Government pushes up efficiency standards for new buildings

Energy efficiency standards for new builds will be pushed up to 6% for the domestic sector and 9% in non-domestic buildings over Part L 2010 Building Regulations, Community Secretary Eric Pickles has just announced.

As a media source reveals, the decision comes 461 days after his formal consultation into his Part L building regulations changes closed, which is quite a long time for a decision, by any standards.

The new standards were due to begin operating in April 2013 and, according to the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE), former building regulations minister Sir Andrew Stunell publicly suggested bringing introduction forward to late 2012. However, due to the Government’s delay in making a decision, these efficiency standards for new builds will be implemented in April 2014.

While industry leaders salute the Community Secretary’s decision, quite a few of them are very displeased with the huge delay. In fact, most of them complained about the fact that delays in decision making on Part L were leading to considerable losses for construction companies, owing to having made investments in capital and training, based upon the initial agreed timetable.

Implementing specific smart control solutions designed to improve the level of heating efficiency across both domestic and commercial buildings is yet another factor that could help reduce energy consumption (and, with it, carbon generation), and that’s specifically where Building Energy Management Systems come into play.

Building Energy Management Systems are capable of delivering extensive monitoring and control options, compared to basic controls. They typically employ data from a variety of sources (boiler flow and return sensors, internal and external temperature sensors, occupancy sensors, humidity sensors, etc.), and enable the perfect optimization of a building’s boiler-based central heating system.

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