SAP Calculations Nationwide SAP calculations can be produced from construction drawings & notes. Throughout the process there is no need to visit the site. The design stage calculations need to meet several targets including CO2 emissions, fabric efficiency and over heating to ensure compliance. When compliance is acheived the SAP reports can be produced for building control.
Part L1A SAP Calculations When the design stage calculations are complete the reports produced are required by building control. A predicted energy assessment certificate can be produced to enable clients to market the property before completion of the dwelling(s).
Part L 2010 came into force on 01 October. It brings with it a further 25% reduction in theoretical carbon emissions. Due to the relaxed transition period allowed, it is unlikely that building control bodies will be flooded with Building Regulations applications to the new tougher standards for some time yet. However, software needed to demonstrate compliance is now available. This means that the industry can at last see the full implications of the new regulations by seeing how their house designs perform in approved software, and indeed submit Part L 2010 design submissions if they so choose.
Part L1A 2010 brings with it big challenges for the house building industry. The requirement to seal cavity party walls and insulate them too; the need to start paying more attention to the thermal detailing of junctions between walls, roofs, floors and windows. More homes will need pressure testing and boilers will perform worse in SAP 2009 that they did in SAP 2005. As a user of the SAP 2009 based NHER Plan Assessor 5.0 software, house builders can now get some certainty about how their designs will perform to the new SAP 2009 and Part L 2010.
To coincide with the start of the new Part L, Communities and Local Government (CLG) have issued conventions for how SAP assessors should go about gathering data to enter into SAP software for producing building regulation submissions and Energy Performance Certificates. The aim is to bring more consistency to the process. For example, before accepting a U-value, an assessor either needs to calculate the U-values themselves, or check that the U-values provided by someone else are calculated correctly or have been produced by someone accredited. Clarification is also provided about how to deal with thermal bridging calculations when not all the information is available; for example, if a developer has used Accredited Construction Details for some junctions but not others.
CLG is very concerned about the gap between the carbon emissions estimated in a SAP assessment, and the actual carbon emissions indicated by research into how homes perform when they are built. The issuing of these SAP/Part L conventions by CLG for all SAP assessors to apply is a milestone in the attempt to tackle this issue, in that it will help to bring rigour and consistency to the assessment process. However, this is one tiny step in a process that also needs to ensure that homes are actually built to the specification assumed in the Building Regulations Submission. Part L 2010 has started to engage with these issues that need to be tackled head on if we are to have any chance of meeting the Government's zero carbon target for new homes by 2016.
Part L1B SAP Calculations SAP Calculations are required for over-glazed extensions under Part L1B by a fully qualified SAP Assessor. An over-glazed extension is where the combined areas of all the openings in the wall and roof is greater than 25% of the floor area of the extension. In this scenario calculations need to be performed twice comparing a notional dwelling with the designed dwelling.
If 50% of a thermal element has to be renovated then all of that element will need to be improved. If 25% of the whole building envelope is to be renovated then the whole building will need to be improved. Unless the work will reduce the floor space by more than 5%.
Part L1B Worst Area Weighted U-Values
2006 2010 Wall 0.3 0.28 Roof 0.16 - 0.2 0.16 - 0.18 Floor 0.22 0.22 Windows 2.2 1.6 (WER Band C) Doors 2.2 1.8
Premier Assessors have extensive expertise in performing SAP calcs for both parts L1A and L1B of the Building Regulations.