The irony will be completely lost on them, of course, but after a few months of apparent winter hibernation (frosty mornings are clearly no place to be glued to the tarmac or train carriage) you can safely assume that the Insulate Great Britain mob are already planning their latest attention seeking wheeze. And, if they have clapped their eyes on a new report into the potentially harmful effects of unwanted solar gain in our homes, then we have a pretty good idea where they will soon be focusing their self-righteous posturing.
So, as both the ambient and political temperature rises once again, don’t be surprised over the next few weeks if you come home from work to find some distinctly strange people in your back garden, stuck most firmly, believe it or not, to your old conservatory. Ok, so we jest just a bit, but it’s fair to say that the previously ubiquitous home improvement is now considered a sun trap in the very worst way, a major factor apparently in our changing climate.
New regulations being brought in from June of this year will mean that conservatories will need to show that they don’t create unwanted solar gain as part of a raft of measures to future proof homes against 40ºC summers. For now, at least, the regulations will apply just to conservatories in new builds which as a consequence face complex and expensive modelling to show that they will not become too hot in summer and limiting the use of trendy floor to ceiling glass. It’s all part of a government commitment to improve domestic ventilation and reduce emissions by 30 per cent, which will in effect limit window sizes according to which direction they face, and whether the home is likely to overheat.
At present conservatories that are unheated and separated from the house are thought to be exempt but within the industry the death knoll is already being sounded for the once ever so popular property add on, making them a premium product, and unaffordable on cheaper new properties.
All of these new dictates are based, of course, on the prediction that 40ºC summers are soon going to be commonplace in Britain. No doubt many of us will recall similar prophecies being made more than a couple of decades ago that the UK would soon be enjoying summers akin to those of the south of France and pretty much the consensus then was “bring it on.” The French manage it quite well so surely, we can also enjoy similarly endless sunny days? Certainly, anyone who has holidayed regularly in Britain in subsequent years would confirm that very little seems to have actually changed. Sure, there has been the odd record breaker – which incidentally is often quoted as the hottest June day say since 1912 etc when global warming was unheard of – but our summers remain predictably grey and distinctly changeable.
In fact, extreme weather factors have been happening since records began it’s just that, like everything else these days, they are massively hyped across the media for dramatic effect. An ordinary seasonal storm is now an apocalyptic weather bomb, 90 degrees heat is accompanied by dire warnings for the unwary, and many floods the direct result of building in the wrong place and our obsession with concreting over natural drainage run offs. And, of course, every incident is now captured on a mobile device to share with the world. It always strikes us as somewhat odd how anyone can confidently reconcile the credibility of long-term predictions when even the most sophisticated multi-million computers employed by the met office consistently fail to accurately predict what will transpire in the next 24 hrs!
As the latest victim to come under the scrutiny of the climate change doomsters, the humble conservatory is of course an easy target, but again it seems an unnecessarily heavy-handed approach to something that left alone was already in the process of radical change by itself. The poorly insulated, PVC, polycarbonate roofed conservatory of yesteryear has clearly long since had its day in the eyes of the consumer, installer and, indeed, manufacturer. Almost since inception the cry has gone out that they are too hot in summer, too cold in winter and the industry has responded in due course with new materials and designs to reflect modern lifestyles
As with so many traditional home improvement ideas the conservatory has been evolving for more than 50 years and ultimately the customer decides whether it is fit for purpose and votes accordingly with their wallets. For many homeowners, a properly installed conservatory has long been regarded as a very cost-effective way of providing useful additional space in modest circumstances and over the years a lucrative line of business for professional builders. The problem clearly rests with the thousands of existing conservatories not the ones being installed currently to much higher specifications.
Unfortunately, the sledgehammer to crack a walnut approach would appear to be at play once again here and whilst Common sense is now in short supply in so many aspects of everyday life, it really has gone completely out of the window this time!
