Elemental

These are my links for October 24th through October 29th:

• Campaign calls for strengthened renewables policy – PlanningResource – "Ministers pledged in July to update the guidance in PPS1 and PPS22 to "ensure that they set a clear and challenging framework for delivering energy infrastructure consistent with national ambitions."
  TCPA energy policy manager Kate Henderson said: "The planning system can play a key part in tackling climate change by ensuring we get the right amount of renewable energy, by encouraging carbon zero development and by shaping development which reduces the need to travel by car.
  "But despite some excellent rhetoric, much of the planning system is still locked in the age of stupid. It allows carbon intensive development and often refuses real solutions to climate change such as renewable energy projects."
  Ministers plan to publish a draft new PPS on climate change and renewable energy by the end of the year, with the aim of adopting new guidance before the end of the current parliament."
• Energy standards for homes to fall short of Passivhaus – Building – The death knell for CSH?: "The Hub has proposed a radical overhaul, with builders asked to meet an annual energy output per square metre depending on building type, rather than satisfy the points-based system operated by the code."
• UK must replace 12 million non-condensing boilers by 2022 says CCC – CCC recommends that: "Non-residential buildings achieve a minimum Energy Performance Certificate rating of F or higher by 2020."
• SuperFreakonomics Ignores the Business Case for Sustainability – Andrew Winston – HarvardBusiness.org – I have largely missed the Superfreakonomics geo-engineering debate – this is a good starting point. Hoping to catch Levitt and Dubner at LSE later this month – some pointed questions will be ready…
• Statistics watchdog hits out at government emissions claim – PlanningResource – "The government has been exaggerating the UK's success in cutting carbon emissions, according to the UK Statistics Authority.A Department of Energy and Climate Change claim that carbon emissions were 12.8 per cent lower in 2007 than in 1990 is "unsatisfactory" and falls short of the government's code of practice for official statistics, said the watchdog's chairman Sir Michael Scholar.In a letter to the Commons environmental audit committee chairman Tim Yeo, he said nearly a third of that fall is made up of carbon credits in the EU trading scheme and do not represent real
  cuts. The fall is 8.5 per cent without the credits."
• RIBA to bin ‘outdated’ fee scale graphs | News | Architects Journal – So everyone will be laminating their old copy then? : "The RIBA is to drop its fee scale graphs in the latest edition of A Clients Guide to Engaging an Architect.
  The loss of the graphs, which featured percentage fees based on independent cost survey data, marks the demise of the institutes once compulsory fee scales abolished as mandatory in 1982 and as recommended scales in 1992.
  The RIBA maintained the revised guide would still contain concise written advice about how practices calculate fees and structure payment options."
• PassivHaus UK – My current obsession with U-values unearthed this gem: "Please note that whilst PHPP includes a worksheet for calculating the U-values of components it is not sufficiently accurate for demonstrating compliance against UK building regulations as it does not adhere to BRE document Conventions for U-value calculations (2006 Edition). Whilst the U-value calculator incorporated within PHPP is used as a basis for certification purposes designers are recommended to use suitable U-value calculator software packages for demonstrating UK building regulations compliance and undertaking SAP calculations, suitable software includes BRE's own U-value calculator, or other software packages such as BuildDesks free U-value calculator."
• Climate Change (Political Response): 21 Oct 2009: House of Commons debates (TheyWorkForYou.com) – Andrew Stunell (Lib Dem) reminds us all of a forgotten Bill during last week's 1010 debate: "In 2004, I was fortunate to be top of the ballot and able to introduce the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Bill in this House. I wish to say to the House and to the Minister that there have been missed opportunities as a consequence of the Government not choosing to implement what was in that Bill, which allowed them to amend the building regulations to take account of the sustainability and efficiency of buildings."
  Worth reading the entire debate (despite the outcome)

admin News BRE, carbon, CCC, CSH, Economics, emissions, EPC, fee, government, hub, lib_dem, passivhaus, PPS, SAP, scale, TCPA, u-values, zero

These are my links for October 5th through October 7th:

• Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes – Partnership Publications – EEPH/CLG report: "This report presents results and findings of the joint EEPH (Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes) and Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) project to study the levels of compliance with Part L of the Building Regulations.
  Specifically, it presents the results from a study of compliance for new dwellings built since April 2006 in accordance with Approved Document L1A (2006). The results for the full sample for the 2nd Phase of the project are presented"
• The future of green building in China – ClimateChangeCorp.com – Interesting (long) article on green building in China: "Perceived high cost is another barrier. When a World Business Council for Sustainable Development survey in 2007 asked the real estate developers and building professionals worldwide how much more they thought green buildings cost than normal buildings, the Chinese respondents said they thought certified green buildings cost 28% more. They were unaware that in China the average extra cost for a LEED certified building has been 3-5% more. This figure is similar to the global average incremental cost for LEED certified buildings.
  Lewis says as long as the Chinese developers have a perception that green buildings cost a quarter more, they will surely not go for green projects."
  China’s green building targets
  * Reduce building energy use in all cities by 50% by 2010 and 65% by 2020 (base year 1980)
  * Top 1000 State Owned Enterprises Programme aims to improve energy efficiency in the largest SOEs by 2010…
• Target Zero – About Target Zero – AECOM have been commissioned by Corus and BCSA: "The aim of this project is to understand the implications of the UK Government's move towards 'zero carbon' for five steel framed non-domestic building types.
  Target Zero will research and cost options for improving operational energy consumption and reducing embodied energy and other life-cycle impacts. The fully costed solutions generated will demonstrate how to achieve the three highest BREEAM ratings and meet the anticipated changes to Part 'L' of the Building Regulations."
• Zerofootprint » Communities – Interesting competition to retrofit a post-war, pre-90's concrete building and operate at net zero for a year. Their definition of net zero is on-site NOT community level, and by my reckoning excludes biomass: "All the energy required to power household amenities, cool, heat, and light the building must be provided on a net zero basis. Possible onsite energy systems can include wind, solar, bio-fuel cells (from occupant produced organic waste), hydrogen cells, etc. Energy must be produced by devices located within the building and its nearby property, and cannot be powered by fuel brought to the building. The building can contribute excess energy to the grid and, when necessary, access an equivalent amount, but no more."
• Passivhaus Windows | GreenBuildingAdvisor.com – I've been slightly obsessed with window u-values recently. This article has a great overview of German vs. US calculations differences and some good suppliers for windows from Canada: "When I interviewed Dr. Wolfgang Feist in 2007, he told me, “The reason for the number which we now use in Europe is the comfort of the occupants. It is a functional definition. During the winter, the coldest surface temperature in the room will be the window. If you don’t have a radiator in your room, the difference between the surface temperature of the window and the mean surface temperature of the room should not be more than 3 degrees Celsius; that’s for comfort reasons.”
  The colder the climate, the more important it is to use U-0.14 or better windows in a Passivhaus building — and not just for comfort. Low U-factor windows are necessary to meet the Passivhaus maximum annual heating energy standard of 15 kWh per square meter."

admin News building, Canada, carbon, China, competition, compliance, domestic, dwellings, German, green, part_L, passivhaus, residential, targets, u-values, UK, US, windows, zero, zero_carbon

These are my links for September 24th through September 26th:

• Fabric Insulation – ways of further raising performance standards for all types of building fabric: BD 2428 – Planning, building and the environment – Communities and Local Government – This report summarises building thermal performance requirements in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands and classifies them according to the approach taken (elemental unit-based approach, target U-value average heat transmission through the building envelope, heat demand calculation or integrated energy use calculation).
  The regulations are compared to each other and contrasted with United Kingdom building codes.
• Minister pledges zero-carbon homes definition consultation ’shortly’ – The Government expects to begin consultation on the final definition of zero-carbon homes shortly, planning minister Caroline Flint told the Labour Party Conference in Manchester.
  The minister confirmed that the issue of how the zero-carbon definition dealt with on and offsite green generation remained the most challenging element of the form of words which would be consulted on.
  The fringe meeting heard that Government-commissioned research into the zero-carbon target had highlighted problems over the availability of some of the key technologies and an estimate that the new standards could add between 17 and 24 per cent to the costs of a new home.
  The conference also learnt that the standard would be significantly harder to achieve in high-density, urban infill schemes compared to more large-scale non infill projects.
• How eco-towns can support living within ecological limits – Cutting-edge principles for the agencies involved in developing proposals for eco-towns have been published by BioRegional and CABE. The report, What makes an eco-town?, defines an eco-town as a place designed to make it easy for residents to reduce their ecological footprint by two thirds and their carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels.
• Patrick Barkham talks to Tony Wrench about low-impact housing in … – Closure on the Welsh Hobbit house planning controversy: "After a long struggle with the authorities, Wrench got retrospective approval for his home, tucked away in a valley in south-west Wales, via an unusual planning policy experiment in Pembrokeshire. County council and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park planners agreed to allow for low-impact developments on rural land where normal houses would not be considered, as long as they met stringent environmental, economic and social criteria."
• Environment Agency – Green roof toolkit – GLA green roof toolkit.

