Changes to Code for Sustainable Homes Welcomed

News: 17/11/2010

The Concrete Centre has welcomed the newly announced amendments to the Code for Sustainable Homes Technical Guidance believing them to be a step in the right direction for proper recognition of the contribution that heavyweight concrete and masonry construction can make to the energy efficiency of new homes.

The amendments follow extensive industry consultation by the Department for Communities and Local Government. From 11 December 2010 all registrations for new developments will be assessed under the new technical guidelines.

Key changes include greater alignment of the Code with Part L of the Building Regulations in order to simplify performance targets, increasing the number of credits for fabric energy efficiency plus allowing fractions of credits to take account of small but important improvements to energy and CO2 performance particularly related to building fabric. In addition, the Heat Loss Parameter, which takes no account of thermal mass, has been replaced with the more holistic Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard.

“Collectively, these revisions will help to ensure that the contribution of concrete and other heavyweight construction materials can provide towards the energy efficiency of housing is more fully accounted for,” said Tom de Saulles, building physicist at The Concrete Centre. “These changes are a definite step in the right direction, however, a number of other issues still need to be addressed such as greater account of climate change adaptation, particularly the impacts of overheating and flooding”.

Further changes to the technical guidance were included in the material selection. The most significant of these is the addition to a number of tiers for points available under responsible sourcing.  In line with the changes made to BREEAM earlier this year, a ‘good’ performance against BES 6001 and a certified EMS scheme now scores 2.5 points as opposed to 2 in the previous version. The surface water run-off has also been updated with additional calculation procedures and to the way that credits are allocated.

“Heavyweight construction’s inherent thermal mass, robustness and flood resilience have much to offer for the provision of a sustainable built-environment. We welcome the increased recognition of this by the Code of Sustainable Homes”, said de Saulles.

Ref: TCC693