New Part L Regulations

Tighter standards came into effect June 2022

As the UK moves towards 2025’s Future Homes Standard, changes to Part L will see thermal standards for both renovation and new-build tightening, as the country looks to reduce its carbon footprint and improve the energy efficiency of everyone’s homes. These changes came into effect on 15th June this year, and will take affect for all housing that hasn’t had planning approval before that date, and on anything that hasn’t commenced construction within the year.

What are the new requirements for renovation work?

Thermal transmittance, also known as a U-value, measures the rate of transfer of heat. The better-insulated a window is, the lower the U-value will be. From June, windows and doors fitted in England will have to meet stricter standards, with a maximum U-value of 1.4, helping create better insulated homes, that require less heating. This move is good for the environment but will leave some window systems out in the cold as they don’t meet these more stringent standards.

How does new build differ?

The energy efficiency of new-buildings is calculated based on the combined performance of every element within a structure, from the walls and roof to the windows and doors. As you can balance the relative performance of all the elements of a building to conform, the requirements for new buildings aren’t as straightforward as they are for renovations. The values we’ve shown are our informed view of the standards which the vast majority of projects will specify. Part L also provides a ‘notional’ example to show how this will work in practise, using a window U-value of 1.2 in their illustration. The absolute limiting value for new build is 1.6.

Sheerline is READY to meet these tighter standards

The good news is that with a standard U-value of 1.4 when double glazed and 1.0 when specified with triple glazing, Sheerline’s Prestige range is designed to meet an individual building’s requirements easily, whether for a renovation/extension or a new dwelling. Powered by Thermlock® technology, we are committed to staying at the forefront of efficient aluminium solutions that will help the UK move towards 2025’s Future Homes Standard.

Made in Britain
We’ve built our systems around our own, unique Thermlock® technology

Sheerline aluminium windows, door, bi-folds and lanterns are inherently more insulated than systems that use a polyamide thermal break. Our unique Thermlock® multi-chamber technology sits at the heart of every Sheerline product, creating products with class leading thermal performance. Thermlock® works in conjunction with high-performance, double and triple glazing to create a thermal barrier that reduces heat transfer, helping to keep homes well insulated against the worst of the UK weather.

With standard double glazing

Thanks to Sheerline’s innovative modern design, Prestige windows, tilt & turns, French and single doors as well as our Prestige bi-folds come with exceptional performance as standard. Infact our single opener and fixed ‘picture’ windows achieve an even more impressive 1.3 U-value.

With standard triple glazing

44mm triple-glazing on our contemporary ‘flat faced’ Prestige products gives a standard U-value of 1.0, while the 36mm triple glazing on our stepped products achieves a 1.1 U-value. Perfect for keeping heating bills low as well as meeting the latest Part L requirements. With single opener and fixed ‘picture’ windows achieving lower U-values of 0.9 and 1.0 respectively.