Sustainability Action Plan

Case studies

Parity Projects - Carshalton Grove

The house at Carshalton Grove is a single-skinned (non cavity-walled) house built in 1870 and was in need of renovation throughout. Due to its ubiquitous design and decorative standard it was a prime candidate for applying and testing eco-principles for future reproduction.
Additionally, Carshalton Grove was deliberately acquired as it has no south facing roofs, thereby making the harvesting of solar energy that much more difficult. Clearly, if we can achieve significant reductions in energy consumption with this house, we can do it anywhere.
They have used 8 different types of insulation to monitor performance. These are; Sheep Wool, Recycled Cotton/Hemp, Recycled Newspaper, Multi-foil, Polyurethane, Polyisocyanurate, Expanded Polystyrene and Wood fibre board. By using recycled and locally sourced materials Parity Projects have been able to reduce the embodied energy of the renovation.

A proportion of the energy used will be provided by solar thermal panels. Domestic level micro-generation is the only area where the business case is weak at this time as micro-wind turbines and solar voltaic panels are simply not cost effective for mass installation. To support this assertion Parity Projects have installed a weather station on the roof of the house to show just how much natural resource is available for such technologies. The information from this instrument can also be compared alongside the performance data from the fabric of the house to show how each insulation material reacts to changes in external conditions.

In order to reduce water consumption rainwater harvesting has been implemented as well as the installation of water efficient appliances with the aim of achieving a 60% reduction compared to the norm. For more information visit Parity Projects' website.

Photo: Carshalton Grove, Russell Smith

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