Application
The Code is a 6 level rating system with credits in a broad range of categories from water use to occupant health. There are simple and inexpensive methods of gaining credits, like specifying compost and recycling bins, and costly methods such as installing solar photovoltaics.
Currently, compliance with higher levels of the Code is voluntary, with a long-term view for step-change increases. However, landowners and agents are already selling sites with stipulations to build at a certain Code level.
The extra-over cost of building to Code Level 3 is valued between around £2000-3000, additionally the Code assessment costs around £2000 for a small project, the total cost of this is typically under 5% of a standard build.
Code levels pertaining to energy require a Dwelling Emission Rate (DER) a certain percentage lower than the Target Emission Rate (TER) as set in Part L1A of the Building Regulations. The October 2010 version of the Code saw Part L 2010 TER standards rise equivalent to Code Level 3. Since this change Code Level 4 requires 25% DER improvement over Part L1A 2010 TER standards and Code Level 5 requires 100% improvement i.e. thermally twice as efficient. It is also anticipated that the Building Regulations as well as the minimum mandatory Code level will continue to improve until the 2016 target of 'net zero CO2 emissions' is met. Guidance is also available via the Code's simply explained published document to clarify the technical requirements.
Read more about this topic: Code For Sustainable Homes
Famous quotes containing the word application:
“We will not be imposed upon by this vast application of forces. We believe that most things will have to be accomplished still by the application called Industry. We are rather pleased, after all, to consider the small private, but both constant and accumulated, force which stands behind every spade in the field. This it is that makes the valleys shine, and the deserts really bloom.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)