Energist - Part L Compliance Experts - Blog

Firstly, I feel the need to offer huge ‘Congratulations’ to the brave team from Energist who completed a charity abseil last weekend.

MD Sarah Fenwick, sustainability expert Rosemary Bailey, Stuart Clark from the CSH team and Laura Pitcher from our Customer Service department managed to raise more than £1,100 for the Winston’s Wish charity – an organisation which helps bereaved children.

The abseil was down the face of the Eagle Tower in Cheltenham – the tallest tower block in the city stretching up fifteen storeys.

It’s not too late to donate! There’s always somebody in the Energist team looking to raise money for one charity or another. Keep in touch with us and we’ll let you know our upcoming fundraising events.

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Elsewhere in Cheltenham this week, Energist teamed up with solicitors, Rickerby’s, to offer a free training seminar covering BREEAM Communities and an update on the Government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment.

The morning was attended by a mix of fifty architects, surveyors, lawyers and people from across the construction industry, keen to find out more about how the new BREEAM scheme will effect the planning and development of future sites.

Attendees were also given an update on the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (previously known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment) which was launched in April, and is a plan to raise awareness in large organisations about energy saving measures and to encourage changes in behaviour and infrastructure.

In July, Energist will be hosting a training morning dedicated to the changes in Part L regulations, the effect this will have on SAP and SBEM calculations.

For more information about this and other training sessions which are available, contact our Customer Support team on 08458 386 387.

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The final story of the week looks at the Government announcement of a series of cuts which has instantly hit a number of grants for installation renewable technologies in the home.

The Department of Energy And Climate Change has had its budget cut as part of the coalition Government’s saving plans. It means that, with immediate effect, there are no grants available for installing heat pumps or solar panels.

Grants for using photovoltaic panels or wind turbines were scrapped under Labour, with a Feed-In Tariff introduced to replace it.

It’s thought this announcement will put a dent in the amount of renovation projects using renewable technologies, but it isn’t expected to have such an impact on new build developments, which are being forced to use more energy efficient means of fuel by building regulations.

 In recent weeks, we’ve seen a lot of curiosity in the marketplace around BREEAM… so in typical blog fashion, here’s a crash course:

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method in case you were wondering!) [Thanks to Martin for confirming that!] is used on commercial buildings, and has a lot of similarities with the Code for Sustainable Homes on the residential side of the building industry.

The Government is planning to tighten up on the current planning regulations so that all new commercial developments after 2019 must be able to show the buildings will be zero carbon. The aim is to achieve this by 2016 on the residential side.

So how does BREEAM help to do this? There are five levels of BREEAM starting with Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent and Outstanding. The higher BREEAM rating you get, the better level you can reach.

A BREEAM calculation is split into ten categories which cover areas such as Health & Wellbeing of the occupiers, Transport links, plans for dealing with waste, ecology…. Each one of these categories carries with it several criteria, and each one of these criterion carries a certain amount of credits. The more criteria you agree to (and are able to prove!), the more credits you get, with then gives you a better BREEAM rating.

Here’s an example from the Energy section: ‘One credit is available where energy-efficient external lighting is specified and all light fittings are controlled for the presence of daylight.’ If your building complies with this, you get one Energy Credit which will give you 0.79 of a percentage point.

Another example from the Transport section: ‘Up to five credits are awarded on a sliding scale based on the assessed building’s accessibility to the public transport network.’ Depending on the information you can provide us about the transport links of the site, you can earn up to five Transport credits – each one will give you 0.8 of a percentage point.

The credits which are available to you will depend on the type of building you are constructing. A prison will clearly have different needs to an office, so the credit criteria will change accordingly.

Also, some credits are mandatory, depending on which level of BREEAM you are aiming to achieve. This credit is from the Health section: ‘One mandatory credit where evidence provided demonstrates that the risk of waterborne and airborne legionella contamination has been minimised.’ If you are unable to meet this demand, you will automatically fail the BREEAM assessment – all mandatory credits must be achieved.

When all of the percentage points are added up – anything over 30% will get you a ‘Pass’ rating (the first level). 85% will get you to the ‘Outstanding’ level.

Energist’s assessment team is fully qualified to help you with all your BREEAM, CSH and Part L calculation needs. 08458 386 387

Energist is proud to be one of only a handful of companies in the UK that offers full accredited assessments in BREEAM Communities.

To discuss how we can help you with your BREEAM assessment call today on 08458 386 387. Or for more information on our services visit our website www.energistuk.co.uk