The Government has recently published it’s long anticipated consultation response about the up and coming Future Homes Standard, as well as more imminent changes to the building regulations now planned for 2022. These updates will have a huge impact on the choices developers make about the specification of new homes. Is it finally time for heat pumps to become the norm in new builds?
What is the Future Homes Standard
The Government has committed that, from 2025, the Future Homes Standard will deliver new homes that are ‘Zero Carbon Ready’. This notion captures many of the principles we’ve been blogging about for years, namely:
The Future Homes Standard will set a level which means that new homes will not be built with fossil fuel heating such as a natural gas boiler.
All new homes will be future-proofed with low carbon heating and high levels of energy efficiency
No further energy efficiency retrofit work will be necessary to enable them to become zero carbon in the future. This will all come from the decarbonisation of the electricity grid.
The full technical specification will be consulted upon in 2023, with legislation introduced in 2024 ready for implementation in 2025.
This is the roadmap, and the Government has reaffirmed its commitment to deliver. However, the Government is also determined to make progress between now and then, and that is why there is going to be an interim update to the Building Regulations in 2022…
Interim Update To Building Regulations This Year!
As part of the roadmap to the Future Homes Standard, the Government will be implementing updates to the Building Regulations this year. These updates were intended for 2020, however due to delays caused by COVID, this has been delayed to later this year.
The updates to the Building Regulations will include a raft of changes, including updates to building fabric and such like. However, from a heat pump perspective the most significant item will be the implementation - at last - of the updated carbon emission factors for different fuels, and most significantly electricity, which is the fuel used by heat pumps.
Why Are Carbon Factors Important
When working out the energy efficiency of a property, the calculation used is called the Standard Assessment Procedure - or SAP for short. This calculates the total amount of energy the property requires for heating, domestic hot water, lighting and other general electrical requirements. Currently all calculations are done using SAP 2012, which is completely out of date from a carbon factor perspective!
With regards to the heating and hot water, depending on the technology being used to provide this, an amount of fuel energy is calculated. If this is a gas boiler the fuel energy is higher than the delivered energy because the efficiency of a boiler is always less than 100%. In the case of a heat pump, the delivered energy is divided by the Coefficient of Performance to calculate the amount of electrical energy. For the sake of simplicity, a house needing 15,000kWh of heat energy, delivered by a heat pump with a CoP of 3, will require 5,000kWh of electricity.
Now this is where it gets interesting…
The carbon intensity of each fuel is different. In the case of gas, this is largely unchanged, save for slight improvements in distribution efficiency. In contrast, the carbon intensity of electricity is completely dependent on the fuel mix used to make the electricity. Now, back in 2012, when electricity came primarily from gas and coal, it was much more carbon intensive. However nowadays more and more of our electricity is coming from zero carbon sources such as solar power and wind power, and so this means electricity is becoming an increasingly clean fuel.
The updates in the new SAP software, will reflect this change, and it will make a huge difference for heat pumps, as shown below:
Natural Gas
2012 emissions factor - 0.216 kgCO2 per kWh
2020 emissions factor - 0.210 kgCO2 per kWh
Electricity (for heat pumps)
2012 emissions factor - 0.519 kgCO2 per kWh
2020 emissions factor - 0.136 kgCO2 per kWh
This represents a huge reduction, and means that heat pumps, whilst not mandated, will make compliance with the new building regulations standards much more straightforward.
Example
Take the 15,000 kWh load we mentioned earlier and apply it to both gas boilers and heat pumps. There are slight nuances in the calculations that means it isn’t quite this straightforward, but you’ll get the idea:
Gas boiler - 90% efficiency = 16,667 kWh gas @0.210kgCO2/kWh = 3.5 tonnes CO2 per year
Heat Pump - CoP of 3.0 = 5,000 kWh electricity @0.136kgCO2/kWh = 0.68 tonnes CO2 per year
Wow!
That is a huge 80% reduction in CO2 for a heat pump compared to a gas boiler which will be recognised in the calculations, and is clearly going to make building regulations compliance so much easier!
Timeline
Jan 2021 - Future Building Standard consultation response. Done!
Dec 2021 - Interim Part L regulations produced for Domestic and Non-Domestic dwellings
Jun 2022 - Interim Part L regulations come into effect
2024 - Future Homes Standard regulations produced
2025 - Future Homes Standard regulations come into effect
“With the continuing decarbonisation of the electricity grid, heat pumps now produce a fraction of the emissions of a gas boiler. And from 2022 this will be reflected in the Building Regulations.”
Why Wait? Start Installing Heat Pumps Now
This update is now on the immediate horizon, and we believe heat pumps offer an easy, ready-made solution to achieve compliance with the new energy efficiency standards in 2021/22, and prepare you for the Future Homes Standard coming in 2025.
We have a business package specifically designed with developers in mind. We can work with your existing heating installers to provide free training, as well as our design, supply and commissioning package for the heat pump itself. With Alto Energy, you have peace of mind that the heat pump has been designed correctly for the property, as well as the distribution system, and you also benefit from our comprehensive aftersales service for the home owner.
So please get in touch today and we can explain the benefits and simplicity of switching to heat pumps.