Building Regulations
The 1965 Building Regulations introduced the first limits on the amount of energy that could be lost through certain elements of the fabric of new houses. This was expressed as a u-value—the amount of heat lost per square metre, for each degree Celsius of temperature difference between inside and outside.
In effect, the Target Insulation is a ratio of 1.33 W/m²·K of wall area (Document L 2006). So to keep your square metre warm, you are limited as to how much energy you can use. This is slightly regressive in that richer people live in bigger houses which tend to have a lower surface area/floor area, although this is partially offset by them being detached, as opposed to, say, terraced.
These limits were tightened following the 1973 oil crisis, and on several subsequent occasions (see below. Despite this, UK insulation levels have remained low compared to the EU average.
Read more about this topic: Energy Efficiency In British Housing
Famous quotes containing the words building and/or regulations:
“... what’s been building since the 1980’s is a new kind of social Darwinism that blames poverty and crime and the crisis of our youth on a breakdown of the family. That’s what will last after this flurry on family values.”
—Stephanie Coontz (b. 1944)
“If it were possible to make an accurate calculation of the evils which police regulations occasion, and of those which they prevent, the number of the former would, in all cases, exceed that of the latter.”
—Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835)