WRc is working with the Home Builders Federation (HBF), several housing developers and the UK water industry to help improve estimates of water consumption for new homes, built to Part G and the Sustainable Home Standards.
Water Utilities are required to forecast household water demand in their Water Resource Management Plans for the Environment Agency (SEPA in Scotland, NIEA in Northern Ireland). This includes an estimate for the consumption of new dwellings built to meet the new Regulation 17K of the Building Regulations. This regulation states that the water consumption of a new dwelling must not exceed the water efficiency requirement of 125 litres per person per day.
Previous studies carried out by WRc have shown that water consumption in homes varies with occupancy, house type, demography, weather and water-using appliances installed. It is recognised that Regulation 17K is a design standard and may not reflect the actual water consumed in new homes.
WRc has started a new project, Water Consumption of Homes Built to Part G and Code for Sustainable Homes Standards (CP426) to investigate the consumptions in new homes to determine whether this design standard is actually achieved. Should there be a large discrepancy between the design standard and in-use building water efficiency performance, further monitoring is proposed to find out why.
Further details on this project can be obtained from Mark Kowalski at mark.kowalski@wrcplc.co.uk or telephone +44 (0) 1793 865080.