Green Design

Structure

The Eco Visitor-Centre is designed to face the morning sun with a large area of energy efficient glazing covered by an overhang calculated to maximise winter sun but shade the building from overheating in summer.

The roof is made of a lightweight aluminium structure designed to reduce materials for building infrastructure (where ecojoists are employed) and is insulated with recycled newspaper. The walls are super-insulated and the concrete floor acts as a huge thermal store to control temperature.

The building is naturally ventilated on the southerly sheltered side. The 500m2 of roof area collects rainwater into a 2,000 litre tank to use for flushing, which not only saves drinking quality water, but also avoids further unnecessary drainage.

Drinking water is obtained by inline filtration systems rather than imported bottles. All rooms are fitted with presence sensors that control the lighting, heating and the hot water systems include weather compensators and optimisers to increase operational efficiency.

Many recycled materials have been specified throughout the building such the carpets, PFA in the blockwork, insulation material (glass and paper) and recycled paper dispensers in some of the toilets for hand drying (which is recycled after use in normal post-consumer streams).

Renewables

The building provides about 50% of its electrical needs from a 20 kW wind turbine producing 52MWh of energy a year.

The hotwater is provided by 4m2 of solar panel providing over 50% of the hot water needs.

The heating for rooms is provided by a groundsource heat pump with 8 boreholes reaching up to 30 m below ground. This provides 80% of the heating in the rooms through an underfloor heating system topped up by electrical heating. In addition, all of the electricity supplied to the building that is not generated onsite is from renewable sources.

Detailed explanation of the building and renewables:

All elements of the building fabric and renewables are explained in our Fact Pack.