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Future Homes Standard - Coggle Diagram
Future Homes Standard
ISSUES
The installation of heat pumps is at a level much lower than necessary to meet the ambition of the Future Homes Standard.
We need to establish heat pumps as a mass market solution for low carbon heating and this could be started by new build properties.
18% of UK heat will need to come from heat networks by 2050 if the UK is to meet its carbon targets cost effectively.
Direct electric heating produces heat through a near 100% efficient process with no emissions at the point of use. They can be expensive to run and if deployed at scale would have an impact on the National Grid. Under some circumstances it may be an appropriate technology in applications where heat demand is low - when a home is built to the highest fabric standards.
CCC states that it's not possible to ramp up installation rates of heat pumps straight away due to the lack of market development and there aren't enough qualified heat pump installers.
Direct electric heating installed in homes could incur over £350 higher bills per year compared to gas heating unless Part L standards are changes to make sure new homes don;t result in high energy bills. They are proposing a new requirement for new dwellings based on the theoretical energy cost of the dwelling.
Household Affordability Rating. Where direct electric heating is installed the theoretical energy bills would be reasonable. This could be done by a combination of increase fabric efficiency, heat recovery devices, renewable generation and on-site energy storage.
Use the Energy Efficiency Rating as a measure and set a minimum Energy Efficiency Rating that must be achieved.
Without strong minimum elemental fabric standards designers could use one single highly efficient fabric element with much poorer fabric performance elsewhere or low carbon technology to achieve regulatory targets.
The CCC state that the full definition of the standard should be set now and legislated ahead of 2024 to give market certainty. Waiting will drive up compliance costs, given the history of the cancelled Zero Carbon Homes policy. They also want the 2025 introduction date brought forward . Scotland are due to announce their own and implement a year earlier.
If the Fabric Energy Efficiency standard is scrapped without an adequate replacement homes could see bills 50% higher than under current standards. Limiting space heating demands to Passivhaus levels by 2025 at the latest is achievable and beneficial. file:///C:/Users/daveh/Downloads/CCC-to-MHCLG-Feb-2020.pdf
PLAN
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High fabric standards. Every new homes should have triple glazing and standards for walls, floors and roofs that limit any heat loss.
Low carbon heating may be delivered by heat pumps, heat networks and direct electric heating in some circumstances.
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The Clean Growth Strategy committed to consulting on introducing measures for new homes which would make it easier to install low carbon heating in future. This could include making space for hot water storage, installing suitable emitters, improving the building fabric or installing low carbon heating sooner.
One thing that could make it easier to install heat pumps or district heating in the future is for new homes to have a space heating system operating at a low temperature. Heat pumps operate at 55 degrees or lower. This flow temperature would increase the efficiency of condensing boilers to give an immediate energy saving to the consumer, reduce losses and improve system efficiencies in district heating and facilitate transition to low carbon technology.
Wet space heating systems should be designed to operate with a flow rate temperature of 55 degrees or lower. They could set a minimum standard that heating systems should be designed to operate at temperatures of 55 degrees or lower.
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Behind the New Standard
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Their spring statement in 2019 included a commitment that by 2025 they will introduce a Future Homes Standard.
It builds on the Grand Challenge Buildings Mission to at least reduce the energy use of new homes by 50% by 2030.
An average semi-detached home built to meet this standard would produce 75-80% less CO2 emissions than it would on current standards.
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Research into the standard will start in 2021. and continue into 2023. They will begin an evidence base with the intention of consulting on the implementation in 2024 - is this too late?
Actions
Industry need to develop supply chains, skills and construction practices to deliver low carbon heat and highly energy efficient new homes.
Option 1: 20% improvement on CO2 emissions delivered mainly by increased fabric standard. This would be done by triple glazing and waste water heat recovery system.
Based on the energy and carbon performance of a home with very high fabric standards to minimise heat loss, a gas boiler and a waste water heat recovery system.
This would add £2,557 to the build cost of a new home and would save households £59 a year on energy bills. This is a 43-44 year payback time.
Option 2: 31% improvement on CO2 emissions by a more minor increase in fabric standards along with low carbon heating and/or renewables. This is preferred.
This is based on the energy and carbon performance of a home with an increase in fabric standards (not as high as in option 1), a has boiler, a waste water recovery system and PV panels.
This would add £4,847 to the build cost of a new home and would save households £257 a year on energy bills. This is a 19 year payback time.
This would give a CO2 saving of 22% in flats due to the standard including solar panels. A flat has a smaller roof area. The additional cost is £2,556.
Less costly waysd of meeting the standard could be used - such as putting in low carbon heating. This would cost £3,134 for a semi detached house rather than the 4847 and the saving on energy bills would be higher as less would be bought from the grid.
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A home built to the standard would typically have a heat pump, a waste water heat recovery system, triple glazing and minimum standards for walls, floors and roofs that limit heat loss. They won't prescribe technologies to use but will work on performance standards.
Introduce a new regulation to ensure that new homes must have self regulating devices. Include devices for the separate regulation of the temperature in each room. This would typically be done by thermostatic radiator valves already installed as standard practice.
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CHANGES TO SAP
SAP 10.1
Minimum recognised level of airtightness in naturally ventilated buildings has been introduced at 3. Lower values may be entered but further energy savings won't accrue below this.
The standing losses for heat interface units for use with heat networks to be taken from the PCD. Where no data is available a value of 1.46 should be used.
The in use factor of 1.15 for heat networks has been removed allowing it to be varied depending on the nature of the source of the data.
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The minimum recognised rate for showers has been set to 8 litres/minute for new homes or 7 litres/minute for existing homes.
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The treatment of electricity generated by PV where not connected directly to the meter has reverted to being as in the SAP 2012.
SAP 10.2 will be published. They look to change the source of most fuel prices to BEIS domestic energy price indices. This is more robust.
For district heating systems with renewable components, any renewable energy in the system won;t count towards the primary energy of these systems. The overall primary energy factor of a district heating system dependent on the mix of renewables and fossil fuels in it.