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10-year study finds Passivhaus residents’ heating bill only £30 a quarter
CM Staff
The Passivhaus homes in Wimbish (Image: Hastoe Housing Association)
A 10-year assessment of the performance of one of the UK’s first rural affordable Passivhaus schemes found that it is still performing as designed.
The study of the 14 homes, built in 2011 by Hastoe Housing Association in Wimbish, Essex, revealed that some residents still only pay £30 per quarter for their heating.
The findings are published in a recent report written by Martin Ingham, a Passivhaus designer and independent consultant specialising in energy efficiency in the built environment.
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This latest assessment builds on the Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) funded Building Performance Evaluation study that covered the period from 1 April 2011 to 30 September 2013, and on assessments in 2016 and 2018.
The decade-long monitoring and assessment has confirmed there are no adverse performance trends and has also helped to identify defects so they can be remedied. The report makes recommendations to reduce the risk of future developments experiencing any ‘performance gap’.
Ingham said: “Earlier building performance evaluations confirmed the Wimbish Passivhaus development met Hastoe’s objective to deliver very low heating bills, while providing excellent comfort.
“The evaluation has now been continued to cover a 10-year period, and our recent reassessment has shown that heating and hot water costs remain a fraction of the cost for dwellings of comparable size. This will be invaluable for residents given the recent steep rise in energy costs, and shows the industry that by adopting high-performance standards, low bills can be achieved.”
Full details of the assessments, including the latest 10-year assessment, can be downloaded here.
The November/December 2025 issue of Construction Management magazine is now available to read in digital format.
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