The Building Regulations Part L (Conservation of fuel and power) including relevant Approved Documents has been revised and came into force on the 6th April 2014. The purpose of the revision is to further improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings.
To assist the industry in its understanding of the Part L changes, the RTA Technical Committee has put together an informative guide, focusing on the areas relating to traditional pitched roofs and walls using concrete and clay roof tiles.
Providing an overview of the Part L Approved Documents, the guide makes specific reference to examples of roof and wall constructions using concrete and clay roof tiles – tried and tested traditional products that are used extensively throughout the UK.
Important to the new Part L and covered within the guide, is the influence of high thermal mass of the building fabric in dealing with the effects of solar gain and heat loss in summer and winter months. In particular, the thermal mass of clay and concrete – combined with the air gaps behind and between the tiles – means that roof tiles can often provide an effective means of thermal regulation, reducing fluctuations in temperature by absorbing thermal energy when the surroundings are higher in temperature than the mass, and retaining thermal energy when the surroundings are cooler. In other words, the tiles will reduce the rate at which the building will heat up when exposed to sunlight and slow down the rate at which the building will cool at night.
The RTA Guide to Part L effectively highlights the contribution that concrete and clay roof tiles can make to energy conservation as both a roof covering and a cladding solution.