From I. S. KNIGHT
Your correspondent Crispin Aubrey, paints a stark picture of the premature
– and avoidable – deaths in the UK which result from cold weather (Forum,
4 January). His solution to fuel poverty, ‘to invest in energy efficiency’
in order to ‘bring each home up to the insulation standards of the 1990
Building Regulations’, may be less successful than it would appear at first
sight.
Independent tests by SGS Yarsley (‘An investigation into actual heat
loss through cavity wall constructions’, June 1991, published by Eurisol)
show significant discrepancies between the ‘U’ (heat transfer) values calculated
for Building Regulation purposes and true ‘U’ values. This is particularly
true for some modern methods of construction where actual heat losses through
cavity walls may be 50 per cent greater than calculated Building Regulations
should allow.
One can only applaud any measures to improve insulation standards –
whether on new construction or to upgrade the existing housing stock. Until
something is done about the significant discrepancy between calculated and
true heat losses under current Building Regulations, they are no standard
to which anyone should aspire.
A simple revision to the Approved Document L of Building Regulations
is all that would be needed to ensure that current ‘U’ values are calculated
on a more realistic basis. The Department of the Environment could – at
a stroke – bring to an end this legacy of energy-inefficient housing which
neither the nation nor the (wider) environment can afford.
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I. S. Knight Eurisol (UK Mineral Wool Association) Hertfordshire
