Our work

Trent Park, Enfield

Our client, Berkeley Homes NE London, planned a comprehensive and sensitive refurbishment of several Grade II Listed and locally important buildings on the former Trent Park campus of Middlesex University. As the energy and overheating consultant on behalf of the original planning application, our work included:

• Site visit and review of existing buildings constraints/opportunities
• Energy strategy and report
• Overheating strategy and report

Our work commenced with a site visit from which we could deduce key parameters such as wall build-ups, glazing, and existing services.  Site visits can be invaluable as available information on the composition and condition of existing buildings is often variable. Additionally, they can reveal constraints/opportunities which could otherwise be missed. We could then determine an accurate baseline which reflected the actual buildings, rather than relying on assessment backstops which often misrepresent energy performance.

We then appraised the feasibility of potential improvements, recognising quickly that the buildings could not support alterations which impacted on the façade or added weight to the roof structures (such as PV panels).  Energy efficiency uplifts therefore focused on insulating the roofs and improving on existing services such as heating, ventilation, and lighting. These measures assisted in significantly reducing the regulated operational carbon emissions of the existing buildings by 40% as reported at planning stage. Our overheating analysis deemed the risk to be low and the proposals acceptable, with the site not subject to external noise or air quality constraints.  Our strategies were accepted by the LPA and planning permission was granted.