HVAC & IAQ
DOES THE FUTURE HOMES STANDARD CONSULTATION GO FAR ENOUGH? The Future Homes Standard Consultation, released by the MHCLG in October, offered an indication of where we are moving as a nation in terms of house-building, writes David Bowen, Founder & CTO at Logicor.
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far, I think the UK S oGovernment has done a commendable job in laying the strategic foundations for the decarbonisation of heat, particularly the greening of the grid1. However, setting a heating strategy which capitalises on this will be trickier, and I believe this has become apparent within the scope of the consultation document. In my and the Logicor team’s opinion, too much emphasis has been placed on technologies which do not use the strategic advantage the green grid gives us. This includes heat networks, which are likely to be fossil fuelbased (even if more efficient than individual boilers) and hydrogen (still a fossil fuel and cumbersome to deliver). Equally, too much emphasis has been placed on groundsource and air-source heat pumps. These will never be a mass-market solution. Ground-source heat pumps require large boreholes so are not an option for those limited on space. Furthermore, both ground-source and air-source heat pumps also need large radiators or underfloor heating together with a well-insulated home to be effective. As such, heat pumps won’t satisfy most homeowners, and they aren’t suitable for flats either given that they lack suitable outside space for the condenser units.
