THE START
The company started off as a consultancy for Passivhaus in Scotland, hence the name “Sustainable Homes Scotland Ltd”. We organised the First Scottish Zero Carbon House Conference in 2007 and various other training events and shared knowledge with the first number of CEPH courses of the University of Strathclyde.

We were actively involved at the start of Passivhaus in Scotland with the first certified projects. As we saw the need to offer a well performing Passivhaus MVHR solution, we partnered with PAUL Wärmerückgewinnung, one of the first and foremost German Passivhaus MVHR manufacturer. Identifying with their company ethos and highly efficient products, we embraced the trading name ‘PAUL Heat Recovery Scotland’.
Eberhard Paul, the amazing brain behind PAUL and his colleagues provided valuable lessons on MVHR for us. We also learned from leading German PH specialists, such as IBN Nordhoff, Herz & Lang and Airoptima, the largest independent MVHR consultancy in Germany.

MVHR ONLY
In 2010 the company changed direction, as it came away from general consultancy, to specialize in MVHR systems. We look at ventilation through a different lens than most UK companies, we see the specification and air flow calculations through the eyes of the Passivhaus.

Our no-compromise approach in terms of equipment, ducting and installation, with emphasis on customer service and sound advice has led us into a different direction than most competitors.

For over 15 years we have provided independent consultancy services, as MVHR specialist, for various projects with disputes and performance issues of third-party systems and installations. Thus, we have gained an in-depth understanding of the reality of our current industry.

Foreseeing the future of demand-controlled ventilation, we have added Cascade MVHR Systems with minimal ductwork for smaller dwellings and room-by-room smart controlled MVHR systems. We have designed many projects with a variety of cooling and heating solutions.

RESEARCH
We have been involved in various research projects, e.g. the Solar Decathlon Project for the World Expo in Dubai, which was a student-led project of Heriot-Watt University. We worked with the Macintosh Environmental Architecture Research Unit (MEARU) of the Glasgow School of Art, e.g. on the basis of the HEMAC Network (Health effects of Modern airtight construction).

TRAINING
For many years we have lobbied the training programs for domestic ventilation installers should be incorporated within Scotland’s colleges, as there was neither professional training mandatory, nor available. The staggering performance gaps of our industry around us are the sad reflection of this defect. In 2019 we therefore started the first BPEC accredited training centre in Scotland for Domestic Ventilation Installations. We do offer an extended course, to include some best practice lessons learned from Passivhaus.