Greater energy efficiency is undoubtedly the key to running a care home that is more sustainable in terms of both financial viability and environmental impact, according to Mark Elton, certified Passivhaus architect at Cowan Architects
Care home heating costs can be a big issue, particularly at this time of year. The need for warmth in buildings that may have seen many different incarnations will not have gone unnoticed in the care sector, where heating is one of the single biggest costs to have a significant impact on the bottom line.
In his report ‘Securing Health Returns’, John Holden, director of policy partnership and innovation for NHS England, acknowledges that: “We don’t always have to choose between saving financial resources or protecting the environment – indeed, the most effective investments can often save money, improve health now, and safeguard the environment on which all future health depends. What’s good for the environment, and good for health, can be good for the nation’s finances too.”1
Historically, by far the biggest environmental impact any building has over its lifetime is in relation to the energy used to heat or cool the spaces within it. Cutting down on this energy use should be one of the over-riding considerations in the design of cost-effective, ecofriendly buildings, yet studies have shown that more often than not, so-called ‘low energy buildings’ have failed to deliver on their predicted performance targets.2
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