16 November, 2025 | General, Projects, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
[See below for photos and videos]
Shoreham Beach House is located on a shingle beach on the South Coast in Sussex and the rear of the site has the enviable orientation of facing due south and having a beach aspect with fantastic views along the coast in both directions. Architecturally the house faces south with the main living space on the top floor with a large terrace to make best use of the views, and with the first floor master and guest bedrooms with their own terrace.
About half the total energy used by a low energy building in it’s lifetime is the initial ‘upfront’ carbon used in construction, the ‘embodied carbon’, and so reuse of the existing building was considered, but was unfortunately not possible while achieving the design brief. The form of the building is roughly cuboid resulting in a good surface area to volume ratio (Form Factor) and thus lower heat loss than a more complicated shape. The site is at risk of flooding from the sea and so was raised 300mm and the ground floor and walls were constructed in waterproof concrete. However, the upper floors switch to steel frame, timber infill and cellulose (recycled newspaper) insulation to minimise the carbon footprint.
The main technical criteria was to provide a low energy, comfortable and healthy indoor environment year round and the Passivhaus methodology was used to ensure this was achieved. The building was modelled in the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) which demonstrated a Heating Demand around 15 KWh/m2/yr (the target to meet Passivhaus). Large areas of sliding doors were a fundamental part of the design brief, and it was assessed early on that this would make achieving the Passivhaus airtightness criteria of 0.6 ACH near impossible, as was proved to be the case with a (still very respectable) air test result of 0.76 ACH. Interestingly, when the sliding doors were taped up as an experiment, a second air test achieved 0.48 ACH. The building meets the slightly less stringent criteria for a Low Energy Building (LEB) as defined by the Passivhaus Institute, but is not certified.
The need to manage overheating drove the overall aesthetics of the project, especially to the south, with southerly overhangs to all three floors being achieved through the balcony, terrace and second floor overhangs, which were continued around the building. High levels of insulation, sliding timber shutters to the south and west elevations, and cross ventilation designed in, all ensure excellent passive solar control and the PHPP modelling demonstrated minimal overheating.
See full details in the blog
25 August, 2025 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Some quick snaps of Shoreham Beach, built to Passivhaus Low Energy Building Standards.
30 July, 2024 | Events, General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Last chance to book a place on the second (and final) opportunity to view a fantastic Passivhaus Low Energy Building, this time nearing competition, during a tour this Saturday 3rd August at 10am.
Lots of interesting topics for discussion such as the planning process, flood risk, contaminated land, Foamglas insulated raft foundations, brick slips, twin stud wall system, liquid airtightness, triple glazed frameless sliding doors, twin MVHR ventilation with active cooling, passive solar control and much more!
Numbers are limited and places must be reserved through Jim at jim@jimmillerdesign.co.uk. Tour likely to be 1.5 hours including questions. Review the storey so far.
22 July, 2024 | Events, General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Just a remimder about the second (and final) opportunity to view a fantastic Passivhaus Low Energy Building, this time nearing competition, during a tour on Saturday 3rd August at 10am.
Lots of interesting topics for discussion such as the planning process, flood risk, contaminated land, Foamglas insulated raft foundations, brick slips, twin stud wall system, liquid airtightness, triple glazed frameless sliding doors, twin MVHR ventilation with active cooling, passive solar control and much more!
Numbers are limited and places must be reserved through Jim at jim@jimmillerdesign.co.uk. Tour likely to be 1.5 hours including questions. Review the storey so far.
12 July, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The privacy screens (to the east and west) to the first floor balcony and second floor terrace have been installed (as required by Planning) with reeded glass which obscures the view but minimises the visual impact. The balustrades to the south are clear glass.
21 June, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The intermediate air test result came in at 0.77 ACH
The building has huge quantities of sliding doors which are inherently leaky, so it was always going to be a challenge to make the opaque building fabric so good it offset this.
The Keller Minimal 4+ system is triple glazed and so more rigid than the double glazed units but still relies on simple brush seals for airtightness and was always going to be the weak point on the building (see image of smoke test)
A second air test was undertaken with the sliding doors taped which suggested the doors might account for perhaps 0.5 ACH and so excluding the sliding doors, the airtightness for the rest of the building might be around 0.3 ACH. In order to meet the Passivhaus criteria of 0.6 ACH, the rest of the building would have had to achieve an airtightness of 0.1 ACH to fully offset the sliding doors, and this was beyond the brief set by the clients and perhaps beyond what is achievable with a steel frame and with a pragmatic budget.
This is an impressive result and testament to the efforts of the whole team, and a sub 1 ACH result means the building meets the airtightness criteria for a Passivhaus Low Energy Building.
10 May, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Plasterboard is being installed, with resilient bars (and insulation) to the ceilings and double layers of plasterboard to some walls to reduce noise. See video for beach scene.
