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News Release from: Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB] | Subject: Energy rating certificates
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 12 October 2005
Energy rating certificates for
buildings.
ODPM says consultation has started on energy rating certificates for buildings.
The United Kingdom Government has said that the changes to Parts F and L of the Building Regulations two years ahead of schedule from April 2006 and implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive will make a major contribution to the U.K.'s commitment to combat climate change The contribution of Part L has been quantified as one million tonnes of carbon emissions by the year 2010 resulting from changes to the Part L regulations
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 12 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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That is set against three to four million tonnes - 25 per cent of the annual 15.2 million tonnes of carbon savings needed on a national scale - which the Government has suggested should be saved by the combined effect of the new Part L and the European Directive.
There is of course the contribution to carbon reduction coming from the improvement of energy efficiency in existing homes.
Home Information Packs will make a contribution here, but questions relating to better insulation and more economical heating systems will arise only at the time an existing home is let or sold.
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This scheme doesn't start until 2007 and by then whatever contribution home inspection can make to the reduction of carbon emissions will have at best four years to run.
The outcome here must be partial and difficult to quantify.
Add to that the decision to withhold the existing housing stock from the new Part L regulations.
The effect of this ruling must be to exclude existing dwellings in general from the carbon reduction effort until some unspecified date in the future.
The Government statement spoke of 'consequential amendments' to the building regulations applying to existing housing stock, which will be considered alongside other issues including the role of possible incentives, voluntary initiatives and Home Information Packs.
According to Government estimates, households are responsible for about 30 per cent of total U.K.
energy use, so a substantial element of the climate change target is being removed from the count until further notice.
Apparently Part L will apply only to new-build.
On the question of building energy ratings as required by the directive, the Government statement was silent.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has now confirmed to CIOB International that the directive requires certificates to be made available whenever buildings are constructed, sold or rented.
It also requires that certificates are displayed in buildings with floor areas over 1,000 sq.m.
occupied by public sector organisations that are regularly visited by large numbers of people.
The department says it is already consulting on the type and nature of the certificates.
The directive indicates that the methodology for energy rating certification of new buildings should be in place some time next year.
Certification of new residential buildings is due to start in 2007.
Vital need for compliance verification.
At the recent resource05 conference, David Strong, BRE's environment director, expressed his fears that implementation measures for the new directive might be fudged and that further delays might be introduced by the Government undertaking yet more consultation.
These misgivings prove to have been justified.
He and his colleagues on the U.K'advisory group on implementation of the directive believe that it is fundamentally important that the new Part L should begin to deliver quickly.
But as yet, the revisions provide no clear definition of a 'suitably qualified person', with judgment as to the competence of the person carrying out an energy calculation or pressure test being left to the discretion of the building control body.
"Since there is no clear definition of what constitutes a suitably qualified person and there are no specific requirements regarding training, qualifications or the need to operate within an approved quality assurance framework", he says, "this is highly unlikely to deliver the improvements in compliance verification or enforcement which many observers consider vital." It is certainly good to learn from ODPM that consultations have been put in hand on the building energy certificates, but BRE which might be expected to be involved in or at least informed about this development is not at present aware of any such consultations.
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