Self-build has never been this easy, or advanced. With more than 80 years experience in quality pre-manufactured SIP building construction and, with more than 30,000 houses built throughout Europe, (including the Certified Passivhaus), HANSE HAUS is renowned not only for it’s efficiency, but for it’s imagination, quality, flexibility and personal service.
All of this means that you can now build the house that you really want. Whether it’s luxury living, top quality fixtures and fittings, help with planning permission, low running costs, a quick, efficient, quality build time – or all of them, HANSE HAUS offer a Start2Finish service so that you can build your bespoke home.
“We were on a 12-week contract for handover”, says Gordon Wilson, who built with HANSE HAUS in Godstone, Surrey, “and, despite the fact that Christmas fell within this time frame, the house was finished in just 10 weeks, 2 weeks ahead of schedule. It wasn’t just the incredibly efficient build time that we benefited from, but also the fact that with HANSE HAUS our costs were static, meaning that the entire build didn’t cost a penny more than was agreed from the outset”.
Hanse Haus customers, Victor & Yolanda Woolf, whose house was constructed earlier this year in Elstree, North London, worked with HANSE HAUS on their own concept design. “A HANSE HAUS architect was able to make some suggestions on how to tidy our design up, which we took on board, and they also introduced us to the idea of a basement, which better accomodates the technology and allows for the vaulted ceilings that we wanted. Not only this but but we were very attracted by the planning permission package that HANSE HAUS offered, meaning that they were instrumental in helping us obtain planning and that our initial fee (at 2.5% of quoted guide price) was 100% refundable against our construction contract price, once planning was approved.
Not only this, but when it came to ‘sampling’, or choosing fixtures and fittings, we were given considerable guidance and were very impressed by the standard spec, which includes the top quality products that we wanted”, says Mr Woolf.
Energy Efficient Homes –
At HANSE HAUS, energy efficient homes are a pre-requisite to any self-build and with most designs, HANSE HAUS can build your new home to meet Passive, and Code 6 standards, providing you with a superior, more cost effective, and even healthier environment to live in.
These benefits can be put down to the meticulously master-planned manufacturing that’s employed at HANSE HAUS. With extremely efficient insulation and a building shell that is virtually airtight, HANSE HAUS homes achieve a very low space-heating requirement – ranging from Passive standards at 15KW/M2 (where home owners can look forward to spending just £25-£30 per month on their energy bills) to the standard HANSE HAUS home at 60KW/M2.
What is a Passivhaus?
The Passivhaus is first and foremost a house which achieves outstanding thermal insulation and an extremely low space heating requirement of only 15 kWh per square metre of floor area per annum.
With detailed technical construction, particular attention is paid to the building envelope – the shell – to make sure it’s completely airtight, ensuring that no heat can leak out through joints or gaps.
With large, south facing windows, natural solar radiation is used efficiently to heat the Passivhaus. But inside the house itself, heat is also produced by the occupants, from electrical appliances, cooking and lighting and utilised through a central ventilation system with heat recovery constantly changing the air in the living areas and recycling warmth contained in the exhaust air via a heat exchanger into the incoming fresh air. In fact, in the Passivhaus, over 80% heat recovery can be gained from ventilation exhaust air.
“Although energy efficiency and associated low running costs hadn’t been a primary objective when first setting out to build our own house, it became more apparent that these factors did make long term economic sense. Now we’re living in a house that exceeds our expectations and whilst being bigger and warmer than our previous house, the fact that we don’t have a gas bill landing on our doormat any more, puts a smile on our faces. We had oil-fuelled heating and hot water, in our old house, which cost a small fortune. Imagine how big that bill would have been after last years’ cold winter, and the increase in fuel costs”, says Richard Stent owner of HANSE HAUS’ first certified Passivhaus, in the UK.
Energy Positive Homes –
HANSE HAUS are also manufacturers of Energy Positive Homes (EPH). In simple terms, an EPH produces more energy than it uses.
In order to make this possible, HANSE HAUS start by constructing an outer shell of the home, which is virtually airtight and has incredibly efficient insulation. With heat unable to escape easily through walls and roofing, far less energy is required to maintain a comfortable internal living environment.
If a home is then fitted with energy generating technologies such as photovoltaic panels, electricity can be produced in high enough quantities to not only totally offset the smaller amount required to heat and run the home, but also to produce an excess, which is then sold back to the national grid earning the owner a ‘positive’ income.
HANSE HAUS are now delivering across the UK, including the Channel Islands. To view a completed HANSE HAUS, or one that’s currently being built, or to join HANSE HAUS at an exhibition or site open day in the UK – please contact Giles Hirst on 0845 658 9780. For more information, go to: www.hanse-haus.co.uk