4 April, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The upper timber walls are injected with Warmcel (recycled newspaper) insulation which is highly vapour open (‘breathable’) thereby safeguarding the building should moisture make it past the air and vapour layer. Core holes are drilled in the board, the insulation injected, and then the plug reinserted and taped over. Note the test hole where the insulation thickness of 340mm and the associated density has been noted – critical to ensure the insulation doesn’t slump. Pumping the insulation completely fills awkward spaces saving labour costs, and being newspaper, sequesters carbon – a great solution, but unfortunately rarely used.
3 April, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The twin stud timber external walls to the upper floors are clad internally with an air and vapour tight board and taped to stop air movement, reducing heat loss and safeguarding the building fabric from moisture damage. Where floor joists run parallel to walls, the boards are taken through the floor void to simplify airtightness detailing (as shown).
4 March, 2024 | AECB | BSBM meeting, General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Great turnout despite the weather for Saturday’s tour, lovely bunch of people and hopefully managed to spread the low energy | high performance | Passivhaus message.
8 February, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus', Uncategorised
7 February, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The IQ sliding doors to the south elevation have now been installed. These are ‘frameless’ i.e. the frame to the head and sill is hidden within the structure and the vertical frame (where the panels meet) is a little as 26mm wide – to maximise the view and connection with the outside. A completely level threshold is both visually appealing but also provides easy access for all occupants.
The sliders to the top floor wrap around the east and west for fantastic views along the coast to Worthing and the Seven Sisters, and the 2 sets of 3 panels create a huge opening on to the terrace.
The doors are triple glazed to limit heat loss and ensure thermal comfort (even in the depths of winter) and which allow the internal room temperature to be 1 – 2 degrees lower, further saving energy.
The significant overhangs will stop much of the sun hitting the glass in the warmer months, but the sliders have solar control glass to further limit overheating. The doors can also be locked slightly open, between 10 – 100mm to allow ‘secure’ ventilation day and night to further mitigate against overheating. The first floor doors onto the main bedrooms will have sliding timber shutters which can be deployed to completely stop any sun hitting the doors and ensure a good nights sleep!
22 January, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
To limit solar gain in the summer at the back of the property (which faces the sea and is due south), all floors have significant overhangs. This (final) phase of the steel provides a 1.8m canopy to the second floor terrace.
8 January, 2024 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The second floor main roof is now in place, framing the amazing sea views from the wrap around glazing to open plan top floor.
7 December, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The second floor (phase 5) steel is now installed giving the form of the final building with amazing views from the open plan living space and from the terrace.
1 December, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Canopy along the west boundary at first floor over level showing (red) ‘internal’ steel and (silver) ‘external’ galvanised steel with (grey) thermal breaks and timber trimmers. Note the cant to the underside of the canopy (soffit) to minimise the visual impact and pre-drilled holes to receive the facia.
Fibreglass to the flat roofs (awaiting coloured top coat) is continuous across the flat roof, over the kerb, and up against the external walls to safeguard against the driving wind and rain regularly experienced on this exposed coastal location. The external walls are clad in a breathable (i.e. vapour open) Elka Strong Board (cream coloured) and Magply MOS board (not shown) where fire resistance is required (along the boundaries).
The full extent of the view is now possible from the second floor with Worthing to the east, the chalk cliffs to the west and the South Downs to the north. The (silver) Alutrix 600 vapour control layer to the flat roof sections seals at laps and joints and around any penetrations to ensure an air and moisture tight barrier. The (white) SIGA Wetguard protects the floor structure from the elements during construction.
24 November, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Airtightness is critical to reducing heat loss and also preventing air migrating through the building fabric potentially leading to moisture damage. Steel frame was the only option to the upper floors to enable the large openings, but steel makes airtightness difficult. Pro Clima Aerosana is a liquid airtightness which can be brush applied and is much quicker and simpler than using tapes (and also easily allows the steel itself to be made part of the airtightness layer) thus providing significant cost savings. The (white) Aerosana is permanently flexible and can span gaps up to 20mm and the image shows joining the steel to the concrete and also sealing around the bolts.
6 October, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The first floor steel (phase 3) is now installed, with 2 columns extending full height.
27 September, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Updated visualisation now with Google Earth data by Mission Digital Graphics Click&Mix
18 September, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
From the outset, the house was modelled in the Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP) which suggested compliance with the Passivhaus (heating Demand) criteria of 15 KWh/m2/year, and with a dedicated and experienced team, meeting the 0.6 ACH airtightness target was a reasonable assumption, hence the provisional name Shoreham Beach ‘Passivhaus’. However, certification is not being sought and the PHPP model has not been maintained as the project has evolved, and so compliance with the criteria cannot be assumed, and so the Passivhaus label cannot be used. That said, the PHPP model does demonstrate that the house will meet the (approximately half as demanding) Passivhaus Institute Low Energy Building Standard (PHI LEB) criteria of 30 KWh/m2/year so the house could reasonably be called the Shoreham Beach ‘Passivhaus Institute Low Energy Building’ and if the completed project achieves better than 1 ACH airtightness, the quotation marks could be removed.
