4 Challenges That Need to be Addressed to Futureproof House Building

[Content provided by Schneider Electric]

 As a self builder or renovator, you’re in a unique position to push forward with a home that has sustainability at its core. The best modern self build homes are advocates in the fight against climate change, and set the tone for better building practices across the industry. 

In Building Homes of the Future e-book, Schneider Electric outlines not only the biggest trends in homebuilding, but the challenges that stand in the way of building the homes of the future.  Here’s a snapshot of some of their insights. 

1. Sustainability

Most people wouldn’t contest that sustainability is something we should aim for when building a home, but is improving your environmental footprint enough to convince everyone to build sustainably? However, with increased take up of sustainable building techniques, greater benefits are becoming available for building sustainably, including more economically viable builds, perceived high quality of homes and increased property value, energy efficiency and enhanced quality of life. 

2. Resilience

The idea of resilience focuses on our home’s relationship with energy. There’s a shift towards more resilient energy sources, such as solar panels and other renewable technology, alongside ways to store the energy that they capture. 

For future homes, this will become even more important, as electric vehicles become more commonplace. In this case, our homes’ energy resilience will mean that they become power stations to charge our vehicles, without incurring extra costs. 

3. Efficiency

This is where efficiency comes in. Electricity consumption increases the more time we spend at home, but also with a move away from fossil fuel power. The likes of electric car charging and heat pumps for space heating shift the burden of powering our homes to electricity. However, there are huge opportunities for the future to be smarter with how we use energy, while limiting the increase in use and cost.

4. Personalisation

One of the biggest trends that is currently defining our homes is the shift between separate work and home spaces for a greater number of people. Personalisation is about creating homes fit for purpose, personalised for the individual. This means more modular spaces that are able to adapt to the requirements of different activities.