incorporated into all new homes. These include:
• Level access • Wide corridors and doorways • Ground floor WC facilities • Sockets and light switches at a convenient height
What works for older people will also work for parents with pushchairs and young children, and for people with sight or other physical impairments – so it’s win- win all round.
Sound and vision
Looking ahead even a few years, one of the challenges homebuilders are likely to face is how to maintain quality of life in built up urban developments. If you’ve lived in a flat and endured your upstairs neighbour throwing a few shapes or hitting the karaoke after the pub’s closed, you’ll be reluctant to go back to apartment living.
Luckily though, building acoustics are more of a focus for developers. Good levels of sound insulation in dwellings are sought after by prospective occupiers and the industry will have to respond to that. Here, building regulations set by Planning and Building Services will help force their hand by insisting on minimum levels.
Energy saving Post-Brexit, there’s likely to be more focus on the rising costs of energy, and for an ageing population, this is a significant area of concern, as the approved energy plan for Jersey, Pathway 2050, acknowledges.
One of the drivers for better and smarter buildings in Jersey are new building regulations on energy use. According to the Department of the Environment, we will be living in a very different homes environment in the near future as people insist on improved energy performance and increased comfort levels.
Under the revised bye-laws, developers are now working to much higher standards for insulation, air tightness and energy
Page 64 20/20 - The Home
performance for new buildings. Builders working on new homes have to provide the occupiers with better information about how to operate, control and maintain the heating, hot water and ventilations systems so that these can all be operated efficiently.
Financial payback People planning
extensions now have to consider making energy efficiency improvements to the existing parts of their home as part of the overall development, in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. These may include laying additional loft insulation, installing timing/heating controls, replacing inefficient lighting or fitting draft proofing. The value of these improvements is expected to be approximately five per cent of the cost of the overall project, and the aim is for a financial payback to the householder within fifteen years.
While this will increase initial costs, there are marked benefits in terms of reduced energy consumption and so lower energy costs for householders. In recent years, the Department of the Environment’s energy efficiency service carried out a number of improvements to community buildings. Occupants reported a big difference in the warmth of their homes and lower fuel bills.
Future building regulations will continue to drive changes in the way we build and that will require the use of innovative solutions. Ceiling and wall systems that absorb energy during the day and release it at night without the need for any mechanical air-conditioning systems will become the norm.
Zero carbon by 2025?
It will be common for buildings to be fitted with data monitoring to help control energy costs. And remote access controls for heating, cooling and ventilation
systems, operated by smart phones, will help us to manage energy use far better.
A new and exciting development will be the use of photovoltaic technology which converts sunlight directly into electricity. This will enable electricity to be generated for hot water which is becoming the largest energy usage in dwellings, as a result of the revised building bye-law requirements for more thermal insulation. This will mean new dwellings will be very low carbon, if not, zero carbon by 2025.
As climate change is predicted to continue, we’ll all be more concerned about the risk of flooding, and that’s likely to be reflected in new buildings as people expect measures to be taken to reduce the risk of their building and its precious contents and being damaged by extreme weather events.
Prefab Off-site construction is likely to play a big part in the building industry in the coming years, particularly when it comes to new homes. This will be partly driven by the need for improved energy performance, and partly by a greater focus on health and safety for construction workers (also an ageing population), and risk assessments for building sites.
Safety can be significantly improved in a factory environment where robotics can be used to improve efficiency and quality.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116