Low energy design

Wickham Design Practice is focused on producing sustainable buildings for clients, whether they are new build or refurbished/ retrofitted. We believe in creating beautiful and functional spaces that not only meet the needs of our clients but also contribute to a more sustainable future. Our approach is based on the Passivhaus ‘fabric first’ philosophy, which can be applied to any type and scale of project.

Passivhaus standard

Passivhaus is a leading low energy building standard, developed by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany. In simple terms, a passivhaus (or passive house) building is able to provide a very good level of thermal comfort with a very low heating and cooling energy requirement.

Building fabric retrofit assessments

An analysis of the existing building that allows us to examine what level of energy usage a client’s home currently has, how it is constructed and how well or badly insulated it is, before proposing a range of options for upgrading the building fabric.

Retrofit

Improve your building’s energy use performance by making changes to the way it is insulated, ventilated and heated.

EnerPHit standard

We use the Passivhaus standard for new build homes and the EnerPHit standard for work to upgrade the performance of existing buildings. 

EnerPHit is the slightly less challenging standard for the retrofit and refurbishment of existing buildings, where achieving the passivhaus standard is not technically (or perhaps financially) feasible due to the nature of the existing construction.

Operational carbon

Retrofitting existing buildings with better insulation, glazing and heating systems etc allows us to radically reduce the amount of energy used to run buildings. This means a more comfortable environment and lower energy bills for occupants, but it also means that the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the operation of buildings is greatly reduced.

Retrofit and heat pump savings calculator

Try our interactive calculator to check how retrofitting your home and switching to using an ASHP could reduce your energy bills and carbon emissions.

Embodied carbon

If we are to make a meaningful difference to the impact that the construction industry has on the climate, and move towards net zero carbon, we must consider both the carbon cost of constructing the building in the first place (or retrofitting it) as well as operating it (heating, lighting and powering it in use)