Oliver Cooper – MA(Hons) DipArch MSc RIBA

Retrofit Options Appraisal

Using the Passivhaus Planning Package, we carried out an early, design stage assessment of the impact of various retrofit options on the overall heating energy demand of a detached house. This included an assesment of the benefits of various types of “skirt” insulation to the perimeter, in lieu of more expensive floor insulation options.

Thermal Bridging Study for a Retrofit Project

Repositioning of flitched beam below the top of the insulation changes a terrible thermal bridge (Psi=0.14) into an acceptable one.

House Extension & Re-organisation: Towards EnerPhit

Passivhaus Designer

I am very pleased to confirm that I am now a Certified Passive House Designer.

Passivhaus is a complete design & construction philosophy that results in exceptionally low heating and cooling demands, achieving savings of over 75% versus average new builds¹. A building can only be certified as a Passive House if it is designed and verifiably built to stringent criteria on thermal and acoustic comfort, on air quality and energy demand.

^{1 – https://passipedia.org/basics/what_is_a_passive_house}

Report | MSc in Sustainable Building Performance and Design: Bioregional Approach

Charting ‘Tentacles’ of Bioregional Food Production: Mapping the Energy-‐Proximity of Food Sources to Oxford

An approximation of Carbon Emissions produced by rail transport of good to Oxford, assuming equal CO2 per tonne of goods transported across the network, mapped using GIS software.

An approximation of Carbon Emissions produced by lorry transport of good to Oxford, assuming equal CO2 per tonne of goods transported across the network, mapped using GIS software.

Please contact me if you would like to read the full study report produced as part of my MSc, which looks at the historical growth of transportation networks supplying Oxford with food and evaluates the Carbon Intensity of its current food supply methods.

Data Sources:

Carbon Intensity of Transport – DEFRA 2009 – Guidelines to Defra / DECC’s GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting: Methodology Paper for Emission Factors