NEWS EXTRA WHAT’S THE FUTURE?
Part L of the Building Regulations is being revised as part of the Government’s Future Homes Standard. BMJ looks at what this might mean.
T
he Government’s Future Homes Standard and its accompanying revised Part L consultation 2020 propose a step change in how the UK will heat its homes. The Future Homes Standard is a forerunner of the new Part L document, which is due to come into legislation from 2025.
Jeff House, head of external affairs at Baxi Heating UK, believes the proposed changes to Approved Documents L and F of the building regulations are a welcome move. House says, “Updating minimum requirements for new dwellings is an important steppingstone on the UK’s journey to net-zero emissions, encouraging the take-up of highly efficient fabric and building services at the point of design and build. Clearly today’s new buildings will be in operation in 2050, therefore future proofing is a pragmatic move. Furthermore, stricter primary energy targets will help to start establishing ‘volume ready’ supply chains for the far larger challenge of decarbonising the existing building stock.
“With regard to reduction of energy use and carbon emissions, the consultation largely centres around two proposed compliance targets; having the potential to deliver between 20% and 31% improvements on the current 2013 Approved Document L1a standards, focusing minds and encouraging the use of low carbon or renewable heating technologies.” House believes that some of the changes outlined for the heating industry are nothing new and instead present an opportunity for standardisation. “For example”, House says, “the proposed minimum requirements for boiler efficiency match those of Boiler Plus and, the recommendations for heat pump efficiency are consistent with the EU Ecodesign Directive which is already well established.” Furthermore, “it is proposed that developers are required to introduce a series of measures for new homes, to make the future transition to low carbon heating simple. In practice, this would mean a lowering of the required flow temperature to less than 55OC, meaning larger radiators or perhaps an underfloor heating system. While the importance of energy and hot water storage is discussed, we feel that proposals could go further, perhaps with mandatory hot water storage or dedicated cupboard space to enable the installation of this technology later.”
Martyn Bridges, director of technical communication and product management at Worcester Bosch, says “these building regulations will mostly be concerned with energy conservation in the form of insulation, carbon reduction, and ventilation.” However, “there are parts of the regulations that will impact on plumbing and drainage equipment and subsequent product stocking decisions for builders’ merchants.”
Bridges says that wastewater heat recovery systems should be fitted in all new homes, which is scheduled to be confirmed next year. “A wastewater heat recovery system is essentially a heat exchanger that is fitted to the outlets of any showers in the house. Typically, an outlet is a vertical pipe about two metres in length that allows the water from the shower to drain away to waste, they are also available in a horizontally mounted design but are not quite as effective as a vertical design. While the warm wastewater is passing through the pipe it heats up the incoming water mains which runs through the same pipe in a separate coil.” In regard to the technology, Bridges thinks that it makes complete sense. “Why would you throw water down a system at temperatures of 35°C to 40°C when you could do something with it? Builders’ merchants should consider looking at the technology and work it into stocks moving forward.” Bridges predicts, “Water reduction being mandated in the near future and it’s probable that taps and showers will soon have water reducing outlets. Currently many taps can
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2019
issue water as fast as you can put through it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a maximum flow rate is allowed in the future.”
“I foresee two possible water reduction methods becoming more popular, particularly in new build properties initially”, Bridges says, “The first will involve taps or showers having a flow regulator fitted within the outlet, typically in the spout. The second is a flow regulator which fits into a housing and is located in the pipework connecting to the tap.” He adds that both have the same impact in that they reduce the flow passing through the taps to a more energy-conscious level.
Talks were held several years ago about introducing design measures to reduce the average consumption for each person living in a new build property from 125 litres to 85 litres. In respect of this, Bridges thinks that this is something to be re-looked at in future regulations: “The goal of this would be to get designers to design heating and plumbing systems that restrict flow rates down to a more conservative level.”
Looking to the future, Bridges expects it to become prohibitive in 2025 for new build properties to fit a gas fired boiler. “If this is the case and heat pumps become the preferred installation then the condensate pipe work, which every boiler requires, will no longer be required. It is a longer-term consideration for builders’ merchants, but from 2025 I can see a reduction in the need for products such as condensate connections and pipework fittings.” BMJ
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