Edinburgh ultra-low carbon solar home wins prestigious award

An Edinburgh home has won a prestigious award for the range of different energy saving and renewable energy generation technologies in the house. The award winning concept was developed by architect Rob Goodburn who set out to create a zero-carbon, green property.

Goodburn enlisted the help of local Edinburgh solar specialists Solar Kingdom to aid evaluation and planning to optimise the integrated use of the technologies. Solar Kingdom were further involved with the installation and commissioning.

The state of the art home was presented with the Best Integrated Renewable System as part of the Next Energy News category at the Solar Power Portal Awards 2015 for “those who have taken a holistic approach to green technologies, integrating a number of complementary technologies to create an optimum solution.”

The Edinburgh home includes extensive cutting edge insulation, triple glazed windows and doors, a whole house heat recovery system, LED lighting, solar PV and solar thermal panels integrated into the roof covering and a state of the art renewable heating system. This has resulted in not only an ultra-low carbon building, but the team worked tirelessly to create an aesthetically pleasing house that demonstrates just how beautiful green homes can be.

Peter Randall, Solar Kingdom, said: “Working with Rob on this project has been a joy. He has the most in-depth knowledge of both building performance and the positive impact renewable technologies can have of any architect I have worked with. Combining this with my own expertise allowed us to fully realise the project’s potential. The end result is a great looking house anyone would aspire to own.

I am incredibly proud that it has been recognised as a market leading project by at the Solar Power Portal awards.”

Rob and his family can now look forward to living in an ultra-low carbon property with very low running costs thanks to the range of different energy saving and generating technologies that all complement each other.  A study of the building’s performance once the family has lived there for a while is planned in conjunction with a local University and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) to evaluate aspects of the buildings performance.