VIEWPOINT

Challenges

With Document L

By Wojciech Brozyna – MD of Aluprof UK

Net Zero Carbon Homes by 2050, a step too far? Well it certainly is a challenge for the Construction Industry and home improvement, but it is possible to achieve? Let’s first look at some of today’s facts: 27% of our carbon emissions in the UK comes from heating our buildings, with 18% coming from our domestic building stock. 80% of our homes that will be needed in 2050 have already been built and we are still building homes today that are not in line with net zero. So what do we have to do?

Currently our homes range from 90 to 170 kWh/m2 energy usage per year, in 2050 we need to have our homes between 40 to 60 kWh/m2 per year. We will achieve this by taking a whole building approach, increasing thermal insulation whilst reducing air permeability and cold bridging. Obviously we will need to stop using fossil fuels such as gas as soon as practicable and move to heat pumps as the most accessible technology at the moment. Currently over 85% of homes in the UK have gas boilers. A gradual phase out of gas boilers and an increase in heat pump installations will allow the gradual increases required in the electricity grid, which continues to be decarbonised to use more renewable energy.

To achieve our net zero target, our well insulated homes will require less zero carbon energy to run and it is only then when we can claim a ‘Net Zero Carbon’ balance for our building stock.

As for windows and doors, it is anticipated that these should achieve 0.8 W/m2.K by 2025. Couple these lower values with increased insu-

lation in walls, roof and floor and we will see space heating demand decrease to 25 to 50 kWh/m2/yr. Whilst it is challenging to increase insulation in the building fabric, either internally or externally, one issue that our industry must tackle is that of cold bridging, especially around the installed windows and doors. With a high performance window or door frame typically 70mm in width, how do we ensure that the structure supporting the window increases in insulation from the frame U value to the full thickness of the wall which will typically be 0.15 W/m2.K without dipping and creating a cold bridge? Currently many replacement window installations ignore the need to continue the thermal insulation within the window to link into the surrounding structures insulation. Ignoring these thermal requirements around the window reveal can heavily reduce the purported gains of installing a high performance window or door.

Basically no one element of the building structure can be looked at in isolation. High insulation building fabric goes hand in hand with high performance windows and doors, with the caveat of careful detailing around window and door openings. The ‘fabric first’ approach is key to achieving our net zero target, indeed, just opting for home insulation now will heavily reduce current carbon emissions by using less fossil fuels. Adding to a well insulated and airtight home, the installation of heat pumps, MVHR (Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery) and photovoltaic panels, will ensure we reach our goal.

Who will pay? Over the last few decades we have strived as homeowners to improve our properties, especially by installing new windows and doors, I believe we will continue to improve our properties as part of our goal to have economic and comfortable places to live in.

The landscape for the ‘home improvement’ market will likely change in the future, replacement windows and doors rated at 0.8 W/ m2.K will be installed hand in hand with external or internal insulation to reach the future homes standard for walls of 0.15 W/m2.K. Furthermore, these improvements will likely go hand in hand with MVHR installations meaning that we will not need trickle vents through windows together, possibly with less opening vents in windows. What seems certain is that over the next couple of decades the home improvement market will become very buoyant as these opportunities present themselves to a well established ‘trade’ supply chain.

Wojciech Brozyna – Aluprof UK managing director

Here at Aluprof UK we already have a range of very high insulation systems and we have new high performance products waiting in the wings. Our technical teams are well versed in offering assistance to architects to help detail and reduce thermal bridging on new and refurbished building envelopes. Traditionally, Aluprof UK offer commercial systems to the UK & Ireland markets, but we are now experiencing rapid growth in supplying the home improvement market.

aluprof.co.uk

Statistics used in this editorial are believed to be correct and in-line with the ‘ LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide – ‘How existing homes can be adapted to meet UK climate targets’.

Breathing Space Or Bottleneck?

With most installers’ order books full into Spring next year, they should be planning for a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. In fact, according to Russell Yates, managing director of aluminium trade fabricator AluFold Direct, many are likely to spend the upcoming holidays struggling with ongoing supply chain delays and very real issues when it comes to cash flow.

That’s because so many have had to resort to placing orders months in advance to try to mitigate long and unpredictable lead times from their suppliers; filling their lockups and storage depots to capacity and tying up hard earned cash in the process.

Russell explained: “On most bigger jobs, installers have to coordinate separate deliveries of PVC-U, glass, composite doors, and aluminium products. They can’t schedule installations until they know that all those elements are available and, ultimately, they can’t get paid for a job until it is fully installed and completed.

