Ever lived in a house where there just aren’t enough electrical sockets? Where the light switches are in the wrong place? Where the hot water takes ages to arrive at the tap? Where the lighting means you chop your fingers, not the carrots?
By stripping the EcoBungalow back to a shell and rebuilding, we have an excellent opportunity to carefully plan the services so they’re just right. But – with a PassivHaus – it’s about much more than convenience. We need to make sure that we minimise the number of places that cables and pipes pass through the airtight layer of the building fabric. And, where they do, we need to ensure that they’re properly sealed to prevent any air movement and hence loss of heat.
It starts with a very simple strategy: a utility room at one end, and the ‘service heavy’ kitchen and bathrooms running in a straight line towards the other end. A ceiling void takes all the services from the utility and distributes them in three bays: two for the ventilation ducts and one for the plumbing, with the electrics running in between. All very neat and tidy and – crucially – all within the insulated, airtight box (otherwise known as the ‘thermal envelope’). This limits penetrations through the airtight layer, and means that we don’t need to insulate the ventilation ducts to prevent condensation. So we should be able to maintain the phenomenal airtightness achieved at the interim stage.
The services were all set out on the architectural drawings. However, there’s always a need to tweak and refine on site. The lighting for the dining table is a good example. The table will sit centrally to a built-in bench seat below a window However, the seat is offset from the window. So where do you put the pendant light for the table? If it’s in the centre of the table, it’ll not be in the centre of the window? If it’s in the centre of the window, it’ll be offset from the centre of the table.
(Sorry Russel: I know you drew the table centred on the window, but it isn’t going to be like that!)
I sketched up some options and researched light fittings. I decided that a strategy of working with the asymmetry with three pendant lights (one centred on the window, one centred on the table, and one offset) would satisfy my architectural desire for relating to centre lines The cables are now in position – can’t wait to see how the lights look.
First fix of services will be complete this week. I’ll report back once I started living in the EcoBungalow on whether we got it right – there are bound to be some things we wish we’d done differently!
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