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If, like me, you have been tearing your hair out, trying to get your head around Part L since long before April this year, this book may help alleviate some of those stresses. Available from RIBA and NBS, the Guide costs £25. The RIBA blurb is below:

Guide to Part L is a thoroughly researched, in-depth guidance for architects, construction professionals and building control officers about the complex new regulations governing the conservation of fuel and power in buildings. More than a general overview, this guide cuts through the jungle of new provisions and requirements to provide a logical, straightforward road map to compliance.

Guide to Part L comprises detailed step-by-step guidance to every section of the new four-part document, highlighting essential points and anomalies, and is illustrated by invaluable process flowcharts. It is backed up by extensive appendices that give further information about almost every issue affecting compliance, including: target emission rates, SAP, SBEM, U-values, overheating, air permeability, efficient boilers and controls, insulation, ventilation, efficient air conditioning, efficient light fittings, commissioning, log books and how to assess ‘simple payback’.

Written by the Building Performance Group at the BRE and published by NBS (the official publishers of the Approved Documents), this guide has been written specifically from the building professional’s perspective and will make the difficult Part L more easily assimilated and applied.

“Thankfully there is now a guide that unpicks these unfamiliar and rather tortuous new requirements … I can see it becoming a genuinely important reference work for architects, construction professionals and even building control officers as they grapple with the new approach”. Bill Gething, of Feilden Clegg Bradley LLP, chair of the RIBA Sustainable Futures Committee and the RIBA President’s Advisor on Sustainability.

Note the language used in the review: complex, jungle, anomalies, difficult. Putting it mildly, I think. In the Foreword to the book, Bill Gething describes the regulations as ‘unfamiliar and rather tortuous’.

The highlight of the book for me are the flow charts and the appendices, but there are plenty of other nuggets of information. Many of these I had surmised already, but it is gratifying to see the experts agree with me:

• It is likely that U-values will have to exceed the standards of Part L 2002 in order to meet the TER
• It will probably be necessary to design for an air permeability better than 10m³/h.m²@50Pa, particularly in buildings with mechanical ventilation and air conditioning
• 2 calculations may be required for BER (Building Emission Rate) – a design stage which identifies the critical features of the design that will affect the energy performance of the building, and the second one when the building is completed. This version includes the actual results of air permeability, ductwork leakage and fan performance tests.
• Solar gain needs to be controlled in areas which do not include comfort cooling (does this seem wrong to anyone else? Surely this encourages the use of comfort cooling, because by the time the solar overheating problem is identified, the building fabric and form are fairly fixed, and the only option for compliance is to add comfort cooling. The moral of the story being that architects will need to realise what an impact their design has on compliance at a very early stage)
• Ductwork on systems served by fans with a design flow rate greater than 1m³/s should be tested for leakage

The one disappointment with the document is a lack of clarification on energy efficient building services and LZC technologies. Instead the book refers the reader to the ‘Non-Domestic Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Compliance Guide’ (pdf) and ‘Low or Zero Carbon Energy Sources: Strategic Guide‘ (pdf), neither of which are particularly light reading. I was hoping the Guide to Part L would fill the gaps between these two documents and the SBEM tools (including Hevacomp).

The intention of Part L 2006 was to conserve fuel and power in the built environment. The manifestation appears to be a complex, misunderstood calculation which whilst academically sound, does not lend itself well to how the industry operates today. The luxury of a period of time where the architect and engineer could fine tune the design using an iterative process before going out to tender is harping back to the ‘good old days’ when we used to have time to draw every pipe out in double line. Perhaps this change in regulations will see a return to longer design lead times? It will certainly require a greater deal of collaboration between the architect and the engineer at an earlier stage of design. It is not in the architect’s interest to design the fabric and form without consideration to Part L compliance and the building services, as this will undoubtably drive the capital cost of the building up, as technologies are added to the building in an effort to make it comply.

admin Book Review Bill Gething, collaboration, Feilden Clegg Bradley, LZC, Part L, RIBA, SAP, SBEM, u-values