“Installers that we are speaking to tell us that they’re delaying placing orders as long as they can to try to conserve space and cash, but also trying to factor into their 2022 quotes the fact that there will almost inevitably be price rises before those orders are delivered.

“It’s a huge dilemma for the trade, which I’m not sure that rival fabricators in both PVC-U and aluminium, who are pushing the narrative that installers should be happy to work around 6-8 week lead times, entirely understand or appreciate. As I see it, the supplier has to accept that the onus is on them to reduce lead times and offer better assurances and clearer communication to their customers, rather than expecting the installer to carry the risk and the financial burden. huge investments we’ve made in processes and automation over the past year have largely been focused around being able to guarantee lead times of just two weeks on all our windows, patios and bi-folds, no matter how big the demand is. Industry wide supply chain issues at the moment mean we’re currently closer to three or four weeks, but even that means we’re picking up new business from installers for whom those extra couple of weeks’ breathing space before they have to put their orders in are proving invaluable.

“There is an irony of course to the fact that it is aluminium products which are now amongst the easiest to source from big, efficient fabricators like us, while glass and composite doors are now often the biggest bottlenecks.

“The best advice I can offer to installers who are facing a difficult New Year struggling with supply is to think a bit more strategically about the order in which they buy, and choose materials, products and suppliers that offer a greater degree of certainty and peace of mind.”

The Business Pilot Barometer offers a monthly analysis of the key trends defining window and door retail. It draws on real industry data collated by Business Pilot, the cloud-based business management tool developed by installers for installers.To find out more see www.businesspilot.co.uk/barometer

The Business Pilot Barometer

Has COVID-19 made the window and door industry better or worse off?

By Neil Cooper-Smith, Senior Analyst, Business Pilot many. Despite its size, the figure is unremarkable, given that we lost much of the month to the holiday season. Average order values by comparison were up from £4,770 to £7,391 – an increase of 55%. Although we’re having to join the dots, we’d argue that this can, in part, be attributed to the pre-September Stamp Duty holiday deadline rush in housing completions. Although conjecture, it would make sense that a couple of months in, those who moved in September are starting on home improvements, and completing refurbishments.

At the same time, discretionary spend on single (albeit bigger) ticket items, for example bi-folds, are likely to have been impacted by the holidays and lower seasonal appeal, increasing the average order value overall.

What’s ahead in 2022?

Figures for window and door sales last month [December 2021] show a 38% fall in sales. That’s a substantial but not entirely unexpected drop: a lot of retailers shut-up shop early for Christmas, while December is historically also slower. At the start of 2022 Omicron continues to deliver a dose of uncertainty. While there were signs in December that supply chains were starting to stabilise, the prospect of COVID-related disruption continues to hang over the industry.

That also goes for January. Leads in December were also down 44% – from 102 to 57 – which means that the start of the year will be quieter for This aside, a number of factors which drive increased consumer confidence, and therefore their willingness to spend, continue to point in a posi-

window and door industry was on target for significant growth before the pandemic hit, at around 5% year-on-year through to 2023.

The growth that has been seen in the last 18-months has been exponential, but it is by definition going to be less sustainable.

What we can see is that year-on-year sales December 2021 were down 23% on those for 2020. Go back a year further to the pre-Covid era and December 2019, and they’re 60% lower.

tive direction.

Average house prices rose again last month, hitting a record average level of £254,822 according to the latest data from Nationwide building society.

This represents an increase of 10.4% in the 12-months to December 2021 – an increase of £24,000 over the past year – giving homeowners more equity in their properties.

The challenge is inflation, which the Bank of England predicts will peak at around 6% this April, from the 5.1% already seen in November.

Analysts warn this is likely to be compounded if, as expected, Ofgem lifts its price cap on household gas and electricity bills in April, something which could see domestic energy prices increase by as much as 50%.

In summary, confidence in the housing market means demand is going to be there in retail but affordability is going to be far more of an issue than it has been in the last 12-months.

Has Covid-19 made the window and door industry more profitable? So, could the industry have done better if COVID hadn’t hit? It’s safe to say that the volume wouldn’t have been there without it or, perhaps more accurately, the Furlough scheme.

But there would have been more control, and going into their year-end, we know there will be retailers who won’t have been as profitable as they expected to be, because of the increased complexity and cost of doing business during a pandemic.

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