Environmental and health related criteria for buildings - ANEC

IBO - Environmental and Health related Criteria for Buildings
To achieve the level of a “Zero Carbon Home” net carbon dioxide emissions resulting from
all energy used in the dwelling are zero or better, including space heating, cooling, hotwater
systems, ventilation, all internal lighting cooking and all electrical appliance.
The requirements of level 5 have to be fulfilled and off-site renewable contributions can only
be taken into account where these are directly supplied to the dwellings by private wire
arrangement. An optimization only by the use of Low or Zero Carbon technologies is not
sufficient to achieve “Zero Carbon level”. The building envelope has to be optimized, too, as
a Heat Loss Parameter (covering walls, windows, air tightness and other building design
issues) of 0.8 W/m²K or less is required.
The Code of Sustainable Homes (and the BREEAM schemes in general) neither refer to the
delivered energy nor to primary energy requirement (renewable/non-renewable) of buildings.
The decisive indicator for assessing the overall energy performance of dwellings is the
reduction of CO 2 -emissions compared to a defined level (besides additional individual
measures).
The calculation method considers CO 2 emissions from space heating, domestic hot water,
lighting, mechanical cooling, CO 2 reductions from alternative electricity generation, biomass
fuelled CHP (combined heat and power) systems (community systems as well as on-site)
and from LZC (Low or Zero Carbon) technologies (solar hot water, photovoltaics, small scale
hydro power, wind turbines, biomass single room heaters/stoves, biomass boilers, biomass
community heating schemes, CHP and micro CHP for use with the following fuels: natural
gas, biomass, sewerage gas and other biogases, community heating, including utilising
waste heat, air source heat pumps (ASHPs), ground source heat pumps (GSHP),
geothermal heating systems, fuel cells using hydrogen generated from a renewable source).
Green tariffs cannot be used to discount CO 2 emissions as these do not guarantee an
increased renewable capacity and are not legally binding on occupiers.
The rating within CSH does not consider absolute or specific carbon dioxide emissions of a
building or a dwelling unaffected by the energy carrier or fuel in use. “The Target Emission
Rate (TER) may be higher for some technologies based on a particular fuel and therefore the
improvement to this level easier to reach.”
The editors of the Code for Sustainable Homes recognised this weak point and emphasize
that the Code “does not intend to reward technologies that work against the objectives of the
scheme. Hence, the future revisions to the Code will be aligned with revisions to Part L of the
Building Regulations; minimum standards of fabric performance and air tightness are also
likely to be introduced.”…”The fuel factors used within the SAP calculation methodology are
to be redefined subject to a consultation in 2009 on Part L of the Building Regulations to map
out new requirements for introduction in 2010 and 2013.” 24
Ene 2 to Ene 7 award individual measures as follows:
24 Code for Sustainable Homes: Technical Guide May 2009, Version 2; ed. Department for Communities and
Local Government, 2009, p.53
Final Report 63 31 03 2011