Regarding your article (Poor building standards add £1,000 to energy bills of new homes, analysis finds, 16 May), the solution is very simple: the government should adopt the Passivhaus standard that has been established in Germany for over 25 years.
Its use there results in buildings with little or no heating requirements as the buildings are super-insulated and extremely airtight, and have mechanical ventilation and heat reclaim systems to distribute filtered air throughout the property.
This can obviate the need for solar panels and heat pumps, which have a lifespan of around 25 years. However, housebuilders in the UK do not yet have the desire to build houses this way as it requires site staff be motivated to build in a way that prevents air leakage and to care about build quality, something that is sorely lacking here.
The higher build cost for the fabric would be offset by the absence or reduction in the cost of heating installation. We have yet to see how the future homes standard will compare, but I for one am not holding my breath.
Adrian Birch
Brockweir, Gloucestershire
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