"The Government launched its long-awaited consultation on proposed changes to the Building Regulations this week, setting out a number of proposals designed to boost energy efficiency.

The Government has has made great efforts to mitigate the cost impact on house builders of achieving Part L from next year by setting an improvement target of 8% in additional carbon savings compared to the 25% that the industry had been told to expect by the previous government. There is no plan to drop the obj...

I am a great fan of LED lighting as the preferred method of low energy lighting and have successfully incorporated replacement LED lighting in several residential projects over the last couple of years. I am pleased to say to the total satisfaction of the owners. Therefore, inspired by the clarity of an article I recently read, I wanted to share these reasons. This blog might look counterintuitive at first glance, but having read it I may have convinced you that compact fluorescent light bulb...

1. The optimum orientation is ‘due south' (not ‘magnetic south') as this will maximise the sunshine and/or daylight.2. The optimum pitch of the PV Module is 30 degrees. At this angle, the PV Module will 'self clean' as much as possible.

3. A PV Module fitted at less than 10 degrees pitch will need regular manual cleaning.

4. An array of PV Modules can be a very effective source of electricity production, depending on the size and number in the array. This could provide a consistent sour...

BRE has just released its proposals on how the SAP methodology should be changed in line with the planned revision of Building Regulations in 2013; the next step towards proposed Zero Carbon houses by 2016.

It should be noted that this is consultation stage only.

There are eight key changes which may be relevant on upcoming housing developments.

This consultation only applies to the calculations used for producing SAP assessments and EPC's. It does not cover Target Emission Rates, limiting U...