Energy Saving Trust Announces 7 Key Principles for Building Energy Efficiency

The Energy Saving Trust (EST) has long championed raising the level of energy efficiency in new homes, and now, the organization has revealed 7 key principles it would like to see implemented in any future key piece of legislation, a recent news release has revealed.

An increasing numbers of individuals and organisations are aware that energy use in homes makes up around 14% of the UK’s emissions of greenhouse gases. The fact is, the energy involved in building and then operating every new UK home adds to the UK’s overall CO2 emissions at a time when there is an urgent need to reduce them.

For this this reason, the EST would like to see the principles below incorporated in any government consultation on the future of energy-efficient buildings:

1. New homes should be built to the most efficient fabric standards.
2. Homes built from 2024/25 should only be heated by low/zero carbon heating systems and homes built from 2020 should be future proofed in readiness for low carbon heating systems in the future.
3. New build homes should generate as much low carbon power as realistically possible.
4. Local planning authorities should be allowed to go beyond national standards, but within a national trajectory for standards.
5. Builders must not be able to build to out of date energy standards.
6. Reducing water use in new homes is inseparable from energy saving. A mandatory government-led water efficiency label for the UK should be introduced and used as a basis for fixture-based efficiency standards in building regulations.
7. Compliance and enforcement measures for building regulations must be strengthened, and incorporate in-use energy monitoring.
8. Governments across the UK should set out timetables for introducing requirements for cutting the carbon used in the construction of new homes, and targets for reductions.
9. Further delays are not acceptable. Zero Carbon homes are affordable to build, deliver wide benefits for occupiers, and are vital to help tackle the climate emergency. Governments across the UK must require homes that meet an operational zero carbon standard by 2025 at the latest.

HeatingSave – the easy to retrofit Building Management System (BMS) that can help home owners save energy and money

The HeatingSave Building Energy Management System helps customers save more than 30% on their bills by optimizing any heating system’s overall functionality. This is done by taking into account a variety of factors, such as internal and external temperatures, occupancy, time of the year, the particular characteristics of installed boilers, etc.

All of the data is used in order to determine the best heating patterns for the various heating zones within any building, using our proprietary heat-loss algorithm.

HeatingSave is also approved to work and save fuel within the Energy Technology List, which is managed by the Carbon Trust on behalf of the Government. It is also approved by the Department of Energy & Climate Change and the Energy Savings Trust and was specified by the Building Research Establishment for the energy efficient homes retro-fit program, called The Greenhouse Project.

Last, but certainly not least, it’s important to mention that HeatingSave is a component part of the Government’s Green Deal program.

If you’d like to find out more about HeatingSave’s accreditations, just visit the dedicated section on our website, and for any other information, just get in touch with our dedicated product team.