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INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER: A NEW ERA OF ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS
“How difficult do you believe it will be to achieve the new carbon emissions targets in Part L 2021?” g Very Difficult g Slightly Difficult g Not Very Difficult g Not Difficult At All
We surveyed our architect readership to discover their views on these important changes to the Building Regulations, with the majority of respondents being currently involved in the residential sector. The findings – in terms of respondents’ levels of understanding of the new Part L, F and O, were a mixed bag. We also looked at their views on specific challenges within the new regs. These included Primary Energy (the new metric for measuring buildings’ energy use), and the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES) – both of which produced very different findings. The new reporting methods which are currently confronting housebuilders were also explored, as were respondents’ choice of building technologies and materials.
Introduction
The Future Homes and Buildings Standard In 2019, the Government launched its first consultation on strengthening the Building Regulations to increase energy efficiency, which would pave the way for the 2025 Future Homes Standard (later to be renamed the Future Homes and Buildings Standard). As well as fabric improvements, this looked at how to phase out certain gas boilers and other fossil fuel heating systems in new homes. The resulting 2022 interim uplift in energy performance requires new homes to reduce emissions by 31% (against Part L 2013), based on the premise of helping the industry achieve the 2025 standard. Projects were required to produce a building notice or submitted plans with local authorities before 15 June 2022 to avoid needing to comply with the uplift, and the new regulations
will apply to all projects from 15 June 2023. Arguably it will not be architects who will be the most challenged, but contractors who have been accustomed to doing things a certain way for a long time. The move to a much more robust audit trail on sites, a core part of the new Regs, is – together with the move away from gas – the biggest change in the new Part L. It’s also likely to be the most challenging aspect of all for the industry to adapt to.
Key changes In Parts L, F and O 2021, the key changes for new builds are: • 31% fewer carbon emissions (non-domestic 27% reduction) • Maximum U-value for windows and doors (new build) in SAP10 – 1.6 W/m²K (was 2.0 W/m²K in SAP12)
• Notional building U-value target for windows and doors .2 W/m²K (was 1.4 W/m²K)
• Maximum 0.18 W/m2 for walls • Non-domestic U-values 0.26 W/m2 for walls and 1.6 W/m2 for windows
• New and replacement heating systems maximum flow temperature of 55°C
• Part L minimum air supply rate of 0.5 l/s.m2 • ‘Full fabric specification’ adopted for Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES).
Part L remains as two documents – Approved Document Part L1A, covering new homes, and Part L1B, covering requirements
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ADF FEBRUARY 2023
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