Building Regulations must mandate full heating controls if we are serious about tackling fuel poverty, according to the Heating and Hotwater Industry Council.

In response to the recent consultation from the Department for Energy & Climate Change, ‘Cutting the cost of keeping warm: a new fuel poverty strategy for England’, the HHIC is calling for mandatory installation of heating controls to help those in fuel poverty to properly manage their usage.

“The Department for Communities & Local Government must mandate full heating controls in Part L of the Building Regulations for any central heating installation,” said HHIC Director, Roger Webb.

We need to stop talking about fuel poverty and start to take action. One way of helping to achieve this would be to install heating controls into people’s homes. For too long energy efficiency has been seen by government as installing insulation and double glazing, but these alone will not help reduce the amount of energy being consumed to heat a property. They will help retain the heat being generated but will not control how much is being created in the first place."

Mr Webb recommended that thermostatic radiator valves and programmable room thermostats be introduced in order to allow homeowners to control the amount of heat to individual rooms as well as when the central heating comes on and goes off, allowing the boiler to turn off when the necessary temperature has been reached.

“Using less energy means lower bills,” he said. “Having heating controls mandated in the building regulations will at least mean that any new properties being built in the future will have these controls as standard.”