We are currently working on an exciting project involving a code 6 eco house. The design for this house has been assessed using the Code for Sustainable Homes.
The code is an environmental assessment system for rating and certifying the performance of new homes in the UK. It is a set of standards which are used in the design and construction of new homes with a view to encouraging continuous improvement in sustainable home building, and it is assessed at 6 different levels, with level 6 (or code 6) being the highest.
You achieve these levels by meeting 9 different pieces of criteria, and each piece of criteria is then combined to give you an overall score showing your home's overall impact on the environment. Level 6 is the highest level that you can attain for this overall score, it shows exemplary development in terms of sustainability.
The 9 pieces criteria categories are as follows:
Energy and CO2 emissions – operational energy and emissions of CO2.
Water -Both external and internal water saving measures.
Materials – Sourcing and environmental impact of materials used to build the development.
Surface water run-off – Management of surface water run-off from the development and the flood risk.
Waste – Showing storage for recyclable waste and compost, and care taken to reduce, reuse and recycle construction materials.
Pollution – The use of insulation and heating systems which don’t add to global warming.
Health and well-being – Good daylight quality, sound insulation, private space, accessibility and adaptability.
Management – A home user guide, designing in security and reducing the impact of construction.
Ecology – Protection and enhancement of the ecology of the area and efficient use of building land.
It all sounds rather expensive, doesn’t it?
There are simple and inexpensive ways to gain credits towards each piece of criteria, for example; you could specify compost and recycling bins (it may sound too simple, but it can count towards the overall score). But as with everything, there are cheaper methods, like installing solar photovoltaic panels.
Currently, compliance with the higher levels of this code is voluntary as it is more expensive to reach. Some landowners and estate agents are selling sites with an agreement made with the buyer to make the buildings there reach a certain level of the code. To comply with each assessment criteria at certain levels, your DER (Dwelling Emission Rate) should be lower than the TER (Target Emission Rate), each level had a different minimum requirement TER.
This scheme puts zero carbon development at the top of the industry agenda by the Association for Environmental Conscious Building. Even if there was a zero-carbon building, it would only reach level 1, which is the lowest level of the scheme assessment. This is because it is only reaching a high level of one piece of criteria, so to reach a higher level, the owner(s) of the building would need to look at improving on some or all of the other 8 pieces of criteria.
Some aspects of the assessment are restricted to the public this is so that the individual doesn’t have access to the information needed to calculate data and pass the code themselves. This information is kept by the CSH (Code for Sustainable Homes) to be used by paying customers. By doing this, the CSH are not only making sure that developers reach a certain standard when building homes, but they’re also making sure that developers pay for the CSH standards by restricting the information.
Written by Jade Turney – Building Tectonics Ltd.
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