Building Standards

There are a wide range of building standards that are used in the construction industry. The ones that are most well known in the UK are:

Building Regulations

These are the standards that buildings are forced by law to obtain. However there is research that the failure to meet these standards is at a worrying high level.

Eco-Homes

This a standard that was developed by the Buildings Research Establishment (BRE). It has been widely used in Wales especially in the Social Housing sector. The standard is one of the BREEAM family (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) but was designed for housing only. The standard is now being superseded by the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Code for Sustainable Homes

This is a new standard that has 6 different levels and the Wales Assembly Government is adopting this as their preferred measurement. Code Level 3 will be the new minimum requirement for Social Housing from 2008, but it is expected to rapidly change to Code Level 4 and then to Code Level 5 or 6. The 'aspiration' of Zero-Carbon Building can be achieved by Code Levels 5 or 6.

Technical information is available by clicking here. (A large 2.3Mb file of 300 plus pages!)

A quick guide is available from Greenspec.

BREEAM

BREEAM as mentioned in Eco-Homes is the parent standard for many building assessments. BREEAM can be applied to a wide variety of building types and so is the most widely used standard for buildings like offices, retail, schools etc.

Passiv Haus / Passive House

Passiv Haus standards are covered in a little detail on the rest of the site, but again Greenspec have a good page on the standard.

AECB Carbonlite Programme

The Association for Environment Conscious Building have developed standards based on the Passiv Haus principles and calculations. Gold equates for the Passiv Haus standard, but they also have Bronze, Silver and Platinum standards.

EST Best Practice

The Energy Saving Trust have a large amount of information on Best Practice. They used to have a definite standard that was roughly equivalent to AECB Silver Level. They have produced a wide range of technical documents that are very useful and are also available from RDE.