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The new Part L
(Conservation of Fuel and Power) 2006
revision of the Building Regulations entered
into force on April 2006. Part L2 covers
compliance requirements with all buildings
other than dwellings, and is split into L2A
for new buildings and L2B for existing
buildings. In addition, all dwellings with a
total floor area greater than 450m2
fall within Part L2.
Approved Document L2A has a new requirement
to comply with the Target CO2 Emission Rate
(see box to the right) which is demonstrated
through approved software.
We were amongst the first to offer L2A
compliance service under the “Competent
Person” Scheme. We currently use TAS
v.9.1, a
commercial
third-party software that is fully licensed
by the Department for Communities and Local
Government under Regulation 17A of the
Building Regulations to demonstrate Part L2
Compliance.
TAS is a highly respected commercial
software that has been developed by
EDSL over 25 years ago to
simulate energy consumption and thermal
performance. A life-like 3-dimensional model
is created in the software, which is then
exported to the TAS Building Simulator.
Results can be presented in a wide range of
formats, although for our L2A Compliance
Report we offer a standardized set of
documents.
The final report will demonstrate compliance
with Approved Document L2A: Conservation of
fuel and power in new buildings other than
dwellings:
- Criterion 1 – “Predicted CO2
emission from proposed building does not
exceed the target” (BER/TER)
- Criterion 2 – “The performance of the
building fabric and the building services
systems should be no worse than the design
limits” (Limiting values)
The results produced by TAS are highly
accurate and have been verified—for example,
TAS was used to simulate BRE’s exemplar
Environment Building and the monitored
results were almost identical to those
simulated by iSBEM., the government's user
interface developed to comply with Part L2A
. However, iSBEM underestimates the benefits
of energy-efficient measures; therefore the
design team needs to “over-comply” with
iSBEM: This results in massive compliance
cost increases for the client –which are
avoidable. We are thus able to save our
clients money by using TAS, unlike some of
our competitors using iSBEM.
TAS is also able to demonstrate compliance
with Criterion 3 – “Limited the effects
of solar gains in summer", which iSBEM
is not able to do as it is too simple to
undertake complex thermal energy
simulations.
We also advise on
designing an air tight envelope,
to achieve compliance with air pressure
leakage testing, which has become mandatory
for all new constructions since April 6th, 2006.
>
Complying with Building Regulations
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Energy Performance Certificates |
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Did you
Know?
The
new Part L 2006 measures will deliver increased energy standards for new
buildings, estimated at around 28% in non-dwellings, 22% in houses, and 18%
in flats.
On
average, a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions per dwelling will be attained
compared to a notional dwelling.
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BER versus TER
BER:
Building Emissions Rate
TER:
Target Emissions Rate
BER
is the predicted CO2 emissions of the building based on
construction specifications.
TER is a target CO2
emissions rate established to achieve a 28% improvement to Part L 2002.
The
new BER/TER Criterion 1 of Part L2 specifies that a new building's BER has
to be lower or equal to the TER. |
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