Episode 72:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

The show that helps part 3 students jump start into their careers as qualified architects and also to provide refresher episodes for practicing architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will talking about The Future Homes Standard. Todays episode meets PC1&3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

What is the Future Homes Standard:

In 2019, the UK government introduced a commitment called the Future Homes Standard to ensure newly built homes are future-proofed with low carbon, energy efficient heating systems leading towards the Future Homes Standard roadmap to reduce energy usage and greenhouse emission of new buildings from 2025. The Future Homes Standard is said to complement the Building Regulations aiming to improve energy efficiency in homes from 2025. 

To start introducing this Standard: 

The government undertook a consultation process which launched in 2019 looking at Part L and Part F of the Building Regulations as part of the Future Home Standard to improve energy efficiency of new homes and announced that new homes will need to be equipped with low carbon heating solutions by 2025. We already saw the start of these uplifts and changes through the release of the updated Parts L&F in June 2022, so those changes are the introduction to further changes to come to meet the Future Homes Standard.

To also tackle non-domestic buildings, the government has announced a second consultation the Future Buildings Standard to look at measures to improve the energy efficiency of non-domestic buildings, overheating in new homes and improving energy efficiency when retrofitting them.

So the government intends to introduce additional necessary legislation to meet the Future Homes Standard in 2024 to be implemented by 2025 to meet the overarching target to bring all greenhouse gas emission to net zero by 2050. 

The aim of the Future Homes Standard is:

• From 2025, have new homes with at least 75-80% lower carbon dioxide emissions compared to the current Building Regulations.
• Ensuring that new home will be fit for the future, better for the environment and affordable 
• All homes to be ‘zero carbon ready’ meaning becoming zero carbon homes over time as the electricity grid decarbonises without requiring additional costly retrofitting works.

In order to meet these Standards by 2025, the industry will need to develop the necessary supply chain, skills and construction practices to deliver low-carbon heat, and highly energy efficient new homes. 

What does a Future Homes Standard house look like:

It is expected to have a heat pump, waste water heat recovery system, double/triple glazing, solar panels, and standards for walls, floors and roofs that significantly limit any heat loss adopting a fabric first approach. Heat pumps especially are anticipated to play a major role in delivering low carbon heat for homes built to the Future Homes Standard. Heat pumps come with the same low carbon benefits as direct electric heating but they can deliver much more efficiently helping to overcome the affordability and grid-resource constraints associated with direct electric heating. 

Another potential solution that is being explored is decarbonising the heat networks distributing heat to different buildings and households by testing new technologies and also benefitting from thermal storage which will assist in reducing the energy demand on the grid at peak times.  

Now when it comes to actually implementing the Future Homes Standard:

It will be implemented through the Building Regulations, as we have already seen with uplifts to Part L and Part F and the introduction of Part O. In terms of up-skilling, unfortunately some builders are not ready yet and do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to start building to higher fabric specifications. The government is working with the industry to promote and fund this skills gap.

When the Planning and Energy Act 2008 was implemented, it gave powers to Local Planning Authorities to set and apply policies in their local plans where some of them required compliance with energy efficiency standards for new homes that exceed the Building Regulations, which has resulted in inconsistent minimum energy standards being applied across the UK, and that’s where the Future Homes & Building Standard aims to set the bar at the same level everywhere for everyone to adhere to the same standards. So the government is looking at potentially including amendments to the Planning and Energy Act 2008 which would restrict local planning authorities from setting higher energy efficiency standards for new homes, but this is yet to be decided. 

Now when it comes to actually measuring the energy performance of the buildings under Part L, the government proposes they are measured against:

• Primary energy target
• CO2 emission target
• Householder affordability rating 
• And minimum standards for fabric and fixed building services

Electricity is seen as a good alternative use of main energy resource as it has lower CO2 emission factors, the only downside with electricity is that it would result in higher household energy bills, so it is recommended where direct electric heating is installed that the building should achieve:

• Increased fabric efficiency - ‘fabric first’ initiative
• Heat recovery devices
• Renewable generation
• And on-site energy storage 

The primary method for measuring and calculating primary energy and emission rate is through using the Standard Assessment Procedure, also known as SAP. To meet the new Part L requirements, the government has published a new version of the software incorporating all the additional requirements set by Part L. The aim of Part L is to be used to set the minimum energy performance standards for buildings to drive reductions in emission and meet the ambitious domestic energy efficiency agenda. One of the ways to measure performance, which the may be introduced in the Building Regulations, is using self-regulating devices which can regulate the temperature in each room of a new home and also using a building automation and control system monitoring and controlling a buildings environment and services. 

Through the Future Homes Standard, the aim was also to address concerns that were raised in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report on the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, to provide more clear guidance and tailer to the needs of people who need to use them, hence another reason for the updates to Parts L & F making it clearer of what is expected of home builders and developers to comply with Building Regulations.  

Now looking at Part F:

Part F generally specifies whole dwelling ventilation rates to supply air to habitable rooms according to the number of bedrooms, occupants and a minimum ventilation rate by internal floor area. Improvements to Part F are to improve indoor air quality in new homes, the Standard therefore implemented changes to Part F in providing ventilation solutions by providing a number of solutions, including background ventilators and intermittent extract fans, passive stack ventilation, continuous mechanical extract ventilation and continuous mechanical supply and extract with heat recovery. Some of these are of course more favourable than the others. Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery for example is generally considered the most appropriate as new homes are now required to be more airtight, background ventilators are also recommended to mitigate the risk of reduced air supply. For any level of airtightness, then continuous mechanical supply and extract will be more suited.

