AECB and the Passivhaus Trust are participating in the 2013 Part L1 Working Group, an all-sector industry group which is making technical recommendations to the Building Regulations Advisory Committee (BRAC) and hence onwards to DCLG. They are recommending to the group that it pushes for Passivhaus certification to be formally recognised within the revised building regs.

AECB and the Trust together are recommending to the working group that :

(1) DCLG grants Passivhaus-compliant dwellings a deemed-to-satisfy status for Part L1A 2013, and

(2) DCLG considers the  view that Part L1A 2013 should be set at a FEES Plus standard which is essentially FEES with greater attention to draught-free construction.

The reasoning is as follows:

• Passivhaus certified homes will be more than good enough (both in terms of energy/carbon performance, and assurances that you’ll actually get that performance) to meet the improved objectives of whatever Part L1 DCLG is likely to set in the current round – so if a home is a certified Passivhaus it should automatically pass Building Regs.
• In the new Part L1 itself, airtightness is a more logical area to tighten up than the specification of individual components such as insulation or windows because airightness is currently where the biggest gap – literally – exists between current practice and the 2016 Zero Carbon target.

For the full recommendations see the AECB New Releases pages, here

Thanks to Dr Neil Cutland of Cutland Consulting Ltd, for representing AECB and the Passivhaus Trust.