Webinar – 2021 Building Regulations & Future Homes Standards Demonstrator.

24/06/22

Parts L, F & O changes – Andrew McManus, AES

2021 changes to the standards went live 15th June this year. The idea is that these provide a ‘step
change’ or ‘interim uplift’ to build up the skills and supply chain in preparation for the Future Homes
Standard (FHS) due in 2025.

Consultation on FHS expected in 2023.

Overview:

Part L changes –

 Improvements to building fabric, air tightness, thermal bridging.

 More efficient building services – solar PV or heat pump technology.
 More evidence of compliance required e.g. photographic evidence of junctions between
plots. Ensure what is built accurately reflects what was designed.
 New Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) to be introduced for calculating energy
performance of dwellings. Software is yet to be introduced but expected ‘soon’.

Part O changes –

 Assessment of overheating risk in dwellings.

 Choice of simplified method or dynamic assessment.

Part F changes –

 Minimum ventilation rates for dwellings.

 Most dwellings now likely to be classified as ‘highly airtight’ so intermittent ventilation is not
recommended.

Within Part L there are new compliance checks and minimum building fabric requirements – FEES
(Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard). These relate to windows, doors, roof & wall construction.

Example specifications have been published by the Future Homes Hub along with a ‘getting started’
guide – available here: https://www.futurehomes.org.uk/guidance

Examples show that retaining a 100mm cavity is possible but comes at the cost of making
improvements elsewhere e.g. window, door spec etc.

Using wider cavities (125 – 150mm) provides more flexibility when specifying other parts of the
dwelling.

Thermal bridging will come under much more scrutiny. Products such as thermally broken lintels will
become the norm.

Air permeability tests will be required for all dwellings, no longer able to take a sampling approach.

Much larger PV systems will be required to compensate for use of gas heating as this is more heavily
penalised than before.
Government wants to address the performance gap – hence the increase in amount of compliance
documentation required. Homeowner will receive a BREL report detailing how the house has been
built with evidence.

Part O changes are concerned with limiting solar gains through good design, orientation of dwellings,
control of glazing areas etc.

Aim is to minimise and remove excess heat.

Overheating potential is assessed either with the simplified or dynamic method.

Simplified method is essentially a spreadsheet with inputs for things such as glazed area, this can be
undertaken by any party but is likely to be conservative.

Dynamic method is a fully dynamic simulation model carried out by an expert and is used to
demonstrate compliance to CIBSE TM59.

FHS aims to provide a 75 – 80% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to 2013 standards.
Further fabric uplifts and a move towards heat pumps look to be almost certain. There was a
suggestion that thermal bridging will dominate the design – is there an opportunity for us here?

Project 80, Homes for the future – Adam Marten, Midland Heart & Mike Leonard, Building Alliance

R&D programme in association with Birmingham City University.

Aim is to develop homes now which model the forthcoming FHS and evaluate how it affects builders
& homeowners.

‘Eco Drive’ has been built on the site of 12 Grove Road in Handsworth, Birmingham. Consists of
12No. new homes (mix of 4, 3 and 2 bed) which have been constructed using various building
fabrics, heating systems etc.

Plots were handed over to residents at the end of May 2022.

Sensors have been built in to some dwellings to capture data on how the homes are being used. An
app has been developed for use by researchers and residents to capture data & documentation.

More homes on other sites are planned as part of Project 80. Currently have 12No. maisonettes
under construction, due to be handed over October 2022.

Contractor’s viewpoint – Tom Hall, Tricas

Tricas won the tender for Eco Drive.

Tricas’ traditional build consists of 125mm cavity, beam & block flooring, 450mm Rockwool roof
insulation, double glazed uPVC, combi boiler.

u-values have been reduced for all components for Project 80.

Three different specifications were used. All used a 150mm full-fill cavity (Xtratherm insulation) with
various combinations of air source heat pumps (Vaillant and Baxi), mechanical ventilation, electric
panel heaters, PV panels, waste water heat recovery units.
Ground source heat pumps were discounted from consideration due to congested ground works &
drainage.

Hydrogen boilers similarly ruled out due to lack of network to connect to and difficulties with
arranging deliveries.

Triple glazing was avoided by good detailing elsewhere. Multiple benefits – cheaper, lighter (both in
terms of weight and amount of light let through).

Managed to achieve a CO2 reduction of between 80 – 90%.

Collaboration with BCU – Dr. Monica Garcia, BCU

BCU are carrying out the post-occupancy evaluation and research. Also considering unintended
consequences such as air quality, overheating etc. as well as cost differences, embodied carbon, fire
assessment and whole life assessment.

Essentially using Project 80 as a ‘living lab’.

1 year post-occupancy evaluation is currently underway with lessons learnt to be applied to future
developments.

BCU are monitoring electricity use, temperature, humidity, air quality, heat pump & ventilation
performance, thermal bridging (using IR cameras), occupant experience (using interviews, surveys
etc.) and building fabric u-values.

Closing remarks –

Eco Drive cost approx. 15% more than traditional build. This is just as-built cost and does not take
into account operational costs.

As standards for new homes continue to get more and more stringent, we will reach a point of
diminishing returns where the extra effort isn’t worth the end result. Therefore attention needs to
be given to the 26+ million existing homes which will require upgrading and retrofitting.