“If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it” – Albert Einstein
1.0 Introduction
I like the quote above because when I first thought about trying to write this book, I thought it was slightly absurd to try and summarise the whole process, and, I didn’t want to just repeat what was written in the manuals. It also became clear to me that many people get confused by what they are being asked to provide in order to comply with the Part L, and also that as an assessor, we have requirements for information that will help both the client and ourselves to complete the calculation in the most time and cost effective way and still achieve the best results for the building – a lot of this is down to the quality of the information supplied. This book will hopefully make the whole process of what is required, and the information needed to carry out the calculations, a lot easier to understand, and provide a little bit of information about why the calculation gives the result it does.
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
- If you are an architect and you are asked by Building Control to provide an SBEM calculation, do you know what they mean?
- If you are a Building Control officer, do you know what is required when you ask for an SBEM calculation to demonstrate compliance?
- Do you know what buildings require an SBEM calculation?
- Do you know what energy assessors do, and what information they need to carry out the calculations?
- What is an SBEM calculation and why do I need one?
If you answered “No” or ‘Don’t know” to any of the questions above you are not alone, and the purpose of this book is to answer those questions and many more you may have too.
In fact, the aim of this book is simple, to explain the main requirements of Part L, how this links in with the compliance National Calculation Methodology, the NCM, how the NCM informs SBEM, the tool used to demonstrate compliance for Part L, and what information the building designer will need to supply to an approved assessor to carry out the SBEM calculation.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly for you if you are the building designer, it will cover what impacts the design the most in terms of gaining a pass.
It’s not a step by step on how to pass the regulations, I am not an architect or building designer, so whilst suggestions made will to gain compliance, they would also need to be checked for their feasibility in actual construction terms and how one aspect of the design will influence one or more others. That said, the suggestions made are realistic, they just may not be applicable to all building types.
On a final note, writing this type of document whilst interesting, could as easily be as dull as ditchwater, so baring that in mind I have tried to make it an easy read.
From 31st July 2014, Part L in England was separated from Part L in Wales. Scotland have their own version of an Approved Document in the Non-Domestic Technical Handbook.
Rather than try to incorporate both the Welsh and Scottish versions, for simplicity I have only worked with the England Documents, however, the principles of their input into SBEM is very similar.
This is an Introduction from my book “Part L, SBEM & What you need to know to get your building to pass” which is available to purchase here.
With much more information it goes on to answer further questions usch as:
“What is required to Gain Compliance – The Details”
and
“SBEM Input Fields – What Information is required to input into SBEM – and what are the results of doing so?“