Vent-Axia has announced its support for the publication of BEAMA’s ‘Reforming Energy Performance Certificates for Indoor Air Quality’ position paper. The paper was launched on ‘World Ventil8 Day’, 8 November 2024.
BEAMA’s paper has urged government to broaden the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) remit to recognise and assess the indoor air quality (IAQ) of homes. The paper outlines an example of how the assessment can work to improve IAQ.
According to a statement, poor quality housing in the UK costs the NHS approximately £1.4bn annually due to illnesses stemming from substandard living conditions including poor indoor air quality due to inadequate ventilation.
Analysis by Asthma and Lung UK found that 1.7m admissions to hospitals in England last year for respiratory issues with lung diseases are responsible for one in eight emergency hospital admissions in England last year. It added that around 10% of UK residents live in inadequate housing, with issues like dampness, mould and insufficient heating contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, mental health problems, and increased mortality. BEAMA said it has called for urgent action to maximise occupants’ awareness of the issue.
EPCs currently focus on energy efficiency, neglecting the health impacts of ventilation and air quality. BEAMA has proposed integrating IAQ assessments into the EPC framework, especially during property sales or rentals. Nearly half of UK homes have EPC ratings below C, indicating potential energy inefficiencies that may also correlate with poor IAQ, the statement added.
With over 450,000 EPCs lodged in England and Wales In the first quarter of 2023, BEAMA said this presents a “significant opportunity” to make a simple assessment of a home’s ventilation performance when undergoing an EPC.
Joseph Brawn, product and marketing director at Vent-Axia, said: “At Vent-Axia we support BEAMA’s position statement on EPCs since we are committed to improving IAQ for the nation. Expanding EPCs to cover indoor air quality assessment is a common-sense approach to what is a national health crisis, with lung diseases responsible for one in eight emergency hospital admissions in England last year.
“Now is the right time to enforce the principle that a healthy home is a basic human right. With so much policy focus on retrofitting homes to improve their energy efficiency, we should not be ignoring occupant health alongside this.”