Well, today’s papers certainly made the GreenSpace UK team sit up and pay attention over our team breakfast meeting…It seems that there are plans afoot to BAN our favourite place, the beloved british conservatories! We nearly spilled our morning cuppas!
Reports in The Times and the Daily Mail suggest that from June, any conservatory intended as part of a new development will need to show it will not create 'unwanted solar gain'. It’s a climate issue and we get that, it’s one of the reasons why we’re aiming to plant over 2500 trees this year. You can read more about that here. The Mail explains that the change: “...is part of a raft of measures aimed at future-proofing homes against summers where temperatures are predicted to reach 40C (104F). The new rules, which also aim to improve domestic ventilation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent, will limit window sizes according to which direction they face and whether the home is likely to overheat.” This might spell trouble for the floor to ceiling glass designs that are hugely popular right now.
The Daily Telegraph also took up the story, interviewing Rico Wojtulewicz, head of housing and planning policy at the National Federation of Builders. Here’s how he explained it: "We can build heavily glazed buildings but smaller companies who do a number of different housing types on one development may avoid it, due to the potential cost of the dynamic thermal modeling on each home." This has led to people speculating that the great British conservatory may become even MORE exclusive as it will become unaffordable for cheaper properties. The Mail article does suggest that conservatories that are separated from the house with exterior walls and doors may be exempt but that sounds disconcertingly vague to us right now! But fear not, our team will do more research into this for you and report back.
In the meantime, remember, our insulation technology does EXACTLY what the new laws are trying to achieve, in that it keeps your conservatory warmer in winter and cooler in summer. You see, with GreenSpace, there’s always a sunny outlook ahead!
