Quickly discover the regulations affect on energy performance - Interactively
I was rummaging through NHER's website last night (they've got some great content over there BTW - Well worth a visit even if you're not a member) and thought I'd check out their Play the Regs link to see what it was all about.
Apart from the homepage being one big image (grrr...); and demanding an email for no apparent reason (grrr...); and lacking basic info about what you're supposed to do once inside, it's actually an interesting - interactive - way to learn just what it takes for different types of homes to achieve a "pass" against different regulations.
Fiddling
You simply choose from one of the six types of dwellings provided (for instance, detached, mid-terraced, top-floor flat, amongst others) and fiddle around with different energy performance options.
Each property type has basic assumptions attached such as size, integral garage etc... so it might be useful to look at those... if you can find the page, that is!
(Hint: click "Technical stuff", scroll to bottom, then hit the link beneath "Assumptions about our standard dwelling types").
Depending on which property type you select, you'll be presented with more, or less, options to meddle with. They might be: number of fireplaces; boiler type and controls; solar water heating; wall U-value etc...
The good bit is, when you mouseover the options it gives you some related background information about the implications your choice will have.
Hit calculate and it will tell you which of the regulations your new adjusted home would pass.
The regulations cover:
- 2006 Part L1A Regulations
- Code for Sustainable Homes L3
- Code for Sustainable Homes L4
- Code for Sustainable Homes L5
The Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH)
I played with the detached house and I was really surprised at what it took to achieve the highest Level 5 rating against the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH). If nothing else, you come away with a much better sense of what it will take to lift the housing stock from even just the 2006 Part L1A Regulations, which is the lowest regulation standard in this demo.
But if you think CSH Level 5 is tough, there is a Level 6 (not covered in the demo) which requires a home to be contributing more electricity to the grid than it consumes! The CSH is an ambitious standard indeed.
Tags: nher, code-for-sustainable-homes
