Online Seminar Questions - Health
and Well-being
To help you understand the Code for Sustainable Homes, The Concrete Centre and our technical team have produced answers to the questions we have recieved from the online seminar.
This section will cover all questions relating to health and Well-being.
1. "Should air quality be included in Health and Well-being?"
Response - Colin Marshall, Tarmac Topblock: "On the face of it, air quality would seem a good fit in the Health and well-being section. Clearly with rising standards of energy efficiency there will be a growing tendency to reduce unwanted air leakage, which represents unnecessary loss of heated air, in addition to that lost through the designed ventilation system. However one of the practical difficulties may be in the setting of standards of performance that are applicable to all types of ventilation systems. These of courses range from background ventilators and intermittent extract fans, passive stack ventilation and - what commentators see of increasing use - continuous mechanical supply and extract with heat recovery. There is also the need to ensure there is no potential conflict with the energy efficiency Category of the Code. For example any standard set for air quality should not cause the assumptions made for energy efficiency to fail. So without a great of thought we do not feel that air quality can be readily incorporated into Health and well-being section of the Code."
2. "How can Tarmac Topblock products be used to influence the 'Health and Well-being' category?"
Response - Colin Marshall, Tarmac Topblock: "Credits are awarded for achieving higher standards of sound insulation than required by Building Regulations, thus the specification of separating walls and floors will be of relevance.Compliance is based on using selected Robust Details specifications, and these are currently being reviewed by Robust Details Ltd., who will be shortly publishing those constructions that have a high level of confidence in meeting the specified improvements in sound insulation that will attract credits. Both our aircrete and aggregate block products can be used in separating walls meeting Robust Details as well as other standards. An alternative way of complying would be to post completion test a desired construction.Our Technical Services team would be pleased to discuss the suitability of any Topblock constructions in meeting the required level of performance"
3. "Do the higher level codes provide for adequate ventilation in the interests of good health?"
Response - Colin Marshall, Tarmac Topblock: "Improved air tightness will be a pre-requisite when trying to meet the higher levels of the Code. However, these measures are intended to restrict unwanted air leakage which represents unnecessary loss of heated air in addition to that lost through the designed ventilation system.
Designed ventilation will always be required for the purpose of limiting condensation and health risks but it is likely that it will increasingly be in the form of balanced whole house ventilation systems with built in heat recovery."
View the remaining questions from the Code for Sustainable Homes online seminar. Learn about:
FREE ONLINE SEMINAR
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