In case you were wondering how much more an eco-friendly home costs to build, well, the British Government knows the answer. A green home will cost aout three percent more. Not bad really considering. Let’s say that 3% adds $9,000 to the cost of an average new Canadian home. Over the term of that home’s first mortgage that $9,000 investment is more than paid off.

The average additional cost of achieving Level 3 of the new Code for Sustainable Homes will be around 3% more than the old standard of EcoHomes ‘Very Good’, according to research published today on behalf of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.

Researchers at Cyril Sweett, the cost consultants who produced the report, found that costs will range for different house types and technologies from an additional 0.4% to an additional 6.2%.  The benefits of achieving Level 3 of the new Code will see a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per home, and water-usage savings of 21 litres per person per day, over an average home built to EcoHomes ‘Very Good’. The additional cost therefore produces more efficient results and more sustainable homes.

1. A copy of the Cyril Sweet research, “A Cost Review of the Code for Sustainable Homes” can be downloaded from either the Publications page or www.housingcorp.gsx.gov.uk

2. The house types considered were:

• Four traditional house types (built using commonly applied construction methods)Detached house (gross internal floor area of 116m²)
  End terrace/semi-detached house (gross internal floor area of 101 m²)
  Low rise apartment (net unit area of 59 m²)
  Medium/high rise apartment (net unit area of 75 m²).
• Two homes built using modern methods of construction and compliant with the requirements of English Partnerships’ Design for Manufacture (DfM) competition (such as Crest Nicholson’s SixtyK home at Rowan Road in Merton).
• An end of terrace house (76.5 m2); based upon the DfM WeberHaus product (being built on EP’s Aylesbury site).
• A mid terrace house incorporating a centralised CHP system (76.5 m2); referred to in this report as the ‘SixtyK House’

3. The scenarios applied to each house type were:

• Initial energy efficiency measures followed by use of solar thermal technology and then photovoltaics and biomass systems.
• Initial energy efficiency measures initially followed by use of small scale wind turbines and then biomass systems.
• Development with shared energy services, such as combined heat and power (CHP).  For this scenario costs per unit are averaged for different infrastructure options for a theoretical 200 unit development.
• Achievement of Code Level 3 without recourse to renewable energies through the use of a whole house mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery and by assuming the use of proprietary construction details.

4.  English Partnerships is the government’s national regeneration agency delivering high quality, sustainable growth in England. We do this by developing our portfolio of strategic projects and acting as the government’s advisor on brownfield land. We also ensure that surplus public sector assets are used to support wider government objectives, especially those contained in the Sustainable Communities Plan. English Partnerships helps create communities where people can afford to live and want to live. Information on projects and programmes can be found at www.englishpartnerships.co.uk

5. The Housing Corporation is the Government agency responsible for investing in new affordable homes and regulating over 1,500 housing associations across England.  Its biggest ever investment programme of £3.9 billion for 2006-08 will fund 84,000 homes;  49,000 of these will be for affordable rent, and 35,000 will be for affordable sale through the Government’s new HomeBuy initiative, helping people to get a foot on the property ladder.

6. Cyril Sweett established a Sustainabilty team (...read more...)