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Cronksbank Cottage update

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Croskbank Cottage nestled in the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, surrounded by lush greenery and rolling hills, with a peaceful, rural landscape in the background.

It’s a while since we have given an update on Cronksbank Cottage. Our social media followers will have seen the short video we made in May earlier this year with our architects, Chris and Rachel, from John Gilbert Architects.

Since then we have got the feasibility report from the architects which we would like to share with you. We asked the architect to look at what options were available to us and weigh up the costs and benefits – starting off with the most basic refurbishment through to Passivhaus standard.  The architect gave us a number of options to consider which have been discussed with the board. The report makes for interesting reading and we liked the focus on fabric first and not just relying on ‘technology’.

 

Pasivhaus is the leading international low energy building standard. In the report, the architect detailed 4 options for us to consider:

  • Option 1 involves addressing all issues raised in the condition survey but none of the works mentioned relate directly to energy efficiency.
  • Option 2 is as per option 1 plus all energy efficiency or low carbon services sufficient to get the cottage to pass the EESSH2 standard by using RdSAP.
  • Option 3 sets out the work that would be needed to meet the AECB Carbonlite Standard.
  • Option 4 is broadly similar to Option 2 but with some tweaks relevant to the property.

After discussions the trustees have agreed to pursue Option 4.

So what happens now? We have been a bit delayed with the next stages whilst we worked out whether or not we were going to need planning permission for the refurbishment works (we don’t) so now we can go ahead with tender documents so we can get costs before putting in a submission to the Rural Housing Fund for capital support for the project. RHF won’t cover all the costs so we will be considering a range of funding options.

We are going to have an evening talk from the architect, Chris Morgan, later this year and, if funding allows, we are hoping to hold a workshop in spring of next year which will be a practical hands on how to undertake energy efficiency in our own homes.  Watch this space for dates.

Thanks to both the Rural Housing Fund and Solway Bank windfarm for funding the work todate. If you want more information on the project, contact angela on angela@tarrasvalleynaturereserve.co.uk

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