An environmentally friendly ’passive house’ in Port St Mary has been shortlisted for the 2017 Best Eco Home award by Build It magazine.

The award is given to a project in the British Isles.

Corvalla, a four-bed house, sitting high on the Howe Road above Port St Mary is said to be the most energy efficient house in the Isle of Man.

Built in 2015 by Complete Construction Services and SNX Ltd, it adopts the Beattie Passive system build.

It is so smartly insulated, design efficient and air tight, that a traditional central heating system is unnecessary. Energy demand is reduced by up to 90% and a mechanical ventilation and heat recovery system changes the air several times an hour. With solar panels it would be a fully zero carbon development.

The factory-produced system was constructed entirely in the island under the SNX licence by Complete Construction and erected with locally-sourced materials wherever possible.

Beattie Passive’s system is the first in the UK to be awarded certification as a complete build system by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany.

Corvalla owner Kevin Kniveton said the house hadsurpassed all expectations: ’I knew that my utility bills would be a fraction of what I would ordinarily pay in a traditionally built home, but even I was surprised at how low my quarterly bills have been over the most demanding months. I just can’t understand why all homes are not built this way.’

James Vickers, managing director of Complete Construction, said: ’The adoption of this type of development will benefit the island in so many ways and not just with the vastly reduced running costs and improved comfort levels.

’At a time when we are heading to crisis levels of skilled workers in the construction sector - with a shortage of tradesmen - the Beattie Passive system, because it uses a lesser, and differently, skilled workforce, opens up a great opportunity to train and develop a much needed resource of expertise on the island to build and erect our systems, which will go a long way to easing this problem.

’If we were given continuity of passive construction projects there is a wonderful opportunity to attract new workforce in to the construction sector with the offer of training in "passive" construction. A new, innovative, futuristic skill set that may be a greater lure than the traditional trades.’

He said it can cost as little as 13% more to build a Passive house than a traditional one if it’s designed correctly, adding: ’This uplift in cost would be recovered in a short number of years from the savings made on heating costs.’

The cost of the project has not been disclosed.

Steve Brown, managing director of SNX, said: ’Our continued awareness of the latest energy efficient developments within the construction sector brings an absolute gem of a system to the Isle of Man, which is wholly appropriate, affordable and beneficial to the island’s unique circumstances and infrastructure.

’Our collective investment in bringing a live, working case study to the island, has demonstrated unequivocally that our systems work and perform brilliantly here and that the local workforce can build and develop to passive standards.’

He added: ’We now have further private sector passive developments in front of us, and have made the Isle of Man government acutely aware of the on-island resources they have available to them.

’The island has the opportunity to create a cultural shift in acceptance and adoption of ethical construction which would both reduce the financial burden on taxpayers, remove fuel poverty and establish a higher quality of living and working conditions for all concerned.’