黑洞社区

Air conditioned buildings are set to be penalised when the European directive on energy efficiency comes into force in early April.

Under the EPBD, an energy certificate 鈥� giving a building an energy efficiency rating of anywhere between A to G 鈥� must be produced for the construction, sale or rent of a building. It must also be put on prominent display in public buildings.

From details which have emerged on how the certificates for non-residential buildings will be assessed, air conditioned buildings are unlikely to score highly as they will be benchmarked against a naturally ventilated building.

The assessment will be carried out using a modified version of SBEM. Unlike Part L compliance, which compares the actual design with a notional building of the same type, the EPBD assessment will compare the building against a naturally ventilated building which possibly also includes some comfort cooling.

John Field, energy management director of Power Efficiency said: 鈥淒espite this, fully air conditioned buildings complying with the latest Part L requirements will not fair as badly as some reports predict.鈥�

Legislation implementing the directive is due to be put in front of parliament this month. The challenge after this will be to get certification assessors trained and in place.