Building Performance

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Offsite housing specialists TALO and building performance consultants Mesh Energy have announced a collaboration agreement to accelerate the delivery of ultra-low energy homes. The collaboration will combine TALO’s advanced timber superstructure technology from Finland with Mesh’s experience of providing net zero building performance and engineering services for housebuilders, architects and residential property developers. Working closely together, TALO and Mesh will aim to significantly increase the energy efficiency of new homes for market sale, rent and affordable housing, exceeding both Passivhaus energy standards and Future Homes standards, in compliance with the latest regulations. Doug Johnson, Director of Mesh Energy: “TALO’s timber superstructure solutions for low rise housing are the very best we have seen in the UK in terms of energy efficiency, air tightness, cost and quality. Their latest projects are achieving at least a 30 per cent improvement on Passivhaus energy standards and at no cost premium. We don’t believe there is anything like this on the market today and yet it is very needed. Some of the biggest issues facing housebuilders and developers are managing risk and addressing skills shortages. TALO’s system addresses both of these challenges extremely well. New regulation is coming which will make it increasingly difficult for developers to balance the rising cost of building new homes to the required energy and air tightness standards and the risk of non-compliance. New homes simply need to perform better. And yet the risk for developers is in the fabric and performance of each home. Our new collaboration will give housebuilders the benefit of much greater certainty of delivery to the required quality, air tightness and energy standards from the inception of a project. Our work on the energy strategy, data and compliance will support TALO’s extremely efficient way of building new homes to reduce risk for residential property developers.” TALO and Mesh have already collaborated on a number of projects. Under the new agreement, both businesses can leverage their respective experience to enhance the efficiency and economics of new residential projects. Dr Anthony Greer, Corporate Strategy Director of TALO said: "Our vision is to transform UK housebuilding by taking proven technology which has been used to build thousands of units in the Nordics – in one of the most extreme climates in the world. Our goal is to address some of the difficult problems that have been challenging the UK construction industry for many years – skills shortages, speed of delivery, sub-standard quality, and poor energy efficiency. Our ultimate goal is the offsite construction of high quality, ultra-low energy homes that can eradicate fuel poverty and snagging. By radically reducing time on site, developers can achieve a faster return on investment. They need fewer trades on site because we are using highly efficient offsite technology. Our processes are entirely dry – from forest to site – which means better air tightness performance and more accurate programme scheduling for the fitout phase to further reduce risk. Homes built by TALO exceed Passivhaus energy and air tightness standards at no cost impediment. This means homeowners and tenants will have hugely reduced energy costs that are verified by A-rated EPC certifications. Our housebuilding solutions will be enhanced with our collaboration with Mesh, helping to solve the technical and economic challenges that are constraining the sector and compounding the housing and cost of living crises.” In the new arrangement, Mesh will provide the energy strategy, data analysis and compliance work to support TALO’s delivery of the offsite superstructures for low-rise housing projects – which range from terraced housing, semi-detached family homes and larger executive schemes for developers and housebuilders across the UK.