Member Article

The Future of Energy In Britain

Flat Pack Homes - The Real Way to Build Britain’s housing crisis has now reached epic proportions. The government is barely able to keep up with the demand and people in need have to be kept waiting, sometimes for years. With a need for around 250,000 homes per year, Britain is only able to meet less than half of the housing requirement. In this scenario, we need unique and workable solutions - things that work better than austerity measures. One solution is the use of flat pack homes, also known as kit homes or prefabricated homes.

What are flat pack homes?

Kit houses are basically buildings that are built offsite and packaged in flat panels (and hence the name). The entire kit has to be assembled together onsite, either by the homeowners themselves or by an experienced construction worker. Such buildings come in different varieties and offer a lot of scope for variation, size and design. People who want to spend more could even have customised home designs made. There are also options for people to add in small things over time to the original prefabricated building. German flat pack homes are increasingly popular because of their design and quick turnaround times and with companies such as Baufritz manufacturing eco kit houses and flat pack homes, consumers are spoiled for choice in terms of design, size and above all price. These types of designs are modular homes, are more compact because they come in panels ready for assembling.

Advantages of using kit homes

There are multiple advantages to using kit homes in comparison to traditional constructed buildings. These advantages are magnified in cases of government projects, where entire blocks can be built to afford citizens with greater advantages.

• The most important point to be noted here is that flat pack homes are at least 25% less expensive than constructed homes - a pretty neat packet to be saved there! On a government level, millions can be saved merely by switching over to prefabricated housing, which means more people can be housed for the same money spent.
• Another advantage is that prefabricated homes overall takes up less time to manufacture since it’s done in a factory and is not subject to the whimsies of the weather and other external factors. Even elaborate homes would not take up so much time. This means that the 50% gap in housing backlog can be gradually covered by the use of kit houses.
• Kit houses are also generally more efficient, and generate less waste. Eco kit homes are built to higher precision and materials are reused instead of thrown. It easily translates to sustainable housing with its high quality and low carbon footprint. These houses adhere to strict energy efficiency standards, and provide for insulation, heat retention, and airtightness.
• Other indirect, though not negligible, advantages are that the building of such houses would generate less on-site disturbance in the form of debris, construction noise, and dust, overall improving the environment.
• The construction industry is one of the most dangerous industries in the UK today, and causes about 40 deaths every year on an average. This can be cut down by the use of prefabricated houses. Other construction related health hazards such as respiratory diseases caused by the airborne materials can also be massively reduced. This would overall have a large impact on the health sector as well as the construction industry.

How much does a flat pack house actually cost?

Prefabricated does not automatically mean mass produced blocks of buildings with no character. There have been amazing designs and large projects which have translated into higher costs. Nevertheless, what it means is that by using prefabricated housing, you can have a better building at a lower cost and it takes less time! The Institute of Mechanical Engineers certainly believes that this is the solution to Britain’s housing problem.

Though costs can go high, depending on the design, a government initiative to build housing can actually translate into overall lower costs, since basic housing starts from as low as £100 per square foot! Even with a few fancy things thrown in, the cost would be nothing as much as the current housing expenditure. As long as land is available, sustainable housing can be built on it with the use of Eco kit homes.

Passive houses

Passive houses are homes that are energy efficient, comfortable, affordable, and ecological. These structures should pass the rigorous standards for energy efficiency set by the Institute for Housing and the Environment in Germany and Lund University in Sweden. It is a construction concept that can be used by anyone provided the standards are met.

It is much easier for flat pack houses to adhere to these standards because of their greater precision. Most prefabricated homes today come with these benefits and help in reducing the carbon print of the construction industry overall. By using these buildings, the government can play the role model to the rest of the country.

The future of building

Construction has seen many highs and lows, and we have moved from cob houses to stone ones to brick and mortar to wooden houses. But all these consumed time and effort. Instead of building brick and mortar homes which are both time and labour intensive, it is a great solution to bring in premanufactured eco homes. The housing needs of the country could be met and the cost of housing also would become more affordable for the average person. With prefabricated buildings easily available nowadays, this appears to be the future of building in the UK as well as globally.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Jones .