Glossary of Nestbox & Bat Box terms

We are sorry, but a number of acronyms and specialist terms have crept into use on this site. If you need to check what we mean by any of them, we have listed them here.

Term or Acronym	Description
Back Panel, Backplane or Backplate	Rear panel (attaching to tree or wall etc) on a fabricated nest box such as our Small Bird Nest Box, Cavity Bat Box, Eco Barn Owl Nest Box, Barn Owl Nest Box, etc
Breeam Assessment	Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method - an assessment scheme for sustainable building design, construction and operation
Cavity	Open area inside nest or roost box, such as our Cavity Bat Box or Eco Barn Owl Nest Box
Crevice	Narrow section inside a bat box such as our Crevice Bat Box, Roost Maternity Bat Box or Heated Bat Box
CSH Assessment	The Code for Sustainable Homes - a national assessment scheme for sustainable building design, largely withdrawn in 2015
FSC	The Forest Stewardship Council - Worldwide organisation who certify responsibly produced wooden products
Keyhole	Refers to the shape of the fixing hole in the backplate of many nest boxes, such as the Cavity Bat Box
Landing Ladder	The grooved downward projection of the backplane of bat boxes such as our Crevice Bat Box to facilitate bats landing from flight prior to crawling up into the bat box
Langley	A unit of measurement indicating resistance to ultra violet, the main cause of ageing in many plastics. Our Eco Barn Owl Nest Box is protected to 70 Langleys
LDPE	Low Density Polyethylene - such as the material used for our Eco Barn Owl Nest Box
OSB	Oriented Strand Board - A board formed by bonding flakes of wood together - as used for the floor of our Eco Barn Owl Nest Box
RAC	Certified by the Rainforest Alliance
RCD	Residual Current Device - a safety device designed to cut off the electricity supply on leakage caused by something such as touching a live wire
Torpid	Torpid bats have temporarily reduced metabolic rate and temperature, and cannot fly until they have come out of torpor
WEEE	Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment consists of "end of life" electrical items and is subject to regulations on its disposal. The Nestbox Company is a registered producer, number WEE/HB0002ZR