SELFBUILDER SURVEY: BUILDING A LOW CARBON HOME
Despite colossal rises in the prices of gas and electricity over the last 12 months, ‘lower bills’ is cited by only 61% of people as their reason for building low carbon
Photo © Baufritz
can be forgiven for feeling not only confused, but even angry at the recent changes. As Federation of Master Builders chief executive Brian Berry said
in response to ‘Rishi’s Row-back,’ “Consistency of policy is key to achieving net zero and reducing carbon emissions, but the trend of stop-start energy-efficiency policies continues, leaving consumers and builders confused.” That’s just one of the reasons why our Selfbuilder Survey is so important; we wanted to see how our readers’ views on creating lower energy-use homes had changed over the course of 12 months. And our findings make fascinating reading, from the number of self-builders seeking the highest standard of energy efficiency Passivhaus, to their levels of frustration at the rising price of basic materials such as timber, and their thoughts on the new- found willingness from (some) local council planning departments to push for new low carbon homes to be built in their area. By exploring in-depth your peers’ attitudes towards low carbon
self-building, identifying the ambitions and challenges met during a project, and looking at some of the solutions available in terms of design, products and materials, we put ourselves at the forefront of this very current debate. Selfbuilder + Homemaker is harnessing its unrivalled position to take the temperature of this crucial sector of housebuilding in the UK. It has often been said that what the self-builder does today,
the rest of the world will do tomorrow. At a time of intense global conict and evidence of rapidly-evolving climate change, we are helping foresee what that tomorrow looks like, one brick – or even straw bale or ICF panel – at a time.
Energy still in crisis Events in the Middle East are adding ever louder warning bells to the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, which has already put pressure on supplies of gas from Russia, the second-largest gas producer in the world, behind the USA, according to a recent IEA report. The result, as the UK discovered last winter, was record-breaking home energy bills. Although the price cap for typical dual fuel
use has now dropped by 7% to £1,834 (from £1,976), with gas costing around 10.3 per kWh (prices per kWh do vary around the UK), homeowners are still worried about future rises, as confirmed by a 2023 report from co perts. While gas continues to be subject to global turmoil, at
around 34p per kWh, the cost of electricity is three times higher, leading many embarking on a low carbon build to scratch their heads over the sums when it comes to installing electricity-powered technology such as air source heat pumps. The only sure-fire solution is to use less energy, and that’s the reason why low carbon self builds are so important.
Surveying self-builders Our first elfbuilder urvey in ay 2022 was so successful in achieving our initial aim of opening up the debate on low carbon homes, exploring why and how far self-builders were committed to reducing carbon emissions and highlighting the challenges they face, we decided to do it again. The aim was not only to take the temperature 12 months
down the line, when global events have put further squeeze on energy costs, the Bank of England interest rate has climbed to 5.25% (at the time of writing) putting pressure on self-build budgets, and yet more extreme weather conditions point further towards climate change, but also to examine current trends and concerns amongst self-builders working on, embarking on, or planning a low carbon project. We wanted to find out about the obstacles they face, the low carbon priorities they hold dear, the costs involved in low carbon building, and where our self-builders seek and find epert advice on everything from calculating carbon emissions to catching rainwater for harvesting. For the second year running, we’ve partnered with audience
research specialists Edge Insight to speak to our readership of self-builders and ask a series of searching questions about their journey to zero carbon, and the answers are revealing. Once again, the team at Selfbuilder + Homemaker are very grateful to everyone that took the time to respond to the survey.
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www.sbhonline.co.uk
nov/dec 2023
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