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Following June’s significant changes to Part L, Nordan’s Sonia Travis reviews the implications for window specification, and aluminium-clad timber in particular
T
he state-of-the-art demonstration COP26 Zero-Carbon House at last year’s international COP26 climate conference in Glasgow was an effort to highlight the importance of building fabric choices in achieving net zero. Less than 12 months on from COP26, and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has shown its teeth and commitment to reducing building related carbon, by introducing new Building Regulations. The new Part L has of course been years in the making, and is something of an interlude for the industry prior to the advent of the Future Homes Standard in 2025, the full industry consultation which begins next year.
The new regulations aim to reduce carbon emissions from new build homes by 31%, and all other new buildings by 27%, and operate on a building-by-building basis, as opposed to whole sites. The ultimate objective is to reduce total building carbon emissions by a minimum of 75% by 2030, in order to meet wider legally binding net zero commitments.
All these changes will of course impact on the U-values of any and all building fabric, and have significant implications for windows.
The Future Buildings Standard policy document has already been published, and sets out new Building Regulations and the proposed changes to Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power), and Part F (Building Ventilation) – as well as new requirements to address the risk of overheating in new residential buildings (Part O). The changes to Part L cover both new and existing dwellings, with Part L1A laying out new energy efficiency standards for new build homes. Part L1B covers renovations and extensions to existing homes, and recognises that it is not always
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK ADF SEPTEMBER 2022
Part L has given timber frame windows something of a leg-up in the pecking order of building materials
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