WOBO recognises the work carried out by Elmhurst Energy and supports the need for consensus in the rating of properties and their energy performance.
A long-running debate between different groups of green housebuilding experts seems to be reaching a creative conclusion, says Stuart Fairlie, Technical and Operations Director, Elmhurst Energy.
In the article featured in EM Magazine promoting energy efficiency across the public sector which discusses SAP ratings and those promoted through the Passivhaus Planning Package.
Energy efficiency is one of those issues which usually means something different to each expert you ask.
Some talk about it in terms of carbon. Others talk about space heating demand. And others focus on fuel poverty, and the need to reduce overall energy costs.
Consider the design, construction and marketing of green new homes, and you get the same thing. Some are promoted as ultra low energy, some are ‘zero carbon’ or even ‘carbon positive’, and some are celebrated for very low fuel bills.
The law requires the production of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for all new build homes and for existing dwellings at the point of sale or rent. Most people just think of an EPC as the colourful A to G energy efficiency rating.
That rating is basically a cost index which tells you how expensive a home is to run. So far, so good – the housebuilders and estate agents can work with that.
But there’s a fundamental problem with EPCs for some experts, as the EPC for a new home is calculated using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP). This is a building physics modelling method which has also been at the heart of the compliance framework for Building Regulations since 1995.