Staff Spotlight - Andy Cane
What do you do at Greengauge?
I’m part of the Building Physics team so my role focuses on finding ways to get buildings to use less energy, emit less CO2 and be healthier and more comfortable spaces to live and work. Our approach at Greengauge centres around the Passivhaus standard, so I’m often reviewing designs and thinking about insulation levels, airtightness, thermal bridging, overheating risk, moisture levels and the feasibility of renewables like solar and heat pumps.
What do you like most about your job?
Being able to make a positive environmental change in the construction industry. I also love getting to work with specialists in other fields such as architecture, structural engineering and construction – often buildings need to balance several competing requirements and understanding the different interrelations is interesting and rewarding.
I love being able to create computer models of buildings and using them to test scenarios to make them better – it can be satisfying and surprising seeing the impact even a small change like external shading can have on a building, and hugely rewarding seeing my suggestions being taken through to the construction stage.
What has been your favourite project so far?
I really enjoyed working on the Voreda House EnerPHit retrofit project for Westmorland and Furness Council. The project involved a complete EnerPHit retrofit of the council’s offices and I worked closely with the contractor to model the energy performance of the building and check
against the Passivhaus retrofit criteria. This involved understanding complex heat pump and air handing systems in detail so they could be accurately reflected in PHPP (the Passivhaus Planning Package). There were structural and budgetary constraints which made the project challenging, particularly the floor construction which needed to be modelled using 2D thermal bridging tools to check for moisture risk. Another challenge was the complexity of the façade which involved a structural steel frame (SFS) overclad with insulation panels – here the programme and cost-effectiveness of the system came up against the thermal challenges of mixing high-conductivity metals with low conductivity insulation, but with careful detailing by the architect and cataloguing and thermal modelling undertaken by us we were able to demonstrate excellent performance in-line with Passivhaus.
What are your hopes for our industry?
There are pockets of the industry where we’ve been consistently seeing great design for years – thoughtful use of glass, low impact materials and incredibly high quality workmanship. It’s been fantastic to see Passivhaus principles adopted by local authorities and major contractors – I really hope this trajectory continues through continual improvement of our statutory standards like the Building Regulations
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
During my last two years at school I spent one day a week doing a vocational course in motor vehicle mechanics. I loved having a break from academic work once a week to get stuck into something practical.