A DGS Super E eco home in Oakley, Bedfordshire will be featured in the new Discovery Real Time TV series “House in a Box” at 9pm on Thursday 27^th April.  

The house is one of 5 house builds (another is an £800,000 Huf Haus) featured in the series. The series starts on 13^th April and is in the ”Grand Designs” format, but specialises exclusively on Modern Methods of Construction. 

Two half hour shows will be screened about the construction of the Oakley home, and an earlier show will feature the Super E Home in Cornwall as an introduction to the Super E MMC.

The house:

A three bedroom 1 ½ storey detached home, with a large open plan living area downstairs. The living room has a high cathedral style ceiling and a huge double sided gas fire, which also faces the kitchen area. 

Eco features: 

Super E construction: Using engineered insulated timber panels, this new construction system ensures that air leakage (from draughts etc) is minimised to reduce energy bills and ensure occupant comfort. Increased air tightness significantly reduces the air movement (and with it heat and energy) through the fabric of the building from over 10 air changes an hour to 1.5 air changes. High levels of insulation are utilised to further reduce the energy requirement of the home. 

It also ensures that the embodied energy within the construction materials is significantly reduced. The Super E building system has recently been endorsed by the Energy Saving Trust.  

Heat Recovery ventilation: This sophisticated ventilation system utilises at heat exchanger to heat the incoming fresh air with the warm stale air that is being expelled from the kitchens and bathrooms. 95% of the heat in the outgoing air is extracted. The same system filters the incoming air, so that moisture, dirt and pollen can be removed before it enters the house.

High Specification Low E double glazed windows: The windows achieve excellent solar gain on the highly glazed south elevation of the house. Both the windows and the doors are designed to be completely draught-free. 

Solar panels: Two solar collectors mounted on the roof provide 50% of the homes hot water heating requirement. 

Underfloor heating: Underfloor heating, which can reduce heating bills by up to 40%, is installed on the ground floor. 

High efficiency boiler: A highly efficient Worcester Bosch condensing boiler, recommended by the Energy Saving Trust is installed for space and water heating.  

Plant room: A dedicated plant room is utilised to maximise the efficiency of the heating systems 

Timeline: 

16th April 2005: We met the client at the National Homebuilding and Renovating show. He gave us a set of fairly rudimentary planning drawings,

19^th April 2005: Site visit

4^th May: Budget figures were provided.

27^th May: The client pays his deposit for the timber frame package so that the design could commence.

27^th July: The existing Bungalow is demolished

28^th August: Foundations and floor beams completed and installed.

2^nd September: The first two containers arrive from Canada

16^th September: All panels installed

21^st October: Roof weather tight.

17^th February: Internal work complete

27^th February: The client moved in.