Custom built homes with a focus on sustainability to protect the beautiful natural environment
When deciding upon the type of homes that would be built at Rowallan Castle Estate, one of Scotland’s most beautiful natural locations, sustainability, low energy costs and protecting the environment for the next generation were at the heart of the design.
A £60 million partnership between Rowallan Castle Estate and Cherish Homes is behind the development of 79 luxury custom build homes on the 600-acre estate, and sustainability and reducing emissions was one of the key considerations for the property specialists.
Regardless of size or location on the idyllic site, every home will be triple glazed, highly insulated and utilise mechanical ventilation and heat recovery systems to achieve 100% airtightness.
As a result, they offer a significant saving on energy bills, and there will be further reductions if a ground source or air-source heat pump is installed to heat the home from the outside, even in cold weather. Most people will – as a minimum – see their energy bills plummet when moving from a similar sized but less efficient house. Others who install more equipment such as Tesla powerwalls and solar panels could see a nil energy cost per month, especially with Government-backed RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) energy subsidies.
It is anticipated that the homes will achieve a SAPs rating in the high 80s and air source or ground source heat pumps will achieve a high B rating while adding solar panels and other measures can push this to an A rating.
Existing owners of Cherish custom build homes have found that the RHI has exceed the cost of the electricity.
Steve Crotty, who built a home with Cherish in North Wales, said: “The house has never fallen below 22 degrees indoors and the metered usage for heat and water has been £40 a month over the period October to April. My RHI is £111 per quarter so over the course of the year (given there’ll be no heating used over the summer months) the RHI will exceed the cost of the electricity.”
The UK has outlined its commitment to reducing direct CO2 emissions from homes by 24% by 2030* and Stuart Law, chief executive of Cherish Homes, is seeing increased importance being placed on sustainability with buyers wanting to ‘future proof’ their homes.
He said: “We fully support the move to reduce CO2 emissions and we ensure that energy efficiency is at the heart of all our custom-built homes. We aren’t seeing much delivery of this with the national housebuilders but there is far more interest from smaller developers who are focused on delivering on what many customers really want.
“In our custom-build developments we are focused on protecting the environment as well as lowering running costs for homeowners by reducing energy demands for heating to a very low level by utilising renewable sources.
“All our homes are built using Passivhaus design principles which are superinsulated structures; have airtight construction; high-performance glazing; thermal-bridge-free detailing, and heat recovery ventilation.
“The new homeowner also has a direct input into any further energy-saving upgrades they may want such as rainwater harvesting or electric car-charging points and home batteries.”
The first 51 plots have been released for homes worth between £400,000 and £1 million and already 10 have been reserved.
Niall Campbell, owner of Rowallan Castle Estate, added: “These luxury homes at Rowallan Castle Estate will be built in one of Scotland’s most beautiful natural environments, set amongst stunning scenery and greenspace.
“The idyllic setting underlines the importance of protecting our environment for future generations and strengthens our commitment to creating stunning homes with minimal carbon emissions to ensure that we are building homes for the future.”