14 July, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The views from the first floor (bedrooms) are impressive and there’s another storey (living space) to go! You can see the steel frame for the balcony and shading to the ground floor.
6 July, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Unlike the steel within the building the steel outside the thermal envelope is galvanised (silver) to protect it from the elements, and predrilled for trimming out in timber and fixing a facia.
The steel frame gives an initial impression of the canopy to the ground floor south elevation to limit solar gain and thus minimise overheating, critical to passive comfortable indoor conditions (and without the need for mechanical cooling).
The (Scheock) thermal breaks separate the internal and external steels, reducing heat loss and even more critically avoiding the risk of condensation forming on the internal structure.
6 July, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Posi joists have a timber top and bottom chord separated by a steel web which are stable and allow services, especially ventilation ductwork to run easily around the building. You can also see a opening for a roof light in the photo.
The garage roof is also Posi joists and you can see the firrings creating the fall to the ‘flat’ roof outlet in the centre.
14 June, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Phase 1 steel (ground floor over) installed in just 1/2 day.
Eagle eyes will spot the heavy bolts to the steel either side of the opening which were required to limit any (live load) deflection in the steel to less than 2mm!
Holes have been pre formed in the concrete walls and the steel for the ventilaiton system.
30 May, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Concrete pour to the rear boundary Stepoc walls and the garden concrete slabs.
The concrete footings to the external Stepoc boundary walls can be seen, perhaps overkill but they will be robust in the event of flooding!
The external insulation is being applied (in this case between the garage and the house) with recessed thermally broken fixings and then capped with insulation plugs.
View of the front elevation.
The garage walls.
The internal walls are all masonry against potential flooding. This is the steam room.
Rear garden walls and slabs for seating.
The concrete toe of the boundary wall can be seen to the left, with the Foamglas kerb on the right with the brown drainage material between, forming the side alley along the east.
27 March, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Both the slab and ground floor walls use GGBS to reduce the cement content of the concrete and lower the carbon footprint. The ground floor concrete walls are also waterproof to limit damage if flooding should ever occur. The heavy weight of the concrete will also offset any buoyancy should the site ever be flooded to a significant depth.
The Peri shuttering has been struck exposing the timber formwork creating the window opening to the spa.
Holes for the the ventilation (MVHR) ductwork have been pre-formed in the walls.
One section of Peri shuttering remains to be struck.
16 March, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Chris testing the adhesion of the various compoenents to the exteral wall build up – GreenGuard GG300 XPS (closed cell for flooding) insulation (with layers bonded with Constructa Pro) to the EWI-226 adhesive to the Deuxan waterproofing to the Stepoc block. Impressive!
16 March, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The ground floor Peri shuttering is going up ready for the concrete pour with plywood blanks for doors and windows.
3 March, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Peri formwork for the waterproof reinforced concrete walls with Stepoc blockwork along the abutment to allow phased waterproofing and insulation to the neighbour. A great view of the sea even from the ground floor!
22 February, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
The 275mm thick RC slab uses waterproof concrete to avoid saturating the slab in the (hopefully unlikely) event of flooding. The Foamglas kerb can be seen which provides a continuous ‘wrapping’ around the slab and avoids cold bridging (and also provides an additional very robust protection from ground water in the event of flooding).
22 February, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Delta Membranes DualProof membrane protects against ground water, gases and contaminents and the fleece face bonds to the concrete slab. Also shows rebar ready to pour the concrete slab.
10 February, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
A raft foundation was required on the beach shingle, and to avoid cold bridging a continuous slab of insulation with integral upstands (kerbs) was created using Foamglas. The Foamglas is impervious to contaminants but most critically, water which could be useful in this Flood Zone 3 location. 2 layers of 150mm Foamglas T4+ boards (300mm overall) achieves a U value of 0.11 W/m2K which will be worthwhile over a perhaps 150 year life. Foamglas is an expensive option but it’s long term resistance to pretty much everything means it is less likely to fail and should last at least as long as the building. The kerbs are the formwork creating a tray in which to pour the slab, a very simple solution, much like the Isoquick system used on a previous project.
19 January, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
13 January, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
3 January, 2023 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Pipe used for Injection grounting to west boundary to stabilise shingle
Contaminated shingle removed
Contaminated shingle
Boundary wall preparaton
2 November, 2022 | General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
At last the house has been demolished.
22 September, 2022 | Airtightness, Events, General, Shoreham beach 'Passivhaus'
Very successful training session with Roots Construction pre-commencement on site, including advanced construction, Passivhaus and an overview of the scheme, followed by hands on airtightness training by SIGA.
