Housing at Clonmel, Ireland

A 63‐house public authority scheme was chosen to monitor the energy performance of three house types: ‘standard’, ‘well insulated’ and ‘passive solar’, all essentially based on a prize‐winning house design in an EEC competition. However, inadequate space heating — since replaced —vitiated many of the expected energy savings, and in the passive solar design heat losses from the uninsulated south‐facing conservatory largely offset the solar gains. Experience also showed that some form of curtaining should be assumed when considering direct solar gain through windows. The author is a Senior Research Officer at An Foras Forbartha.