News
In brief New houses ‘way off’ green target
Poor-quality construction and design detailing is leading to an unacceptable energy performance in new homes that could undermine the Green Deal, a leading academic is warning. Professor Chris Gorse, director of the
Leeds Sustainability Institute, based at Leeds Metropolitan University, is one of the authors of soon to be published research paper, which shows some new homes are losing twice as much heat than they are designed to. The performance gap is irrespective of
what level of energy efficiency the homes were built to or what style of home they are. Whether the homes matched their specifications tended to come down to the material selection, quality of detailing and management of the construction process, said Professor Gorse. The university has measured the
energy loss of 29 new homes built to the 2002, 2006, 2010 Building Regulations, the Code for Sustainable Homes level 3 and 4, passive house and other enhanced performance standards. The paper, Building Confidence, is a
joint venture with Carbon Futures – an initiative between the universities of Sheffield, Hull, York and Leeds – to provide an overview of buildings that
performed well and those that did not. Gorse hopes this will act as a catalyst for the construction industry to ensure it constructs buildings that perform well. Gorse, a member of CIOB Research and
Innovation Panel, said the performance of some new homes was often “way off target”. “We can’t allow that to happen,” he said. “If there’s no confidence we can build homes that perform as they are meant to, what confidence can we have that the Green Deal will work?” The government’s flagship energy policy is to be launched in October. It follows a so-called golden rule where households make energy efficiency improvements to their homes that are paid for over a number of years on the back of saving in energy bills. The paper
builds on an earlier collaboration with the Zero Carbon Hub and work from Professor Malcolm Bell that first highlighted the energy performance gap. Leeds Metropolitan University research has pinpointed common problems: cold bridging; vapour barriers poorly fitted; loosely packed insulation allowing heat to flow through fabric. “Some homes are hitting the mark so we can get it right. In these instances the Green Deal would work. We need to identify the good practice and builders that deliver buildings that perform, and learn from them. We need to start to think carefully about the way we sequence work on sites – all too often we’re putting holes in the fabric and making ad hoc decisions that are building in thermal defects,” he said. Communities minister Andrew Stunell
branded UK housing a “joke” due to the construction industry’s failure to build houses to design specification. Speaking at a seminar at the Ecobuild
Thermal defects are built in, say researchers
conference in London last month, Stunell compared UK housebuilding with the British car industry of 20 years ago. New houses were “leaving the factory broken”, he said. He called on the building industry to adopt a more Rolls Royce approach to quality.
BREEAM scheme extends to home refurbishments
The BRE is taking its sustainable building certification scheme to a new audience with the launch of BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment this June. It is intended to help
improve the sustainability and environmental performance of existing dwellings – which account for 27% of national carbon emissions. The voluntary scheme will see certificates for individual properties issued to homeowners for as little as £70 and a new workforce trained up to carry out assessments.
The scheme will provide
the methodology, software tools and certification needed by those responsible for
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delivering sustainable domestic refurbishment projects, such as project managers, architects designing home renovations for private clients, Green Deal advisers or social housing providers looking to upgrade their stock. “It’s a very wide-ranging scheme, which could be useful if you’re a local authority looking to set new planning requirements or a homeowner looking for a property with high-quality green improvements,” said Gavin Summerson, senior consultant at BREEAM Sustainability Group, BRE Global.
The scheme is aimed at more ambitious domestic upgrades,
where various alterations are required, such as window replacement and insulation, plus domestic conversions and change- of-use projects or regeneration schemes covering a large number of dwellings.
It will also assess environmental issues including energy, water, materials, pollution, health and wellbeing, waste, management and innovation. “We want to create a demand for
more sustainable buildings. Part of that is better energy use, but it’s also important that contractors think about waste, and the impact of the materials they use,” said Summerson. A property’s sustainable
performance will be rated on a sliding scale similar to the existing BREEAM schemes using the terms “pass”, “good”, “excellent” and “outstanding”. These will be based around standards on Energy Performance Certificates, so a dwelling that achieves “outstanding” has reached EPC band B. To reach the UK target of an 80% energy reduction by 2050 the average existing house will have to meet this – band C is “excellent”. The BRE will carry out assessments, but in June it will also launch a domestic refurbishment course to train other refurbishment professionals to complete the assessments.
FMB LAUNCHES WARRANTY FOR HOMES The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has launched a 10 -year warranty for new homes. This marks the first time that building companies of any size can offer such a guarantee. Build Assure New Home Policy provides 10-year structural insurance cover and can even be purchased for single homes. The new policy, underwritten by Lloyds of London and structured by Aon Benfield, protects builders by covering the cost of rectifying errors due to materials, design and workmanship.
MITIE OFFERS £5M POT TO START-UPS MITIE, the FTSE 250 outsourcing and energy services company, is offering six entrpreneurs a share of a £5m fund. They will pitch for the cash in front of a panel of top business leaders, led by MITIE chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith. Applications close at the end of the month.
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