According to a quote in an article in Housing Today, which outlines the housing sector's response to the government's £3.9bn of measures 'to reduce the UK's dependence on fossil fuels', the government is not sufficiently serious in its ambition to cut embodied carbon in new housing, and should be advocating more use of timber.
This, by definition, includes using SIPs.
In the article, Andrew Shepherd, managing director of modular builder Top Hat, says, "Around 50% of the whole-life emissions of a home come from the carbon emitted during construction. By predominantly using timber to form a home's structure, levels of embodied carbon can be drastically reduced, but planning policy, especially in London, must be more open-minded."
When SIPs are used, we would argue that as the insulation is inherent in the panels, which can be used for the entire building envelope (walls, roofs and floors), the whole-of-life use of carbon can be reduced still further, because heat is retained in the building, and therefore considerably less domestic fuel is needed.
This depends, of course on the skill of the construction project team, and here at Hemsec, we are committed to helping the industry to learn how best to design and construct using our SIPs, in order to ensure exceptional thermal efficiency.
Please contact us for an initial conversation.
Rainhill Factory
Stoney Lane, Rainhill, Prescot, Merseyside.
L35 9LL
Huyton Factory
Huyton Business Park,
Stretton Way, Liverpool
L36 6JF
Tel: 0151 426 7171
Email: contact@hemsec.com