Planning Success in Westminster

We are delighted to have supported Bouygues UK in devising an integrated Energy Strategy for the proposed refurbishment of a hotel into 18 homes within a conservation area in the City of Westminster.

31-35 Craven Hill Gardens is one of five projects globally to have been shortlisted for the prodigious BREEAM Awards 2017.

Hodkinson Consultancy were instructed to devise an Energy Strategy to provide a challenging 60% reduction of Total CO2 emissions (Regulated and unregulated) which had been previously conditioned for planning.

In accordance with BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment (2012) methodology the pre-development fabric and services specification was researched to calculate the Regulated CO2 emissions Baseline. Unregulated CO2 emissions from cooking and appliances were calculated and used to set the Total CO2 Baseline.

To meet the requirements of Building Regulations Part L1B the existing buildings U-values needed to be significantly improved. A fabric first approach was used in line with the London Plan Energy Hierarchy to achieve 53% CO2 fabric savings from the Total CO2 Baseline.

A micro-CHP unit was installed to provide low carbon hot water. With low air permeability being specified for the homes, Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) was proposed to ensure each dwelling had an efficient supply of fresh air.

Finally, 9kWp of photovoltaic panels were installed on the roof to reduce the Total CO2 emissions by 62% over the baseline pre-development case. This met the challenging planning condition placed on the development and enabled a high score of energy credits aiding the developments ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating requirement.