The Prince's Natural House

In 2016 window manufacturer Bereco Ltd, were asked to produce some timber sliding sash windows for a house with a difference.

Despite the traditional look, The Prince’s Natural House was only built in 2011, its aim being to demonstrate how low energy usage can be combined with traditional design, even in a large scale development. This house is a two-storey, Regency-style property located at the BRE Innovation Park near Watford. Furthermore, it was constructed from natural materials and as with all new builds, had stringent low carbon targets to meet.

It is a common misconception that traditional design and energy efficiency can be incompatible, however this property proves otherwise. Bereco’s sash windows work beautifully with the Regency-style house as well as supporting the energy objectives with good air-tightness, an unusual achievement in a sash window.

Kevin Martin Managing Director of Bereco explains the technical aspects “The windows have 24mm low emissivity double glazing combined with argon gas to the cavity and warm edge spacer bars to achieve a whole window U-value of 1.2W/m2K. Our careful design detail has achieved excellent air-tightness with a window that’s in keeping with the historic look of the building”.

Like Teknos, Bereco is a member of the Wood Window Alliance and complies with their sustainability and environmental aims. These windows are constructed from 100% FSC slow growth northern pine, engineered to remove defects and then preservative-treated in the factory. Teknos Aquatop was used to coat the windows. This paint is water-based, providing a flexible, durable and microporous protective film, resistant to attack from bacteria, mould and UV rays.

The combination of water-based Teknos paint and Bereco’s manufacturing processes, gives these windows an impressive 60-year Service Life and extended maintenance periods of 8-10 years. Better still, their carbon storage gives them a negative carbon footprint.

The Teknos Colour Mode range for topcoats offers many beautiful shades suitable for windows and doors already installed on - or destined for - conservation-style buildings. Try Townhouse or Edwardian for a period look on the outside and Lumi for a bright interior. They can be applied by air assisted airless spray, brush or roller on to softwoods, hardwoods, engineered and modified timbers.   

For more information on Bereco’s range of windows and doors visit www.bereco.co.uk