With Summer in full swing, the arctic conditions of January might seem like a distant memory.

But last winter – the coldest for over 30 years – was a clear reminder of the very real need to conserve energy and heat our homes efficiently. As temperatures plunged below zero (and stayed there for days on end), householders across the UK switched their thermostats to ‘constant’ and tried not to think about their resulting fuel bills and their ballooning carbon footprints.

Energy efficiency in buildings has been a hot topic in the construction industry for well over a decade. The built environment is one of the biggest sources of man-made carbon emissions and repeated revisions of Part L of the Building Regulations have clamped down hard on energy consumption and wastage.

We all know that we must reduce our consumption of fossil fuels; we all know that we must reduce our carbon emissions. But there’s nothing like the sheer discomfort of constant cold to remind us that a well-insulated house is to be prized.

All houses built in the UK today must meet the requirements of Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power) of the Building Regulations 2006. Some planning authorities have gone further and demand compliance with Level 3 or 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. And in any case, by 2016 all new homes will be expected to meet Code Level 6 and be zero-carbon.

So how do we achieve that? There are many building methods available, but the fastest-growing in terms of market share is timber frame - and with good reason. It is cost effective, quick to erect, based on sustainable raw materials (softwood from managed forests) and above all, inherently warm and therefore cheap and easy to insulate.

It is no accident that timber frame technology has dominated the Scottish housing market for decades.

Nor is it simply coincidence that throughout Scandinavia, timber frame is not just the market leader, but the norm. Building a masonry cavity-wall house anywhere north of Copenhagen would be regarded as eccentric to say the least.

The same applies in the northern United States and Canada, where the continental climate alternates between sweltering summers and deep dark winters and makes our maritime climate seem lukewarm all year round.

Indeed timber frame is not just about keeping heat in. To be more precise, the inclusion of high levels of insulation is all about regulating temperature fluctuations and isolating the interior climate from extremes of temperature outside. In other words, a well-insulated house doesn’t just keep you warm in winter; it also provides respite from baking temperatures during the summer.

Of course you can achieve these high levels of insulation with virtually any type of building structure – it really only depends on how much insulation you are prepared to pack into the structure and how thick you are prepared to make the walls.

But if you want to do it cost-effectively, using renewable materials and with the least amount of on-site labour, there is currently only one realistic option, and that’s timber frame.