The new Labour Government has committed to a large house building drive, but with the drive to net zero, is this achievable?
Chris Franklin, MD at Ranheat Engineering Ltd – a leading UK manufacturer of wood combustion equipment –continues his series of articles exclusively for Furniture and Joinery Production.
The answer demands quite radical changes to the way we build houses, insulate, and heat them. All of these requirements should be good news for the UK woodworking industry.
A traditional house, constructed of traditional methods cannot get to net zero as too much carbon is used in the manufacture of traditional building materials. Also, a traditional brick and block house takes around eight months to build.
There is also a lack of skilled tradesmen – it was recently reported that the average age of a bricklayer is around 52 years old and getting older. Following BREXIT, many skilled workers returned to their home countries, creating further skills shortages.
The new Government has committed to build 1.5 million homes over the next 5 years. The answer looks like timber framed houses. These can be made in factories off-site and then assembled quickly. Some house builders are claiming a house can be put up in five days using this method.
Within our industry we have seen the increase in engineered timber, with floor joists being replaced with timber “I” beams using softwood and OSB. They are lighter, stronger and straighter than conventional timber joists.
Using these techniques, whole floors can be pre-made along with walls and stairwells, as well as staircases. Add in timber windows and doors with triple glazing, with the windows made from engineered timber, and the whole thing looks feasible.
The last Government was pushing for the use of heat pumps, the problem being that the water temperature was too low for conventional radiators. There are new ranges of heat pumps being developed that run at higher temperatures.
With timber-framed housing and pre-built floors, underfloor heating can be installed as part of the build. The heating panels can be pre-installed in the floors during construction of the floors in the factory.
So, the answer is underfloor heating in a well-insulated building, made of timber, heated by a heat-pump, with the electricity coming from solar PV panels built into the roofing, charging a battery storage system with any off-site electricity coming from wind or solar generation.
The final part of this is that the factories making this new generation of housing must themselves be heated using the wood-waste from the construction of this new generation of house building methods. These factories should ideally have solar PV on the roof generating their own electricity to power the machines and the dust extraction systems needed.
Contact Ranheat for more information on its range of industrial Biomass equipment.
01604 750005
