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Many studies have shown that dry indoor air is a significant contributing factor to the rise of seasonal respiratory illness.
A group of 17 internationally recognised scientists has called upon the UK Government to implement a minimum lower limit of indoor humidity in public buildings to protect against respiratory infection and mitigate the risk of future pandemics.
The scientists submitted an open letter in response to a consultation invited by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, on a recently proposed update to indoor ventilation regulations.
Many of the scientists supporting the letter have directly studied and written papers on the impact of indoor humidity on aerosol transmission and respiratory infections. Their letter states that UK public buildings should be maintaining indoor humidity at above 40% relative humidity (%RH), because below this level:
Heating and Ventilation News
Experts working across the built environment have called for the government to extend the scope of a major new building standard to include embodied carbon and a clear strategy to retrofit buildings
A coalition of architecture, engineering and heat specialists have urged the government to drastically rethink policy to improve the energy efficiency of buildings for its proposed Future Buildings Standard.
A focus on supporting effective retrofitting of the entire UK housing stock, while considering how to cut carbon emissions across the entire lifecycle of a building, have been highlighted as essential reforms that the government should introduce to any new standard for more efficient buildings.
Big names slam draft Future Buildings Standard and demand national retrofit plan Digital Edition: Big names slam draft Future Buildings Standard and demand national retrofit plan A group of 21 leading built environment and climate action organisations has hit out at ‘significant shortcomings’ in the government’s proposed new energy and ventilation standards for non-domestic buildings and existing homes in England
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Future Buildings Standard: Building professionals and green NGOs slam significant shortcomings
Modular, low carbon homes being developed in Kent | Credit: Public Sector plc
21 organisations call for new National Retrofit Strategy in letter to top civil servant at housing ministry, warning current standards lack vision and ambition’
Green campaigners have joined forces with the UK s leading built environment groups to urge the government to take steps to make its new building energy regulation proposals more ambitious, warning that significant shortcomings in the draft plans could hold back the much-needed decarbonisation of the UK s buildings.
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), and the UK Green Building Council are among 21 organisations that have written to the government to express their concerns about the Future Buildings Standard, the policy package geared at greening the
By Elizabeth Hopkirk2021-04-14T06:00:00+01:00
Proposed Future Buildings Standard contains ‘significant shortcomings’, government warned
A coalition of architects, built environment and climate groups has written to the top civil servant at the housing ministry highlighting what it describes as “significant shortcomings” in the proposed Future Buildings Standard (FBS).
The government must be far more ambitious in the way it regulates the energy consumption of new buildings, say the 21 signatories who include the RIBA, Architects Declare, the Architects Climate Action Network and the UK Green Building Council.
Zero carbon homes designed by Ash Sakula
The letter to the permanent secretary at the MHCLG, Jeremy Pocklington, outlines serious concerns about the proposed new energy and ventilation standards for non-domestic buildings and existing homes in England.