OPINION: REGULATIONS
CARBON COUNTERS
Must you be an accredited energy assessor to calculate carbon dioxide emissions under Part L, and who can give notice of the calculation? Hywel Davies explains
When a new building is being constructed, its expected carbon
dioxide emissions have to be calculated. Under the Building Regulations, the Secretary of State must authorise a method for calculating the emissions rate (Regulation 24) and must set the targets to be achieved (Regulation 25). Under Regulation 26, the CO2 emissions from a new building must not exceed the target as specified under Regulation 25. There are two stages in the project
when the local authority or the approved inspector must be told what the target and calculated CO2 emissions rates are. The first notice is required no later than the day before the work starts, and must specify the target CO2 emission rate for the building, the calculated CO2 emission rate for the building as designed, and a list of specifications to which the building is to be constructed. The specifications are intended to
make it easier for Building Control to identify any significant changes when the building is constructed, and to seek confirmation that those changes do not have an adverse impact on the CO2 emissions of the building. The second notice is required no
later than five days after the work has been completed. The person carrying out the work shall give the local authority a notice which specifies: the target CO2 emission rate for the building; the calculated CO2 emission rate for the building as actually constructed (taking into account any changes to the original specification); and explicitly whether the building has been constructed in accordance with that specification – and, if not, what the changes are. The Regulations say that an alternative to this notice is ‘a certificate to that effect by an energy assessor who is
22 CIBSE Journal June 2012
It is clear that, whilst you must by law be an energy assessor to produce an energy performance certificate, you do not have to be an energy assessor to produce a carbon dioxide emissions calculation
dioxide emissions calculation. CIBSE corporate members and
Carbon emissions can be assessed by CIBSE Low Carbon Consultants
accredited to produce such certificates for that category of building’. This raises a question that is often referred to CIBSE staff: ‘Does the completion notice of CO2 emissions (under Regulation 26) have to be produced by an energy assessor, or can it be done by a CIBSE member or a Low Carbon Consultant?’ It is hard to argue that only an energy assessor can produce the notice, since they are identified as one potential source, and Regulation 27 offers an alternative. Moreover, the government wrote to Building Control bodies in 2008 when the Building Regulations underwent changes affecting these notices. In those days the CO2 emissions calculation was covered by Regulation 17C. The letter said: ‘Energy performance certificates
can be produced only by members of an approved energy assessor accreditation scheme. However, it will remain possible for the calculations needed to demonstrate compliance with regulation 17C to be carried out by a person who is not a member of such a scheme.’ (See
www.communities.gov.uk/ documents/planningandbuilding/ pdf/energyperformancedivletter.pdf) So it is clear that, whilst you must
by law be an energy assessor to produce an Energy Performance Certificate, you do not have to be an energy assessor to produce a carbon
Low Carbon Consultants, who are specialists in the requirements of Part L in England and Wales, should be well able to undertake these calculations and to explain to the client, Building Control and others how the result has been obtained. (To find out more, click on the ‘Find an Expert’ link at
www.cibseenergycentre.co.uk) LCCs are also able to give advice on
the consequences of changes to the CO2 emissions specification and the overall performance of the building. This is particularly important at the design stage, when there is no requirement to produce an Energy Performance Certificate, only to notify Building Control that Regulation 26 has been complied with. The regulations say that the
Building Control body is authorised to accept a certificate from an energy assessor on completion. They do not say that the body is required only to accept a certificate from an energy assessor. And where clients want the additional value of using an engineer who can not only produce the CO2 emissions calculation, but can also consider the impact of the specification for the building on its overall performance – not just its CO2 emissions – then they have every right to do that. Indeed, the provision of that sort of building performance expertise was precisely the reason why CIBSE created the Low Carbon Consultants Scheme.
The Building Regulations 2010, Statutory Instrument 2214, can be downloaded from http://www.
legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2010/2214/ pdfs/uksi_20102214_en.pdf
l HYWEL DAVIES is technical director of CIBSE
www.cibse.org
www.cibsejournal.com
Shutterstock.com / jokerpro
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68