Embodied Carbon: Refurbish or Redevelop?
Posted on March 31st 2022
Embodied carbon is increasingly being used by planning authorities to push for refurbishment over demolition and redevelopment. Whilst it can be true for any individual building that refurbishment has a lower embodied carbon impact, a more complex picture emerges when local housing targets are considered. The omitted element of low density refurbishment is that new buildings (and their associated embodied …
Will Your EPC Rating Stop Sales?
Posted on March 31st 2022
Homes with new a tenancy from 1st April 2025 will need an EPC energy efficiency rating (EER) of C if the minimum energy efficiency standards (MEES) consultation is adopted. Failure to meet it could prevent sales as homes would be unlettable without payment of a fine, proposed to be capped at £10,000 per dwelling. Developments should therefore be considering how …
MCPD Success for Colindale Gardens
Posted on March 31st 2022
We successfully supported Redrow in their bid for an Environmental Permit under the Medium Combustion Plant Directive (MCPD), for their Energy Centre at Colindale Gardens which provides heat to homes & commercial units on the site. The permit allows the operation of one Combined Heat and Power (CHP) unit rated at 3.6MWth and three gas boilers, each rated at 6.4MWth. …
Driving Sustainability Using Early Stage Environmental Analysis
Posted on March 31st 2022
Environmental analysis at early design stages supports a smooth planning process by driving the sustainability agenda and addressing concerns of councils and residents through a robust design process. By using these tools (example outputs below), a range of environmental indicators can be provided early on, including indications of areas that addressed to ensure that they achieve regulatory standards in terms …
First Birthday of Hodkinson Consultancy Employee Ownership Trust
Posted on February 28th 2022
Our Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) celebrated its first birthday on 24th February. Engagement from the team has always been part of the ethos of the company. Being employee owned builds this into our future, enabling everyone to contribute to the ongoing success of the company and share in its success too. Employee ownership also ensures that the values of the …
How Have Heat Network Customers Been Affected by Utility Price Rises?
Posted on February 28th 2022
Gas Combined Heat & Power (CHP) continues to provides the lowest cost of heat production, protecting residents more from utility inflation than heat networks run just on gas boilers or heat pumps. CHP achieves this through the generation, and sale, of electricity, which has also increased in value. The chart below shows how the cost of heat for 3 different …
Importance of Thermal Bridging in Part L 2021
Posted on February 25th 2022
Developments designed and built to Part L 2021 of the Building Regulations may no longer utilise Accredited Construction Details (ACDs) for thermal bridging junctions. It is still possible to use default thermal bridging values, but one is penalised for taking this route and in many instances, this will cause SAPs to fail Part L fabric energy efficiency. As houses become …
Primary Energy – The Curious New Part L Metric
Posted on February 25th 2022
The addition of a third compliance metric into the new Part L, known as Primary Energy (PE), will push developers further into adopting solutions which demonstrate a high standard of energy efficiency at an infrastructural scale. Primary Energy is best understood as a more complete measure of the energy used in a building, taking into account energy ‘spent’ in the …
New Part L 2021 – The Impact of Heat Losses
Posted on January 24th 2022
Part L 2021 places significant weight on heat network heat losses and will require design enhancements to meet carbon & primary energy requirements. Part L 2013 allows a default Distribution Loss Factor (DLF) in SAP of 1.05 (i.e. 5%), which has always vastly under-accounted real heat losses. The new Part L offers three possibilities: Use a default DLF of 2 …
Water Neutrality Requirements Bring Extra Costs
Posted on January 19th 2022
New water neutrality requirements in North Sussex require all new developments to substantially reduce the water usage of new homes and offset the remainder. Water consumption values need to reduce from the Building Regulation Part G amount of 105L/pp/day for internal water consumption to 85L/pp/day at most. This reduced value can be achieved in two ways: Maximising the water efficiency …