Easy wins for an efficient extension

Due to people spending more time at home last year, the demand for extensions rose by over 50% in 2020. It doesn’t look like the market is slowing down anytime soon, with many people spending what they’ve saved over the lockdowns on home modifications. If your customer is thinking about adding an extension, it’s worth letting them know that this could impact the energy performance of their home. Furthermore, if the glazing works out to be more than a quarter of the floor area, then they may also need to get a Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) assessment, which is used to assess and compare the energy and environmental performance of dwellings.

They don’t need to fret though. An SAP assessment isn’t a difficult thing to arrange and Build Aviator can help. Once you send the project plans over to their team of experts, they’ll give you a report detailing materials required to meet compliance. However, if you want to go above and beyond for your customer, we’ve popped some great suggestions below to add to their levels of comfort, while also lowering their bills and carbon footprint!

Solar PV

The number of UK homes with solar panels is expected to rise over the next few years, as we aim to get to carbon zero by 2050. It’s predicted that by 2030, over 1 million homes will have some form of Solar PV.

Cutting out all the scientific stuff, Solar PV helps generate electricity when exposed to light cells – giving your customer a renewable energy source in their own home. This, tied with a battery storage system, allows homeowners to use the generated energy long after the sun has gone down – perfect for those who aren’t at home as much during the day.

Solar PV isn’t the best solution for everyone though, as there are a few factors that need to be considered before installing. Ideally, Solar PV should be installed on a south facing roof, however, this isn’t always possible. However, you can still get great results even if the house if off-axis from the south, and with the fast-paced changes in technology, the amount that can be generated is only improving. Also, an east/west split array shows great benefits with average generation across the day. Other things to consider are the size of roof that you are looking to install on and if there’s anything that could cause shading on the roof, for example other buildings, trees and chimneys.

Aside from the obvious benefits of improving your customer’s SAP rating and generating their own energy for their extension, one other bonus is that you generally don’t need planning permission to install Solar PV.

Solar thermal

Solar thermal systems – which you may have heard referred to as solar water heating systems – have three big selling points for your customers: hot water throughout the year, lower energy bills and a lower carbon footprint.

Put simply, they use heat from the sun to create warm water, which is stored in a hot water cylinder. This can then be topped up to the right temperature using a traditional boiler or immersion heater if there isn’t enough solar energy to heat it up to the right level.

Like solar PV, there are a few things to consider when suggesting these systems to customers. They need to have space to install the solar panels, they need room for a large water cylinder and you need to check that their current heating system is compatible with solar thermal.

According to energysavingtrust.org, solar thermal could save your customers £60 a year when replacing gas heating, and up to £90 a year when replacing electric immersion heating – and they’ll improve their SAP assessment score in the meantime!

Wood burning stoves

Another way of improving your customer’s SAP assessment rating is by suggesting a wood burning stove for their extensions.

Due to the amount of glass in conservatories and extensions, they’re often nippy in the winter, so these low-carbon heaters are a great option for localised heating, keeping those spaces nice and snug, while looking great too.

It won’t be an issue if your customer doesn’t have a pre-existing chimney in their extension, as you’ll just need to add a twin wall, insulated flue system. Unlike open fires, they’re clean too, so your customers needn’t worry about sweeping up ash every time they want to warm up.

Unohab

Unohab is a single room heat recovery unit by Airflow, designed for improved ventilation and healthier living. Its’ main benefit is energy efficiency, as Unohab has thermal efficiency capabilities of up to 88%. This can help reduce your customer’s energy bills and provide clean, filtered, pre-warmed air into their home.

Traditional ventilation systems use separate ducts to distribute the supply and extraction of air. Unohab, on the other hand, is a decentralised mechanical ventilation solution, which means that the process of supplying and extracting air is done without ducting. It can be installed in addition to the existing ventilation system – saving your customers having to fork out for a brand-new system.

It has three modes – heat recovery, cross-ventilation and supply air. The latter two are designed to bring in fresh air, with the cross-ventilation mode proving particularly useful during summer, as it draws out the hot stagnant air. The supply air function also draws in fresh air when an extract fan is activated in a wet rooms, assuming the extract fans have been connected. On the other hand, the heat recovery mode switches between air supply and extraction each minute, which is designed to improve the energy efficiency of the home.

So, if you have a customer pondering an extension, don’t forget to offer up some of these options, which will not only improve the comfort of their space, but will help improve their SAP score and lower their bills - who can argue with that?

For more information on how you can get the best out of your customers’ extensions, visit the Jewson hub