Insulation sales up just 5%
Picked up this intriguing snippet from someone who works for Sheffield Insulation, our largest supplier of insulation for the construction industry. He said that insulation sales were up by about 5% as a result of the changes brought about in 2006 by Part L revision. In theory, they should have increased by a lot more.
Also on a similar theme, a prominent boiler manufacturer tells me that sales of non-condensing boilers, which should have been kicked into touch for all time by Part L changes, are in fact holding up well. Many installers are still quite happy to fit whatever the householder wants. As far as the replacement boiler market is concerned, Part L compliance is optional, as there is no way of enforcing it.
2 Comments:
A lot of housebuilders will still be building to older regs for a couple of years. (i.e. when they received building control approval).
Therefore i'm assuming that there will be a bigger increase this year and then again next year.
I foresaw in 2005 that to meet the 2006 Regs. only needed a better boiler, a bit more lagging on the hot water tank (pity the UK still hasn't got round to insulating them all on the base) and minor tweaking of the window specification and maybe of the claims re. low-energy lighting. Insulation thicknesses might only rise by about 5-10%.
I'm not surprised at all.
A rep. from a major insulation manufacturer whom I spoke to in September broadly agreed with this 5% figure.
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