News
SAP tool ‘needs more investment to deliver’
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An advisory body on zero carbon homes has
recommended that SAP be used as the compliance tool for zero carbon homes – if a simplified overheating test can be developed immediately. The Zero Carbon Hub has
produced 27 recommendations in a study of current compliance tools, assumptions and related regulations in an attempt to create a definitive guide to building zero carbon homes, which will become compulsory from 2016. However, for SAP to work effectively, more investment is required to develop it, the report says. Achieving zero carbon homes
‘requires the wider house building industry to change at a pace and scale never previously undertaken’, it says. ‘Provided work progresses
at a pace on all of the recommendations, delivery appears possible but very tight.’ To this end, the report recommends three steps: firstly, the government should announce its intent to take the issue of
zero carbon homes forward – within three months provided overheating issues are addressed immediately; secondly, to integrate the requirements into the 2013 Building Regulations; and thirdly, to fully implement the changes in the 2016 regulations. The report added that a version of the compliance tool needs to be available by the summer of 2011. The developments required
within SAP include: • A better way of reflecting the energy used for water heating and
• An improved SAP to continue to be used as the carbon compliance tool for new homes;
• An absolute limit set for predicted carbon emissions per square metre of floor space in new dwellings;
• Emission factors should include upstream emissions and carbon equivalents for other greenhouse gases;
• Whole house post-construction fabric and services audit tests
integrating new technologies;
• An urgent assessment of overheating issues to produce a simplified overheating test;
• A means of reflecting the progressive decarbonisation of the electricity grid; and
• Scrapping a building’s performance relative to a notional building; a building’s target emissions should be dependent on its absolute carbon performance. The hub also recommended action to close the gap between
should be developed and implemented on a sample basis as part of accreditation;
• As a matter of some urgency, research should be undertaken to compare the carbon and energy performance of a national sample of newly completed dwellings with their design performance. The findings should be widely published and mechanisms put in place to gather performance data on a continuing routing basis;
design and actual performance of what is built on site. Carbon Compliance for Tomorrow’s
New Homes can be downloaded at:
www.zerocarbonhub.org CIBSE was part of the taskforce that prepared the report.
Some of the Zero Carbon Hub’s 27 recommendations:
• The compliance tool should model, more closely than SAP currently does, the factors affecting hot water demand, including system losses;
• The carbon compliance tool should incorporate appropriate tests for air quality and daylighting; and
• Need for a structured continuing programme of monitoring, starting immediately, to test and refine the compliance tool.
New ‘energy fund’ to help achieve carbon target
Councils and developers are to be given more flexibility to help homes meet the zero carbon standard by 2016, according to UK ministers. Housing Minister Grant Shapps
is looking to establish a ‘community energy fund’ to allow developers to make payments to councils to support local energy projects, such as district heating schemes and wind farms. This would help developers build new homes that emit fewer emissions. It should also help them to meet
the allowable solutions part of the zero carbon definition. New homes will be required to be built to zero carbon standards from 2016. If developers are allowed to take
part in a community energy fund, it would mean they no longer have to install expensive renewable technologies on site, as they do currently to meet low-energy
10 CIBSE Journal September 2010 Councils and developers are to be given ‘more flexibility’ on local energy projects
standards, or set up their own off-site low-energy/renewables schemes. Shapps said he also intends
to set minimum standards for energy efficiency measures in future
revisions of Part L of the Building Regulations to make homes warmer and more air tight. These standards would improve the fabric of buildings, such as wall and loft insulation and high-specification
windows. The standard would be based on amendments outlined in a recent consultation on the Code for Sustainable Homes. ‘I will need to be realistic and
take account of costs,’ said Shapps. ‘The government recognises the challenges posed by the 70% level previously proposed and the case for this needs to be re-examined. ‘Therefore, I am commissioning
more work from the Zero-Carbon Hub to test what would be an appropriate level. I have asked the hub to report back on this as early as they can.’ Ministers also quashed rumours
that the Hub would have its grant cut by announcing £600,000 of funding for the body to continue its work this year. Government is working on what the full definition of zero carbon will be with the hub.
www.communities.gov.uk
www.cibsejournal.com
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