As birding and wildlife enthusiasts, minimising our impact on the environment is important to us. So, when the guys from Noremac Chemical Technologies learned we needed a new office to accommodate our growing business, they were all too keen to share with us their ideas for building an eco-office that they had been wanting to put into practice.

Our brand new triple-storey office building in Garlington Estate, “Rockjumper House”, uses a temperature controlling network of hidden water pipes. These pipes move heat in and out of the walls, floors, and ceilings through what is known as a “Thermally Activated Building System”. This greatly reduces the need for traditional temperature control which is often costly and damaging to the environment.

The aim of a system like this is to create an equilibrium. If hot air comes in through an open window, or an exterior wall warms up from the sun’s rays, then that heat is transferred through the water pipes and dispersed until an optimal temperature is reached throughout the whole building. Excess heat/energy is transported to the energy storage area and converted into renewable energy.

There is also an air extraction system in place which provides fresh, filtered air from the outside so that windows do not need to be opened. This not only means that the internal climate is constantly infused with fresh air, but the filter reduces dust and allergens, making it cleaner than what is outside and providing a much more pleasant working environment.

Furthermore, our mono-crystalline, high-efficiency solar panels (the best on the market) and lithium iron storage batteries (known for their ability to quickly receive and release energy) make sure we always have enough energy for hot water and electricity. This significantly reduces our dependence on the grid, and with it: noise, emissions, and financial costs.

A particularly lovely feature of the building’s system is the rooftop garden. This garden works not only as a highly effective form of long-term damp-proofing, but also as a heat protection device. Plants have the ability to absorb and disperse infrared rays from the sun, which concrete cannot do. So, when normal buildings absorb these heat rays and retain that heat even into the night, they create a dependence on high-powered air-cooling systems to equalise the temperature the next day. These rooftop gardens, however, prevent a large portion of that heat from affecting the building’s internal temperature at all.

You can even have a look at the stats from our two inverters on the Goodwe website over here and here. You will notice that Goodwe have also translated the data into a measurement we can all understand – trees! They have worked out how many trees would need to have been cut down and burned in order to produce the same amount of energy as our inverters. So far, Rockjumper House has saved 6.502 trees in the past few months!

Although green, eco-buildings are becoming more popular, Rockjumper is privileged and proud of Rockjumper House, which reduces our carbon footprint and serves as a model for other offices, locally and beyond.