A £120,000 research project will help timber frame manufacturers to prepare for future tougher energy legislation.
The research, to be carried out by TRADA Technology over the next year, has won funding from the government’s Partners in Innovation scheme.
Dr Paul Newman of TRADA Technology said: ‘We received around £43,750 from the government, put in a similar amount ourselves and the rest has come from contributions from the timber frame industry, including the Timber Frame Industry Association (TFIA), the Timber & Brick Consortium and timber frame manufacturers.
‘We applied for funding after the industry came to us with the idea of researching future energy legislation – part L of the Building Regulations for England and Wales and part J of Technical Standards for Scotland.
‘There is a rolling programme of changes in the building regulations and, as they change, energy efficiency requirements will increase. We want well-researched strategies prepared in advance to meet that,’ said Dr Newman.
The research project will look at what the existing requirements and how they might change. It will also look at what other countries are doing to see whether their energy efficiency standards are appropriate for the UK.
‘It is an exciting project because, at the moment, timber frame in energy efficiency terms is very good, but it has a lot of potential to make these next steps. The project will enable us to put together some guidance,’ said Dr Newman.
Charles Grant, PR director of TFIA, said: ‘We believe it is important not just to research in relation to the immediate future, but for the longer term. That’s what this project does. With constantly changing legislation we need to be up to speed with the approach in other countries so we can play our part in responding to legislative requirements in England and Wales and the sometimes different requirements in Scotland.’
