UK in danger of missing zero carbon homes goal

The Construction Products Association has warned that unless a firm framework of development is put in place there will be little chance of achieving zero carbon homes in nine years' time.

John Tebbit, industry affairs director at the Association, has told CJ that homes rated as four, five and six stars in the EcoHomes ratings must be built in volume now in order to make zero carbon homes a viable reality. "If there are at least 1,000 homes built every year for the next nine years then we can start to iron out any problems in the build, and products can be developed to make it happen," he said.

Citing the progress made in Germany in creating the passive house standard, he continued: "We need to go from where we are now, to the German passive house standard and the same again within nine years. This is a massive challenge and we must raise the understanding of how it can be achieved."

In order to make the framework viable, Tebbit believes land for these dwellings must be subsidised by the government and English Partnerships to encourage developers to start building zero carbon homes. "They also must be real homes for people to live in," he said.

"Ideally, the homes could then be monitored in terms of metering and occupants could fill in a regular questionnaire. "Then we would begin to generate some real data, which we currently lack, and under-stand how these homes will perform in real use," he added.

The first of these prototype homes are unlikely to be as efficient as required, especially when inhabited by a family using the home without complete concentration on energy use. However, Tebbit said: "After five or six years we really will get close to a working zero carbon family home."

[Contract Journal, 7th Feburary 2007, p15]