The government’s plan to build zero carbon homes is a commendable response to its target to reduce carbon emissions, but to demand that all homes be built in this way is itself not sustainable (April, page 6).

Zero carbon homes need on-site energy generation with enough capacity to return electricity to the grid for considerable periods of time. Installing this expensive and inefficient equipment draws attention away from the main event. The real challenge is for buildings to be robustly and completely insulated, both airtight and breathable with well managed ventilation systems and be designed to reduce or eliminate thermal bridging.

The energy sector must be charged with responsibility for producing reliable and truly sustainable forms of renewable energy – after all that’s where their expertise lies.

Then there is the small matter of the huge stock of poorly performing buildings – allocate some big budgets to assist a major overhaul of these buildings, bearing in mind that these will still represent at least 95% of the buildings in use in 2016.

And if that all means there is no money or rhetoric left over to encourage us to put wind turbines and photovoltaics on our forthcoming EcoHomes Excellent scheme in Bladon, on our passive standard flats in Faringdon, or our Code for Sustainable Homes level 5 scheme in Droitwich, then we might be convinced that the government has understood the problem, and has a joined-up plan for dealing with it.

Jonathan Kingerlee, chairman of Kingerlee Homes

Source

RegenerateLive

Postscript

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