Local low-energy building design company, Whole House Energy, was set up by Jackie Richards and her two partners, Andrew Fisher and Alex Honey after leaving the University of East Anglia. The business provides professional advice about energy efficiency and sustainability to architects, developers and self-builders alike.

Although refurbishing a house or building a home with insulation and alternative heating methods can reduce energy bills by up to 85%, there was a gap for new sites in Norwich that presented exciting opportunities.

Ms Richards said the £400m of development money put out to tender by Norwich City Council for three sites in the city: Three Score Bowthorpe, Goldsmiths Street and Hansard Close – had given the go ahead to deliver the gold standard in green energy architecture called Passivhaus.

"A couple of weeks ago the city council announced that these three sites had to be up to Passivhaus standards, which is effectively really pioneering for the region," said Ms Richards. "They are forcing the contractor to build to that level, which is great."

What is Passivhaus?

Passivhaus is the fastest growing energy performance standard in the world with 30,000 certified buildings across Europe. The Passivhaus standards strengths lie in the simplicity of its approach; build a house that has an excellent thermal performance, exceptional airtightness with mechanical ventilation.

This vigorous approach to building design allow the designer to minimise the 'heating demand' of the building and in some residential buildings, only specify a heated towel rail as means of conventional heating. This heat can then be recovered and circulated by Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery (MVHR) unit.

Whole House Energy will be the first in the east of England to deliver the German-grown Passivhaus standards to architects and housing associations in the region and expand its client base in Norfolk, Peterborough, Cambridge and occasionally London.

"The council's decision is a good thing for us, it means we're in the right place at the right time," said Ms Richards. "Norwich City Council are really creating a market and demand for low energy buildings."

Although Norfolk is known for its renewable energy efforts along the coast line, low energy buildings was also a strong area of growth which could do with more investments, she added.

At PWE we think this is a great opportunity and will put Norfolk on the map even more so than it already is when it comes to energy efficient solutions. If you are currently looking for a job role in the energy sector, take a look at our vacancies database.