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Carbon Checker user manual
NB: Only the communal areas of apartment buildings containing
self-contained flats should be assessed for compliance using SBEM, for
example, circulation areas (using the “Common circulation areas” activity
under the building type “Residential spaces”). The self-contained flats
themselves should be assessed using SAP (for domestic buildings).
The specifications for the 2010 Scottish notional building are in the 2010
Section 6 document and the 2010 Scottish NCM Modelling Guide, which are
available from the Building Standards Division at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/BuiltEnvironment/Building/Building-standards.
For Northern Ireland, please refer to www.dfpni.gov.uk for further information
on Northern Ireland’s building regulations and published documents.
SBEM calculates the energy demands of each space in the building according
to the activity within it. Different activities may have different temperatures,
operating periods, lighting standards, etc. SBEM calculates heating and
cooling energy demands by carrying out an energy balance based on monthly
average weather conditions. This is combined with information about system
efficiencies in order to determine the energy consumption. The energy used
for lighting and hot water is also calculated. This requires information from
the following sources:
Edited extract from the iSBEM User Guide (8th February 2012), used with
permission
15.3 Calculation basics: EPC
This section briefly defines the “reference” building, which is the basis of
setting the energy rating scale for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for
England and Wales (and Northern Ireland). The “Asset Rating” rates the CO2
emissions from the actual building in comparison to a Standard Emission Rate
(SER), where both emission values are in kgCO2/m2.annum. The Standard
Emission Rate is determined by applying a fixed improvement factor to the
emissions from a reference building, which is defined below. EPCs are
intended to send market signals about the relative performance of
comparable buildings, and so it is necessary that the reference building
should be the same for all buildings of a given type. In order to provide this
consistency, the reference building must be the same irrespective of: (a)
whether the actual building is naturally ventilated or air conditioned and (b)
the fuel choice in the actual building.
The insulation levels and HVAC efficiencies in the reference building are
identical to the 2006 Part L notional building except that certain parameters
in the reference building are fixed (subject to conditions below) irrespective of
features in the actual building (please refer to the 2010 NCM Modelling Guide,
available from www.ncm.bre.co.uk, for the detailed description of the
reference building). These aspects are:
a. The heating and hot water service is always met by a gas-fired system
irrespective of whether a fuel other than gas is used in the actual building, or
is even available in the locality of the actual building.
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