The Government has recently revised its building regulations. 

Part L – Thermal

The Government introduced new Part L thermal regulations in April 2006.  These have superceded the existing regulations England & Wales and Scotland, October 2001.  Please click here to go to the News page for further information on this new regulation.

The new Eurisol Simple Solutions to Part L incorporated all the changes arising from the harmonisation of EU standards and the introduction of the new calculation methods.  This pdf file can be viewed and downloaded by clicking on the following link:  "Simple Solutions to Part L"

The Building Regulations of England & Wales and Scotland have been amended to improve energy efficiency standards of buildings.  The changes are intended to improve "U" values and help the UK meet its Kyoto greenhouse gas emissions targets by reducing energy use. 

The new regulations were published in October 2001 and came into force on1 April 2002 in the case of England and Wales, and 4 March in Scotland.  The new "U" values for construction elements under the Elemental Method are as follows: 

Buildings other than Dwellings

Element	England & Wales	Element	Scotland
Pitched roof with insulation between rafters	0.20	Pitched roof with insulation between rafters	0.20
Pitched roof with insulation between joists	0.16	Pitched roof with insulation between joists	0.16
Flat roof or roof with integral insulation	0.25	Flat roof	0.25
Walls	0.35	External Wall	0.30
Floor	0.25	Floor	0.25

Dwellings

Element	England & Wales	Element	Scotland
Pitched roof with insulation between rafters	0.20	Pitched roof with insulation between rafters	0.18	0.20
Pitched roof or roof with integral insulation	0.25	Pitched roof or roof with integral insulation	0.16	n/a
Pitched roof with insulation between joists	0.16	Pitched roof with insulation between joists	0.22	0.16
Flat roof	0.25	Flat roof	0.27	0.25
Wall	0.35	Wall	0.35	0.30
Floor	0.25	Floor	0.25	0.25
Scotland grey column figures: gas or oil central heating with boiler SEDBUK not less than the relevant entry in Table 2 to J3.2

How much is too much?

Mineral wool insulation is not only good for the environment, it can also save you money.

• An average house wastes 60% of the energy it consumes
• Loft and Retrofit cavity wall insulation can save up to 60% of the heat lost from a building
• Over the 60 year lifetime of a building 150mm of Mineral Wool Loft insulation saves around 300 times as much energy as it takes to make
• Over 8 years 50mm of Mineral Wool insulation on a pipe at 350 Deg C saves around 7,000 times as much energy as it takes to make
• Mineral Wool accounts for almost 100% of retrofit cavity wall insulation installations, and over 90% of loft insulation

A single year's UK production of Mineral Wool is capable of saving  around 1 million tonnes of Carbon dioxide each year it remains in use. 

The Government introduced new Part L thermal regulations in April 2006.  These have superceded the existing regulations England & Wales and Scotland, October 2001.  Please click here to go to the News page for further information on this new regulation.