20 Living in a factory built home More Homes Through Manufacture A Housing Forum Working Group Report “Thanks to the home being so well insulated and having the air filtration system, my eldest no longer has asthma.” Natasha Devlin, John Rous Avenue Coventry “When we found we had been successful in bidding for a house with Orbit, we drove round to have a look immediately,” says Natasha Devlin. “I was jumping up and down in the street when I saw the place. My first impression was that it is a lovely property on a great size plot. I was very happy.” Key building details: Building type: Passivhaus constructed using factory-built, timber frame panels by Beattie Passive Number of homes in scheme: two Client: Orbit Group Development time: 30 weeks. Roughly the same time as would take for a traditionally built home Development cost: £1,430/m2 for a home built to the German Passivhaus standard. Usual cost for such a property is £1,800/ m2, although Orbit had hoped to do it for £1,100/m2. A home built to Code for Sustainable Homes level three would cost £1,000/ m2 Date of completion: October 2013 Who lives here: Resident: Natasha Devlin, partner and two daughters aged 12 and 7 Type of tenure: social rent of £128 a week Lived there since: November 2013 Number of bedrooms: three Occupation: housewife Ms Devlin was unaware at first that the house was one of two built by housing association Orbit Group as part of a pilot project to explore the use of offsite manufacturing techniques to construct homes built to the highly insulated German Passivhaus standard. “When I found out it is a Passivhaus, I felt absolutely brilliant,” she says. “My children have asthma and we had been living in an old private rented property in Coventry that was much colder and draughty. As a result we had the heating on almost the whole time and this was terrible for the girls as it dried the air out and really affected their asthma. “Now, thanks to the home being so well insulated and having the air filtration system, my eldest is no longer classed as suffering from asthma and the youngest is far better too. They both used to suffer from eczema and that has gone right down as well,” Ms Devlin adds. The family’s cost of living has also dropped substantially. Rent has fallen from £650 a month in their previous private rented home to £512. Ms Devlin says she was spending £40-£60 a week on electricity and gas, but that this has now fallen to £150 a month at most. John Barnham, Head of Sustainable Investment at Orbit Group, says that although Orbit is pleased with the scheme, it has not yet built any further projects using off-site manufacturing techniques in its 1,000-home a year development programme. This is because it is conducting a review to see what is a realistic cost for an OSM development before it commits to further schemes. Mr Barnham adds that, while maintenance issues to date have been no different to those he would expect on a traditionally built project, there has been a “real learning curve for staff and tenants over the use of the mechanical ventilation kit and generally ensuring the air-tight membrane of the home is not punctured by drilling holes for pictures or to install Sky TV.” He says Orbit has provided a junction box for satellite or cable TV that avoids the need to drill holes and that residents are informed of this. Ms Devlin says she would definitely recommend the home to her friends. “They are all very envious of the quality of where I live and have all commented on it. We’re really happy here and would give it 10 out of 10.”
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