NEWS
Pickles drops consequential improvements for homes
Decision sparks fury in industry
The government has confi rmed that domestic ‘consequential improvements’ will play no part in Building Regulations. The decision had been widely predicted, but still prompted fi erce criticism. Offi cials argued that the proposal for refurbishment work to trigger mandatory energy effi ciency upgrades for the rest of the building could harm the home improvement market. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: ‘Having consulted carefully, the government has noted the potential danger that introducing consequential improvements would discourage people from undertaking
The Daily Mail led a campaign against the plan, falsely dubbing it a ‘conservatory tax’. However, the Association
home improvements.’ Following a consultation on the proposal in early 2012, the Energy Saving Trust published research that showed over a third of households would be unwilling to carry out home improvement work if consequential improvements were also required. There was also concern that ‘cowboy builders’ might mislead homeowners about the scale of work required.
for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) accused the Minister of ignoring the fi ndings of his own consultation that showed four out of fi ve people supported the concept; that the government’s own fi gures estimated consequential improvements would benefi t the economy by more than £11bn; and without this measure more than two million fewer homes would take up the offer of Green Deal fi nance. ‘This decision is bad for the economy, bad for jobs and bad for the environment,’ said ACE. ‘It is an undoubted triumph for the Daily Mail, whose mendacious campaign seems to have led to this foolish volte-face.’
EPCs ‘not a reliable indicator’ of energy effi ciency
Energy Performance Certifi cates (EPCs) are an unreliable and often misleading indicator of building energy effi ciency, according to new research. Jones Lang LaSalle and the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) have published a study that compares the actual energy consumption of two offi ces, one with a good and one with a poor EPC rating. Their conclusions prompted them to urge government to widen the use of Display Energy Certifi cates (DECs), which monitor actual energy consumption during operation. However, the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) subsequently dropped plans to extend compulsory DECs to private sector buildings. The report, A Tale of Two Buildings – are EPCs a true
indicator of energy effi ciency, found that Ropemaker Place, which had a B-rated EPC, was actually 66% less energy effi cient in use than 10 Exchange Square, which had been given an E rating. Researchers found this was not untypical when comparing these fi ndings across 200 London offi ce buildings.
‘EPCs are nothing to do with real energy use,’ commented CIBSE technical director Hywel Davies. ‘They are a standardised computer simulation, which assumes standard hours of use, numbers of occupants and levels of unregulated energy use, all of which are hugely variable in practice.’
Read the opinions on pages 20 and 22 for more details. In brief
ENERGY EFFICIENCY TO UNDERPIN NEW RHI Industry has urged government to adopt minimum energy effi ciency standards to underpin the second phase of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) when it is introduced later this year. The £106m fund should also
be aimed at rewarding the performance of complete systems rather than individual technologies, building services experts advise. They say the current scheme, which began in October 2011, is perverse because it gives the most effi cient systems smaller payments. Plans to extend RHI to air-to-air
heat pumps, biomass direct-air heating, and biogas combustion over 200kW were the subject of a consultation last autumn.
Read CIBSE’s response on page 30.
CHILLED BEAMS ARE PENALISED Passive cooling technologies are often not specifi ed because of a poor understanding of their potential, according to the Chilled Beams and Ceilings Association (CBCA). It claims that government-
backed energy effi ciency schemes only accredit individual products rather than complete systems, and so perversely penalise technologies that do not consume energy. The association said it would
be meeting with the Carbon Trust early in 2013 to look at the issue.
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January 2013 CIBSE Journal
7
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