zero energy buildings rather than ‘zero carbon’ as it pursues its decarbonisation targets against a background of financial austerity and energy insecurity. For the UK’s part, Energy Secretary Ed Davey


says he is ‘hugely enthusiastic about energy efficiency. It’s the cheapest way of cutting carbon: and cutting bills for consumers. It has to be right at the heart of what we do’. ‘By 2050, we’ll need to cut our energy use


by between a third and a half. And we’re about to begin the biggest energy efficiency drive this country has ever seen. The Green Deal is due to start this October


and the government is pinning all its hopes on this method of tackling energy efficiency across the existing housing stock with, in theory at least, no cost to the hard pressed homeowner. To achieve that, every building with Green Deal improvements must meet the Golden Rule that energy savings cover or exceed repayments. (See Hywel Davies’ July Legal column, Step by Step, page 18.) However, this initiative is a concerted attempt


to tackle energy waste from existing buildings. The devil is, as ever, in the detail and that is where CIBSE members and staff come in. They are working hard to help public servants, who may not always understand the full subtleties of drawing up and implementing a building services design, iron out these problems. It’s all in the delivery – making policy is the


easy bit. There was a missed opportunity to join up the Green Deal and Part L of the Building Regulations. The industry lobbied hard for the proposed ‘consequential improvements’ that would require a building owner to spend a further 10% of any structural or fabric enhancements on improving the energy performance of the whole building. This would have made a huge difference to thousands of existing properties and, with the Green Deal finance to pay for it, would have been cost neutral to the building owner. However, the government appears to have been scared off by the Daily Mail lobby and ‘consequential improvements’ are to be made a voluntary measure. The government will, however, struggle to


ignore the changes to the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The ‘recast’ directive came into force in February and there were further changes to the Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations in April, introducing some significant measures. These include a requirement that Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) be available within seven days of a property being marketed – you can no longer wait until entering into a contract. The responsibility for providing an EPC has also been extended so that the agent, and not


18 CIBSE Journal November 2012


just the seller, is liable if there is no certificate. The fine for not providing a certificate is £5,000. The new requirements also attempt to address


the low level of air conditioning inspections. A law has been in place for almost three years that required the inspection of air conditioning systems ‘of an effective rated output of more than 12 kW’. The intention was that owners would be motivated to improve the systems’ energy efficiency if they knew they performed poorly. But the level of inspections has been very low. Systems should have been inspected by January 2011, but to date it is estimated that as few as one in 20 have been checked. So, as the original softly-softly approach has


not been effective, the Directive now requires that owners lodge inspection reports to a National Register, operated by Landmark. Reports did not have to be lodged previously, which made it difficult to check compliance. CIBSE’s TM44 Inspection of Air Conditioning


Systems provides guidance for the inspections. It has been revised for the introduction of statutory lodgement, and now incorporates the experience gained over the past three years. It also clarifies some of the questions that have arisen around inspections. The guidance is primarily intended to support inspections, but it is also relevant and useful to anyone who wishes to make their air conditioning system more efficient. And so to the issue of penalties. How


should legislation be enforced and what are the consequences for those who fail to comply? In the recast directive, Article 27 states that: ‘Penalties provided for [infringements against national provisions] must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.’ Member states were due to inform the Commission how they have implemented the recast by July 2012, but this has now been put back to January 2013. The Department of Communities and Local Government is intent on the ‘light touch’ approach and positively hostile to anything that smacks of a business burden. It will not implement a new policy unless another is first removed, but this does not mean it can ignore EU Directives, and nor should it when this goes to the heart of stated government policy on tackling energy efficiency. The refocusing of efforts on energy, rather than


purely on carbon saving, is very much in tune with these energy-insecure days. Fuel prices are rising, the UK has become a net importer and sources of oil and gas are becoming more unpredictable. Energy saving has to come first and the carbon benefits will follow as a result. Policy makers and engineers are in tune on this


issue – they might just disagree on some of the detail, but CIBSE is working on that. TM44 Inspection of Air Conditioning Systems www.cibseknowledgeportal.co.uk


www.cibsejournal.com


Energy saving has to come first and the carbon benefits will follow as a result


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