Building Regulation Trade Off
Building Regulation Trade Off
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Heat is lost from buildings through the fabric of the building itself (roof, walls, floor,
windows and doors) and through infiltration of cold air via any holes and gaps. Fabric heat
loss can be slowed down with insulation materials, the performance of which is a function
of the material used, its thickness, and a number of other factors to do with how well the
insulation is installed: gaps in insulation quickly compromise performance, for example.
Ventilation heat loss can only be reduced by minimising infiltration of cold air: construction
needs to be airtight, with controlled ventilation supplying adequate fresh air, possibly with a
heat recovery system to reduce the heat loss even further. Airtight construction requires
good design and close attention to detail during construction. As insulation standards have
improved in the UK for new construction, the issue of ventilation heat loss has become
relatively more significant (ODPM 2004a).
The efficiency of heating systems also has a major influence on the amount of delivered
energy required to provide adequate warmth.
2.1 Fabric heat loss
Building regulations deal with design standards for fabric heat loss, and have historically
set minimum insulation levels in terms of elemental U values. Each element of the building
envelope (roof, wall, floor, window, door) is assigned a maximum heat loss rate. The unit
of measurement, Watts per square metre Kelvin (W/m2K), is an expression of how quickly
energy passes through a square metre of the element for a given temperature drop
between inside and out (the Kelvin scale is quoted conventionally, but the temperature
difference is practically measured in degrees Celsius). The aim is to slow down the rate of
heat loss, which means a lower U value. Tables 2 - 5 summarise the changes in elemental
U values in the building regulations from 1985 2002.
Max U-value (W/m2K)
Element
Exposed walls
Exposed floors
Ground floors
Roofs
Semi-exposed walls and floors
0.45
0.25
0.6
Element
SAP 60 or
less
0.2
0.45
0.35
0.6
3.0
Roofs
Exposed walls
Exposed floors and ground floors
Semi-exposed walls and floors
Windows, doors and rooflights
SAP over
60
0.25
0.45
0.45
0.6
3.3
U-value
0.2
0.25
0.16
0.25
0.35
0.25
2.2
2.0
Element
Pitched roof with insulation between rafters
Pitched roof with insulation between joists
Flat roof
Walls, including basement walls
Floors, including ground and basement floors
Windows, doors and rooflights (area-weighted average),
glazing in metal frames
Windows, doors and rooflights, glazing in wood/PVC frames
A*
0.2
0.16
0.25
0.30
0.25
2.2
B*
0.18
0.16
0.22
0.27
0.22
2.0
2.0
1.8
3. COMPLIANCE
3.1 Design versus performance
Relatively little is known about the performance of homes built to the design standards as
set out in the Building Regulations. Anecdotal evidence suggests that workmanship on UK
construction sites is poor, that buildings lose more heat in practice than in theory, and that
the construction industry is ill-equipped to deliver airtight buildings. These conclusions are
supported by a study on construction practices (Olivier 2001), one on building heat loss in
real life (Doran 2000) and one on airtightness testing (EST 2004).
A key weakness of the Building Regulations is its continued reliance on design standards.
Pressure testing of new construction is now required on some commercial buildings and
may be required for a percentage of homes in the 2005 revision. It is hoped that this will
not only lead to improved airtightness, but to a general increase in quality generally.
Building airtight buildings requires accurate, thorough methods and so, the theory goes, an
airtight building is likely to have been built accurately and well. This theory has yet to be
proven.
3.2 Thermal bridging
Insulation materials are rarely continuous throughout a building element. Heat loss is
increased where structural materials bridge the insulation. Thermal bridging is of 3 broad
types (Lowe and Bell 2000):
Table 6 Classification of thermal bridging. (adapted from Lowe and Bell 2000).
Building Regulations first addressed repeating thermal bridges in 1990. However, the
percentage of structure in real buildings often exceeds the notional amount in the
standard, say by having timbers at narrower spacings than in the design, so that the
fraction of timber in a wall is increased, and the fraction of insulation is decreased. This
leads to an under-estimate of the real effect of thermal bridging and an over-optimistic
standard. Non-repeating and geometrical thermal bridges are still not addressed by the
building regulations. (Lowe and Bell 2000).
3.3 Delta U values
In Sweden the discrepancy between design standards and performance standards was
addressed by over-tightening the design standards. This pragmatic approach does not set
out to make unrealistic expectations in the real world: instead, it compensates for realworld shortcomings by making the design standards tighter. It was found that performance
is typically 20% below the design standard, thus allowing the design U value to be
adjusted in order to deliver the level of performance that was originally intended (Doran
2000).
The implications of such a system are slightly increased costs of materials for housebuilders, and slightly thicker walls. More research is needed on the energy performance of
buildings in use in order to inform policy and help develop new approaches to the current
problems of lack of compliance.
3.4 Airtightness
Ventilation heat loss has become increasingly important as steps have been taken to
reduce fabric heat loss with each revision of the building regulations. In an old home with
no insulation, the amount of heat lost directly through the fabric is appreciably higher than
the heat lost through the uncontrolled exchange of warm air for cold air. In a home built to
the 2002 standard, the opposite is true: the fabric insulation is of such a standard that the
ventilation heat losses predominate.
The recommended rate of air exchange is between 0.5 and 1.0 air changes per hour,
providing adequate fresh air for human health, for safe combustion of fuels and to prevent
damage to the building fabric from excess moisture in the air (EST 2003).
Where buildings achieve greater airtightness, ventilation needs to be provided by an
appropriate ventilation strategy, either making use of the stack effect to draw stale air out,
Country
Roof
Walls
Floors
Windows
E&W
Denmark
Netherlands
Sweden
0.16-0.25
0.1-0.2
0.2-0.4
0.1-0.2
0.35
0.2-0.3
0.2-0.3
0.1-0.2
0.25
0.1-0.2
0.2-0.3
0.1-0.2
2.2-2.0
1-1.5
1.5-2.5
1-1.5
Area Weighted
Average
0.31
0.24
0.33
0.19
Table 7: The elemental U-value requirements for new build under four EU countrys
Regulations (EST, 2002)
Modern UK homes perform better than old ones (for which there were no thermal
performance standards at all), but the standards in the 2002 Building Regulations still fall
short of the best available practice using todays technology. BedZED and the Hockerton
Housing Project are two examples of recent new housing schemes with zero net space
heating demand. In addition, a number of theoretical standards have been proposed,
including the Energy Efficiency Best Practice for Housing advanced standard and the
Association for Environment Conscious Buildings gold standard (table 2).
Elemental U
value
BedZED
0.10
0.11
0.10
1.2
EEBPH
advanced
standard
0.15
0.08
0.10
1.5
Proposed
AECB gold
standard
0.15
0.15
0.15
0.8
Building
Regulations
2002 part L1
0.35
0.16-0.25
0.25
2.0-2.2
Walls
Roofs
Floors
Windows, doors
Airtightness
Air changes/hour
2.0 @ 50 Pa
0.75 @ 50 Pa
HMSO website
http://www.northernireland-legislation.hmso.gov.uk/sr/sr2000/20000389.htm
Scottish Executive website
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/build_regs/
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ODPM website
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_buildreg/documents/page/odpm_breg_6092
57.pdf
ODPM (2002) Building Regulations Approved Document L1
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_buildreg/documents/page/odpm_breg_02957701.hcsp
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