Energy
Energy-Efficient Building Solutions
Advanced insulation, energy-efficient windows and smart home technologies, on new builds and on upgrades to buildings that already exist.
Upgrades that pay for themselves, and upgrades that do not
Reduce your energy costs and environmental impact with our energy-efficient building solutions. We offer a range of upgrades and improvements designed to enhance your home's energy performance, including advanced insulation, energy-efficient windows, and smart home technologies. The reason this is a separate service from the new-build work is that an existing house cannot be given a new shell, so the order of operations is different and so is the honest advice. On a new Zenith build the envelope is settled by the structure itself, because the expanded-polystyrene core of the Composite Blocking System is both the structural member and the insulation. On an existing building the envelope is whatever it already is, and the useful question becomes which improvements to it actually return the money. Zenith's wider consulting practice covers exactly that ground: building design reviews for high-performance optimization, feasibility and analysis for solar photovoltaic systems, waste and water management assessments, and financing strategies where the up-front cost is the obstacle rather than the technical case.
The order that usually makes sense
Understand the building first, improve the envelope second, and only then size equipment to the building you now have. Sizing equipment to a building you intend to improve is how a system ends up oversized, short-cycling and more expensive to run than the one it replaced. A design review is the cheapest step and the one that changes the others.
Zenith offers building design review and solar feasibility analysis as standalone services, not only as part of a build.
Energy
Shade is an energy measure
The cheapest cooling is the heat that never enters the building. Covered outdoor rooms, deep reveals and overhanging eaves are architectural decisions rather than equipment purchases, and they keep working with no running cost and nothing to service. On a hot, bright site they will often outperform an equipment upgrade of similar cost, and they do not degrade. Where the geometry can still be changed, this is the first place to look.