Housebuilders to share low carbon building lessons

A green housebuilding group has joined with academics to produce a road map for builders on how to meet zero carbon building targets.

The Good Homes Alliance hopes to take the lessons learned in the construction of 700 energy efficient homes at Stamford Brook, west London, to a wider audience.

Using six-year post-construction analysis by Leeds Metropolitan University and University College London, it will explore what worked and problems encountered on the site.

The group will host workshops for housebuilders and also produce guidance documents on how to build low carbon homes and achieve air-tightness.

Alliance chairman Neil May said homes at Stamford Brook were built to use 60% less energy than average homes but still recorded significant heat loss.

“The findings clearly highlight an urgent need to improve training and education at all levels and we hope that LowCarb4Real will contribute significantly to this aim,” he said.

“It is vital that we share experience across the industry in order to make progress.

“Meeting levels three and above of the Code for Sustainable Homes is extremely complex and, ideally, we need to orchestrate a culture change in the way we approach the entire construction process.”

The next workshops will be on 11 September at Leeds Metropolitan University and 16 September at University College London. To attend email info@goodhomes.org.uk.

The BRE is also publishing four guides to lessons learned during the construction of homes at its Innovation Park focusing on building fabric, energy and ventilation, water and architecture and construction.

Experience at the park has so far shown that simple designs are easier to make airtight, as are large panel construction systems with few joints.

Copies are available at www.brebookshop.com – a new guide will be released each month until November.