66 STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS; UTILITIES & SERVICES REAL PRIORITIES UK’s energy transition.
Never standing still, we have a robust roadmap that sets out a credible pathway to delivering beyond net zero concrete and cement by 2050. In the masonry vertical specifi cally, emissions reductions of nearly 50% have been achieved since the early 2010s.
Commentary on housing can be fi xated on volume and carbon footprint, but a recent survey carried out by research agency Opinium, and drawn into a comprehensive report by UK Concrete, ‘Homes 2025: A National Conversation’, showed that the public had other priorities. For example, UK homeowners and renters indicate that fi re resilience is a key issue for the public, with 87% saying that having their home constructed from fi re-resistant materials is important. While people place a high value on the building materials that make up their homes, only 14% of people received information about the materials their home is made from when they moved in. Elaine Toogood, senior director at UK Concrete & The Concrete Centre, offers this perspective: “This report underlines the value that people put on the fabric quality and performance of their home to deliver energy effi ciency, but also to protect against damp, mould, fl ooding and fi re.”
Prospective buyers want to make informed purchasing decisions, and so educating people about the fi re safety and climate resilience of the materials used to construct their home should be a requirement for the next generation of housing.
What’s Smart about burying a Smart Meter? S
mart meters are seen as a signifi cant part of the solution to reducing domestic water usage – showing savings of
12-17%. However, existing infrastructure does not provide the best environment for this new technology. Experience has shown that the most eff ective method of installing the advanced metering infrastructure is to locate the meter above ground. The Groundbreaker water management system locates the water meter on the exterior wall of the dwelling, providing a perfect location for high technology meters. In addition to providing a better environment
for the meter, locating the meter above ground has the additional benefi ts of readability for the consumer, extended signal transmission and easy meter exchange.
Would you put a smartphone in here and expect it to work?
FUTURE PROOFING THE NETWORK Developers see the short-term advantage of lower unit costs for traditional boundary boxes, but factoring in installation costs the diff erential is under £15 per unit. Then consider the long-term reliability of boundary boxes. The House Builders Federation have determined that 53% of underground installations require re-work, giving an average re-work cost per installed boundary box of approaching £150, and an estimated water loss of 36 m2
. By comparison the Groundbreaker System
has no recorded re-work costs, where the unit was correctly installed - future proofi ng the network and minimising the risk of re-work and developing future leaks.
DESIGNING OUT LEAK PATHS A leak on a pipe joint upstream of the water meter results unseen water loss. The unique location of Groundbreaker has the additional benefi t of allowing for an unjointed water supply, hence maintaining the integrity of the supply. Recognised as best practice by Water UK and the Home Builders Federation, this minimises the risk of future leakage on the service pipe. So, for future proofi ng water supply and reducing management costs of water supply, working with developers to install above ground meters is the long-term solution.
01379 741993
www.groundbreaker.co.uk WWW.HBDONLINE.CO.UK
The UK minerals industry is vital to the UK Government’s growth missions. Without it, the goal of 1.5 million new homes is unachievable. Concrete is an economically signifi cant and major part of the wider UK mineral products industry, which contributes approximately £8bn GVA to the UK economy. The minerals industry directly employs 80,000 people nationally and underpins a further 3.2m jobs.
Stephen Callow is manager of masonry & concrete products at MPA Masonry
To download the full ‘Homes 2025: A National Conversation’ report by UK Concrete, scan the QR code below
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