DR JACQUELYN FOX
the more challenging zero carbon target, having invested in R&D projects such as those demonstrated at the BRE Innovation Park in Watford, Hertfordshire. As a direct result of the budget announcement, the WWF resigned their seat on the Zero-Carbon homes taskforce. They stated 'the zero- carbon policy is now in tatters' after the Government unilaterally decided to change the scope of the 'zero carbon' policy to exclude some emission not currently covered by the building regulations’II
.
Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council, said: "In the space of two weeks, this government has gone from a firm commitment on zero carbon homes, to a watered down policy. A zero carbon home will no longer do what it says on the tin. The world leading commitment that new homes would not add to the carbon footprint of our housing stock from 2016 has been scrapped despite remarkable
consensus between industry and NGOs in support for it."III The housebuilding industry
once again faces new challenges. Looking ahead to 2013, it has been recommended to the Government that future compliance with Building Regulations should look to measure built performance of homes post construction. This move seeks to address the gap between designed performance and the actual performance of the finished home, a gap identified in research led by Prof Malcom Bell from Leeds Metropolitan UniversityIV
. This
research found that actual heat losses can be as much as double those predicted at the design stage. Results from 15 heat loss tests, carried out on a variety of new housing developments since 2005, have recorded losses of between 10 per cent and 120 per cent higher than designed, with the average gap of 60 per cent between designed and built performance. The research
shows that a failure to deliver real reductions in domestic carbon emissions could have a detrimental effect on the Government’s national emissions reduction targets, and could also generate commercial and financial risk for developers. As customer expectations of lower fuel bills in energy efficient homes may not materialise, this could in turn lead to a loss of customer confidence in new homes. However, the following
questions still remain: is SAP, the tool used for calculating emissions from new homes, fit for purpose? Do the studies by Leeds Metropolitan accurately reflect the housebuilding industry today? Is it the developers’ performance on site that is in question, or is it a lack of confidence in the predictions of SAP? Could it be a combination of both with added complication that construction products do not perform on site the way they perform when tested to produce data for SAP? Products are
“The housebuilding
industry once again faces new challenges. Looking ahead to 2013, it has been recommended to the Government that future compliance with Building Regulations should look to measure the as built performance of homes post construction.”
Above: Working together as a team, housebuilders, developers and building services engineers have the necessary skill sets and knowledge to deliver the energy efficient ‘zero carbon’ homes required in 2016.
38 | 2012 | DEVELOPER & HOUSEBUILDER YEARBOOK |
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