Airtightness is also an important factor with the Future Homes Standard since less airtight buildings can waste energy by losing warm internal air and taking in cold air so the Standard seeks to improve and enhance airtightness requirements, but as mentioned if a building is too airtight then it can result in poor indoor air quality and therefore the Future Homes Standard recommends a balance of energy/CO2 credit in SAP calculations so that naturally ventilated buildings are not credited with additional energy savings from a specific air tightness point. If the building, however, is fully mechanically ventilated then higher air tightness is better since the ventilation system should provide enough ventilation to prevent poor indoor air quality. And generally to have either variation achieved and actually applied, the Future Homes Standard seeks to mandate airtightness testing in all new dwellings.  

The Future Homes Standard, has generally identified that there is a significant difference between design intent and measured energy performance of new build homes, often referred to as the ‘performance gap’. This ‘performance gap’ is particularly effected by limitations of energy models, different occupant behaviour of each dwelling and build quality which lead to new homes not meeting the intended primary energy rates, CO2 rates or U’values resulting in higher emission and high energy bills for occupants. To ensure this is avoided, the Future Homes Standard proposes the introduction of:

• The Build Quality Guidance 
• Compliance Report to Part L
• SAP calculations
• New role of the Building Safety Regulator

Starting with the new role, the building safety regulator, will have responsibility for overseeing design and management of buildings, with a strong focus on ensuring the stricter regime for buildings is enforced effectively and robustly. Aiming to improve compliance and strengthen enforcement and sanctions within the new building safety regulatory system framework. Therefore, as part of their duties they will be seeking to determine the build quality requirements standard required both at design and construction stages, which includes:

• Properly detailed insulation gaps to avoid heat loss and thermal bypass and risks of condensation and mould
• Thermal bridging at junctions 
• Airtightness where incoming services penetrate through walls, floors, and so on
• Airtightness of structure including walls, roof, floor junctions and partitions 
• Airtightness around openings including windows, doors, and loft hatches
• Airtightness for internal services  

Then at the end of construction, the as build calculations compliance report would need to be submitted demonstrating compliance on:

• the product-specific materials that have been used in the construction of the thermal elements; 
• the product-specific equipment installed for heating, hot water, ventilation and micro-generation in the dwelling; 
• a summary of the U-value and Ψ-value calculations, as used in the as-built emissions and primary energy rate calculations; 
• a summary of the thermal bridging details used, including the source and reference. 

This report will then need to be signed by the energy assessor to confirm that the as build calculation are accurate. Then the report will be provided to the relevant Building Control Body that can then be used as a check list for site inspections of thermal elements. Photographs evidence will also be required to improve the accuracy of energy calculations and to provide assurance that the SAP energy models are a true reflection of the as built dwelling. Six basic elements will need to be captured within the photographic evidence which includes:

• Insulation levels and product types
• Main and Secondary Heating systems
• Ventilation system; 
• Domestic hot water system type 
• Evidence of LZC technologies and relevant data – installed solar water heating, PV panels, battery for example; and 
• Construction details – one image per thermal junction type would be sufficient. 

This is to ensure that if any of these items are substituted during construction, it will be captured in the photographic evidence and ensures key materials are not substituted for lower quality and performance ones. And at the end, the developer or builder will need to sign a specification sheet confirming that the work carried out was in accordance with the list of specifications submitted to Building Control before the work started on site. Both the Compliance report and photographic evidence will need to be provided to Building Control to confirm the minimum requirements of the regulations have been met and also providing a copy of these to the building owner providing certainty that the home they are buying is built as per the energy efficiency design specifications and also providing them with a guidance on how to use the building services efficiently. Ensuring that once a new home has been built, no refurbishment will be necessary to reach zero carbon. 

The RIBA’s views on the governments current steps is that the 2022 uplifts were not as ambitious as hoped to be but they seek to influence the additional uplifts to come into force in 2025. 

So to sum up what I discussed today:

• The Future Homes Standard is the first stage of the uk government to ensure that new build houses are future proofed with low carbon heating and energy efficiency and will come into effect and become mandatory in England in 2025.
• The Future Homes Standard aim is for an average home to produce 75-80% lower Co2 emissions.
• The first step were the updates to Approved Document L that came into effect in 2022 to have a fabric first approach and low carbon heating systems also improving the performance gap, then will be followed by updates to Approved Document F on Ventilation and the introduction of Approved Document O on Overheating. 
• The interim uplifts applied with Part L & F is delivering new homes with Co2 savings of 31% through a combination of low carbon heating and increased fabric standards. These uplifts are intended to pave the way for successful implementation of the Future Homes Standard in 2025. 
• Therefore, new build homes will need to be designed with an improved fabric, airtightness and thermal performance, prevent overheating, improve ventilation, switch to alternative and renewable systems and include electric vehicle charging points and cable routes
• Developers and builders will need to demonstrate that the building meets the minimum requirements by providing to Building Control a compliance report and photographic evidence of key interfaces

So currently, the government is consulting on technical aspects of the Future Homes Standard before updating the Regulations again for the 2025 implementation. I expect more updates to come on this so I will follow up with a part 2 later in the year.