Ramley Road
Super energy-efficient, low carbon replacement dwelling

This replacement four-bedroomed dwelling is located on Ramley Road and faces onto Pennington Common, close to the Georgian market town of Lymington, Hampshire. The 1950s three-bedroomed house that previously occupied the site suffered from extensive cracking from subsidence and was beyond economic repair.

The key requirement of the clients’ brief was to create a low carbon dwelling – both in terms of operational and also embedded carbon. To fulfil this objective, the house is of timber frame construction, highly insulated and air-tight, with MVHR to achieve near Passivhaus standards (performance which is well in excess of the requirements of the 2025 Future Homes Standard).

The south-west-facing roof includes an inline 6.5kWp photovoltaic array which interfaces with battery storage, allowing the occupants to ‘load balance’ their electricity usage (minimise demand during peak periods).  Hot water / heating is provided by an air source heat pump (ASHP). 

The main volume of the house – a deliberately simple, traditional gable-to-gable form - has been designed both to minimise construction costs, but also to allow for robust, energy-efficient detailing. 

At ground floor, the single-storey kitchen / dining / living room has been pulled away from this main body of the house by means of a narrow link, creating a small planted courtyard that ensures that high levels of daylight are achieved in the accessible ground floor bedroom.  The triple-glazed windows are generously sized to achieve a high daylight factor and minimise the requirement for artificial lighting, and to provide views out to the common to the front and garden to the rear.  A full-width rear dormer allows for a master bedroom with en-suite to be created in the roof space.

 
 

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