Improving the Energy Performance of Buildings
In UK, buildings are accountable for a great percent of energy expenditure and carbon emissions. As concern over environment change becomes widespread, the government is introducing processes to improve the energy competence of buildings. These initiatives include introducing Energy Performance Certificates for buildings, requiring large public buildings to exhibit Display Energy Certificates. It covers the benefits of improving the energy performance of building, inspections for air conditioning systems and the government’s energy counsel program for heating and hot water systems.
Improving the energy performance of buildings remuneration of improving the energy performance of buildings, how it is built, heated and ventilated and the type of fuel used all contribute to its energy consumption and carbon emissions. Owners have to act in accordance with legislation if they are having new premises built or make noteworthy alterations to existing premises. Costs in the long run are actually reduced significantly by keeping in mind the energy efficiency of a building.
The government aims to encourage heating and boiler installers and maintenance engineers to provide basic advice to their customers on the energy efficiency of their heating and hot water systems, and recommends improvements to be made. EPC is not required when a temporary building with a planned time of use is being built.
The commercial EPC however suffers severe deficiencies in attempting to evaluate the energy efficiencies of houses. For example, it takes no account of wall thickness at all, so that very thick and thus insulating walls in older houses count the same as though they were only two bricks thick. Thatched roofs are also ignored, despite being excellent insulation for a property. The underlying assumptions made in the software are totally inappropriate for older buildings. A further objection is often made concerning the quality of inspection made to produce the certificate. It cannot be invasive, so the inspector cannot drill walls or ceilings to determine the state or even existence of any insulation. This in itself produces great uncertainty about the validity of the output from analysis.
