Industry News

Industry News is your monthly update of the latest in the building and construction industry.

Amendments to the new building legislation introduces new requirements

More and more, the world is embracing sustainability as being at the forefront of any decisions made. As one of the bigger contributors to greenhouse gases, the construction industry is no different.  To enforce the green building mentality, in 2012, government introduced changes to the national building regulations and standards.

In terms of the new regulations, each building has to be designed and constructed in a way that ensures it is able to use energy as efficiently as possible. Aspects such as thermal comfort, lighting and hot water have been considered - the guidelines have been detailed below:

• At least 50% of the annual hot water requirement must be provided by some other means than electrical resistance heating. This may mean using technologies like solar heating, heat pumps, heat recovery from other systems or any other energy efficient methods.
• In theory, annual energy consumption and demand is limited. The SANS 204 building code looks at features such as roofs and the way in which they have been assembled to achieve this. Other aspects that will be taken into account are ceilings, walls and windows - which will have to meet minimum requirements in insulation.
• Buildings will have to be compact in plan, with the rooms that are used most and that have large areas of glazing orientated to the north side of the building, so that natural sunlight is used to heat the building as efficiently as possible during winter months.

This legislation is set to transform the construction industry by moving it to a more green, eco-friendly way of building. While these standards are not yet compulsory, the South African government is committed to achieving more sustainable practices over the next 10 years. The legislation will apply to areas that people live and work in such as government social housing, schools, office building and hospitals.

Over and above the benefit of moving South Africa towards a more sustainable future, this new legislation will have other benefits such as the creation of jobs and boosting the economy and it is sure to transform the construction industry.