Compliance Services : SAP Calculations

SAP Calculations

The Standard Assessment Procedure is the Government’s method system for measuring the energy efficiency and carbon emission rates of residential dwellings.
It calculates the energy requirement for space and water heating, ventilation and internal lighting. As well as producing a SAP rating, on a scale from 1-100, it also gives the carbon emission rate in terms of kg/m² per year.
SAP 2005 has been used as the basis for checking new dwellings for compliance with building regulations in the United Kingdom requiring the conservation of fuel and power since:

• 6th April 2006 (England & Wales: L1 Approved Document)
• 1st November 2006 (Northern Ireland Technical Booklet F1)
• 1st May 2007 (Scotland Technical Handbook 6, Domestic)

U-values

The U-value measures how well a building component keeps hot or cool air (according to climate) inside the building and is crucial to understanding the amount of energy that is needed to keep a comfortable inside temperature.
The measurement defines the heat flow through a given building element. The higher the U-value the more heat flows through so a good U-value is a low one as you want to keep heat inside the building or outside depending on the climate you live in.

The U-value physically describes how much thermal energy in Watts [W] is transported through a building component with the size of 1 square meter [m²] at a temperature difference of 1 Kelvin [K] (=1ºC). Thus the unit for U-values is W/m²K.

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is a crucial legislative component of the energy efficiency activities of the European Union designed to meet the Kyoto commitment and respond to issues raised in the Green Paper on energy supply security.

The Directive is designed to promote the improvement of energy performance of buildings and amongst its requirements is the application of minimum requirements on the energy performance of new buildings and energy performance certification of buildings through the introduction of EPCs.

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