Comfort standards and regulations in housing

Article 23 of the French order of 26 October 2010 requires homes covered by RT 2012 to carry a system that measures or estimates energy consumption. Occupants can therefore see what they are using, in kilowatt hours and in euros, on a phone, a tablet or a computer.

The functions rarely stop there. Heating, lighting, shutters and alarms can usually be controlled remotely as well.

The NF Logement certification puts the emphasis on thermal comfort, the durability of the building, acoustic comfort, accessibility, how far the home can be adapted to make life easier for older occupants, and the performance of the ventilation.

1. Thermal comfort depends above all on a system that meets nothing in the way of its own radiation, in the way clouds stop the warm rays of the sun.

2. The durability of the materials calls for products of a high standard, needing no maintenance at all.

3. Accessibility means no cables across the floor, and building the sources of comfort into the fabric: heating, cooling, and the sound in the room.

4. Ventilation replaces the air in a room. A system that heats or cools that air quickly becomes expensive to run, since the air is then pushed outside. Warming the fabric by radiation avoids the waste that heating air represents.

The NF HQE multi-criteria environmental certification is built on the French high environmental quality approach.

It sets out 14 criteria:

1. How the building sits in its immediate surroundings: Ceilingo solutions take their cue from the comfort found in nature: enveloping radiant warmth as from the sun overhead, reflective insulation as clouds provide, and sound arriving from every direction as it does outdoors.

2. Choosing construction processes and products together: Ceilingo specialises in building every source of comfort into the fabric of a building.

3. A site with little disruption: Ceilingo solutions arrive ready to fit and are light, which limits musculoskeletal strain, and the works are short, so the disturbance around the site is small.

4. Managing waste from the works: every product is made to measure, so there is no cutting and no waste on site.

5. Managing energy: all our systems can be programmed and changed at will, from wherever you happen to be.

6. Managing water: Ceilingo systems use no water.

7. Managing servicing and maintenance: Ceilingo systems need no maintenance, which is time you do not have to spend and a subject you do not have to think about.

8. Hygrothermal comfort: far infrared radiant heating does not act on the humidity of the air.

9. Acoustic comfort: all our systems include technical insulation chosen for its performance in its own field. Sound spread evenly removes the temptation to turn the volume up so that everyone can hear.

10. Visual comfort: building the technology in makes the service invisible. No dedicated plant rooms.

11. Olfactory comfort: Ceilingo solutions produce no smell of burnt dust and no chemical smell.

12. Healthy spaces: a surface held above the dew point stays dry, and mould does not settle on a dry surface. Radiant heating warms the fabric of the room rather than the air, which is what keeps those surfaces dry.

13. Air quality: allergenic dust is not stirred up, because the heat comes from the fabric of the building at a very low temperature. Dust does not settle on the sound equipment either, since that is built into the walls and ceilings. Our insulation products are rated A+ for volatile organic compound emissions.

14. Water quality.

Each criterion is graded at a level chosen by the developer: B (good), P (high performance) and TP (very high performance). The building must reach level P on at least seven criteria. The NF HQE profile places four themes above the rest: energy savings, comfort in use, health, and protection against intrusion.