'EnerPHit need not be any more expensive than retrofit': those are the words that we put into the mouth of this week's guest Mel Reynolds. He stood by them, even if they weren't his own, but advisedly. It's not necessarily easy, but it can be done, and it can be scaled up.

Mel took us through his experience in working on high-performance buildings, learning passive house principles, undertaking his own new builds, and applying everything he's learned to carry out EnerPHit-standard retrofit. The standards and good practices that he's learned have been incorporated as common sense standards to uphold whatever project he's working on, and he's made it work.

The long and short of the conversation is that good planning and design will improve your impact (comfort and carbon) without necessarily increasing construction costs.

Notes from the show

• Mel's writing in Passive Hous Plus
• Mel on Twitter
• The Mews House, in the Irish Times
• The Mews Hous on Instagram

**SOME SELF-PROMOTING CALLS TO ACTION**
We don't actually earn anything from this, and it's quite a lot of work, so we have to promote the day jobs.

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