Adapting to Climate Change – The Bigger Picture

The recent Environmental Audit Committee report - ‘Heatwaves: adapting to climate change’ - amongst many recommendations, called for the Government to withdraw support for the production of modular homes because they are ‘not resilient to heatwaves’.  

The response to some of the evidence presented to this Committee has been robustly challenged by many sectors of the offsite construction industry. The Structural Timber Association (STA) states that overheating is systematic of poor building design and not high performance, energy efficient buildings. 

“This is a very simplistic recommendation, based on questionable evidence,” commented Andrew Carpenter, Chief Executive of the STA. We must take a long-term view - after all much evidence has been published over the last decade which demonstrates the impact CO2 emissions from poor, uninsulated housing stock, has had on global warming. 
“As with all sectors across offsite and traditional construction, good design with enhanced insulation for both summer and winter conditions, provides excellent mitigation of overheating.  In addition to appropriate levels of insulation, the most important design feature for comfort is effective cross-ventilation and the size and location of glazing.”

The offsite community is keen to demonstrate its capability, resilience and user comfort on a level playing field with traditional construction. The UK Green Building Council’s report, ‘Health and Wellbeing in Homes’ - noted that design for a well-insulated building fabric, not only improves u-values but keeps heat out in summer months as well as keeping heat in during winter, reducing heat loss, thermal bridging and improving air leakage, which reduces carbon emissions. 

Academic research has been carried out to contrast comfort levels in lightweight and traditional housing.  Both traditional and structural timber systems perform well with good cross-ventilation, but a cooler upper floor in lightweight timber construction is considered an advantage for occupier comfort at night. This is reinforced by the extensive use of naturally ventilated, lightweight timber homes in North America where durability and longevity are also well proven. 

Andrew Carpenter concluded: “To meet the Government’s housing targets – the construction industry needs to have access to a full portfolio of construction materials and techniques. Withdrawing support for innovative methods of construction, based on questionable evidence, in my opinion is simply not warranted, remotely feasible or desirable.” 

For more information about the Structural Timber Association go to: www.structuraltimber.co.uk

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