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Super E® Initiative

Beard has teamed up with Canadian timber frame specialist DAC International Inc to offer care home customers the opportunity to create eco-friendly and energy efficient buildings that comply with stringent ‘Part L’ building regulations.

DAC’s ‘Super E®’ prefabricated timber frame buildings will enable Beard’s care home customers to achieve regulation compliance, gain maximum grant awards and make a significant contribution to sustainable development.

Beard has added Super E® to its portfolio of care home construction solutions, which also includes an innovative approach to securing land for new care homes in areas where they are especially needed.

DAC’s Super E® partner in the UK, Crendon Timber Engineering of Thame in Oxfordshire – already part of the Beard team – will deliver Super E® on site.

Super E® is a Canadian government programme to export Canada’s expertise in prefabricated timber frame housing, which has evolved in Canada over the past 30 years.  The Super E® technical standards are based upon Canada’s domestic R-2000 programme for energy efficient homes.  They meet or exceed local building code requirements including new changes to Part L, and are recognised by the NHBC and Zurich Insurance.

Super E® takes a holistic or ‘whole building’ approach, integrating the principles of reduced air leakage, increased insulation, with a heat recovery and ventilation system.  To ensure that all these systems work together, third party quality control checks are conducted at design stage by computer modelling. When the building is complete, a blower door test is carried out, which depressurises the building then measures the time it takes to re-pressurise.  The Super E® standard calls for 1.5 air changes per hour – a typical new house may have 10 or more air changes in the same period – Part L requires 7 air changes per hour.

Beard launched Super E® at a seminar in November 2006. The event also presented other eco-technologies, such as renewable energy systems, and uncovered some of the key challenges surrounding Part L and Part F of the building regulations.

>> Download the presentations here.

To join the debate surrounding Part L and sustainable construction, or to ask any questions about Super E®, please email your comments to: superE@beardoxford.co.uk

Some feedback so far:

"I think we should be taking a holistic approach to Part L and sustainable building: by that I mean focusing on the building fabric to make heating redundant."

Mr Keith Taylor, Sanctuary Housing

"It would be great if a standard form could be created for submitting Super E® projects for planning. Creating a bespoke NBS Specification for the system would also be very useful."

Paul Davies, Carter Hayes Davis, Architects

Your questions answered:

To DAC International: How do you manage timber from renewable sources?

Canada has the highest percentage of certified forests of any country in the world  (over 119 million hectares).  There are a variety of certification schemes in place - eg. FSC, SFI, CSA.  For a detailed summary of the forestry management practices in Canada visit:
www.certificationcanada.org

DAC is able to supply Chain of Custody certification confirming that the timber they use comes from forests managed for sustainability. Jeff Armstrong, DAC International

 

  

“If you are trying to keep water in a leaky bucket, you have two choices: keep filling it with water, or plug the holes. Although the analogy seems ridiculous, this is in fact what we are doing with our houses.  About half of the energy lost from your home is lost through uncontrolled air leakage.”

Jeff Culp, DAC International (Timber in Construction, Spring 2006).