Opinion

VIEWPOINT

Closing the performance gap

for low carbon homes
T
Rob Pannell,
Zero Carbon Hub

The views and opinions

expressed in this article
are strictly those of the
author only and are
not necessarily given or
endorsed by or on behalf
of the Energy Institute.

he UK housebuilding
industry faces a significant
challenge from government:
that all new homes in England
must be zero carbon from 2016.
The Zero Carbon Hub was
established in 2008 as a non-profit
organisation to work with industry
and support the government
ambition of delivering zero carbon
homes from 2016.
Our recent work with industry
has indicated that there is
extensive evidence of a
considerable performance gap
between the energy use of new
homes as-designed and the actual
use once the building is completed.
This gap occurs when a constructed
home requires more energy than
was predicted during its design,
before taking into account the
behaviour of occupants.
This gap represents a significant
risk to the UKs carbon reduction
commitments. It has the potential
to result in higher-than-expected
household energy bills,
undermining buyer confidence in
new (low carbon) homes. As we
approach 2016, housebuilders are
producing higher performing
homes and need to be confident
that they truly perform as
intended. Without this they will
find it challenging to proactively
market this beneficial aspect of
their homes when compared to
more inefficient existing homes.
Evidence of the Performance Gap
Since January 2013, with
government support, we have
carried out an extensive study that
involved over 160 professionals
from across the industry, to help us
understand and tackle the problem
of underperforming homes. The
projects ambition is to close the
performance gap, so that by 2020 a
minimum of 90% of all new homes
meet or perform better than their
design.
At the start of our research
there was a misconception that the
performance gap was simply
caused by inaccuracies within
energy modelling software and
poor construction practice on site.

Our Evidence Review Report showed

that a gap can arise due to issues at
various stages of the housebuilding
process. Throughout this practice, a
number of cross-cutting themes
keep recurring unclear allocation
of responsibility; poor
communication of information;
and a lack of understanding,
knowledge and skills.
The review has identified 15
priority issues that require action
to begin to address the
performance gap. These range from
planners failing to understand the
energy challenges; current
material and product testing
protocols not reflecting real world
dynamic conditions when
calculating thermal performance;
procurement teams failing to
consider energy-related site skills
when reviewing tenders; to site
managers considering energy
related issues as a comparatively
low priority during their quality
checks.
Recommendations and solutions
In July we published our End
of Term Report, which sets out
recommendations and solutions to
help reduce the Performance Gap.
Crucially, collaboration is needed
between government and industry.
The range of recommendations
shows the scale of the challenge,
but a number of priority actions
both for industry and for
government provide a clear route
to tackle it.
For the housebuilding industry,
research and development is
needed to create innovative and
commercially viable methods to
test and measure the energy use of
completed homes, so that industry
can understand their true
performance. The industry also
needs to embed energy literacy
across the sector, with all
professionals and operatives
undertaking energy training and
up-skilling. It is also recommended
that an industry owned and
maintained Construction Details
Scheme should be set up, to
provide assured, as-built energy
performance for the most common

major building fabric junctions and

systems.
Next, industry needs to support
further evidence gathering and
feedback to accelerate continued
improvement across all sectors of
the industry.
We believe that industry is
capable of closing the performance
gap itself, though government also
has a role to play in providing
funding, support and refinements
to the compliance regime. A
number of key actions are
therefore recommended that
government should undertake to
complement the industry actions.
In place of immediate
additional regulation, government
must clearly indicate that it
expects the construction industry
to act now to ensure that the
performance gap is being
addressed; industry must then
commit to demonstrating that this
has been achieved by 2020.
Government funding is needed to
stimulate industry investment in a
Construction Details Scheme, as
well as funding for innovative
testing, measurement and
assessment methods.
Last, government should
stipulate that only energy-certified
operatives and professionals be
employed on public land
developments from 2017, which
would accelerate demand for
industry developed qualification
schemes.
Key stakeholders from both
industry and government have
been thoroughly engaged with the
performance gap project, reflecting
their clear commitment to tackle
this problem. To do so, they will
need to collaborate closely acting
quickly and decisively to
undertake these recommendations.
Collaboration is also needed with
the wider energy sector, which has
an important role in delivering
as-built performance. Failure to
act on these recommendations
could jeopardise UK carbon
reduction targets and undermine
the good work undertaken by the
industry. l

Energy World | October 2014 7