads up the building physics department at Encraft. Her main area of interest is in low energy construction in new build housing, with a particular focus on Passivhaus.

Based on various research and monitoring methods she is able to explain the differences between actual energy consumption compared with their designed intent.

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Ben Adam-Smith outlines 5 strategies for taking your land search into your own hands.

If you have been struggling to unearth a plot for your self build and have time to invest, then these proactive strategies could help you get your hands on something that others have missed.

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Simon Sturgis has been studying carbon emissions in the building industry for the last 8 or 9 years. He uses his experience to look at the scenarios of when it might be best to demolish and rebuild, or whether retrofit might be a better option. He also explains how new buildings should be created with their ‘circular economy’ in mind.  

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Andrew Michler has been living off grid in the Colorado Rocky Mountains for over 20 years. He has had a long interest in sustainable design and as well as completing a book about how sustainable architecture around the world responds to its conditions, he has also created Colorado’s first certified Passivhaus home.

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Potton have a history of serving the self build market and are currently building a Passivhaus show home. They are making the details of the build available through their Self Build Live events and are running courses through their Self Build Academy to help people through the self build journey. Paul Newman explains why they’re doing this, and also what lessons they’ve learned from the construction of their Passivhaus show house.

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Like Ben Adam-Smith, Michelle is a podcaster who is keen to build her own home and is sharing the information she learns along the way with her audience. In this episode she and Ben discuss how some of the challenges of the self build market compare in the UK and the US, and also some of the best things about their respective housing industries.

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