Code for Sustainable Homes and the Sun

On Wednesday 13 December the British government unveiled its Code for Sustainable Homes. This follows Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Pre-Budget statement that the government intends to encourage the market for new zero-carbon houses by exempting them from stamp duty. The Code for Sustainable Homes has a green `star rating' with a maximum of six stars going to homes considered to be zero-carbon. There will requirement for planners to design low-emission communities; and a major tightening in building regulations to enforce energy efficiency. Copies of the Code can be downloaded from http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/england/professionals/en/1115314116927.html.

The only reference to sunlight in the Code concerns limiting solar gains in summer. There is no requirement to provide sunlight in the winter.

The Code for Sustainable Homes was published in a week when two people died at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent, from a strain of MRSA known as Panton-Valentine Leukocidin (PVL). This strain has claimed lives in the UK before, but in the wider community rather than in a hospital. PVL attacks white blood cells, and can leave its victims unable to fight infection, irrespective of age or state of health. If PVL becomes resistant to antibiotics, then designing for the sun will be more important than ever. Homes could become reservoirs of the pathogen just as readily as hospitals. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/6202167.stm