As the BER energy rating began to roll out last year, many developers were rather surprised to see that their 2005 Part L compliant dwellings were rating at a low C or even in the D band and in general there has been a swing, even among conservative developers, to ensure their units are in the B bands, according to Patrick Daly, Director of BESRaC.

Some others have lead the market with A3 rated housing and apartment developments, although these are not yet mainstream, but it is expected in the near future they will be so. Given that just one aspect of the EPBD is in place and that all elements are due to be operational by January 2009 we can be sure of one thing in 2008 - more change.

There are a number of outstanding aspects of the EPBD yet to come into full effect, notably we have yet to see the equivalent of the DEAP method for non-residential buildings come into force both in a revised non-residential Part L and for use in BER's for non-residential schemes, this is likely to be something equivalent to the UK's SBEM.

We have also to see the release of the PASSES software for the mandatory AES (Alternative Energy System) feasibility study required for all new buildings over 1000 sq m. Toward the end of 2008 there will no doubt be some small panic as BER certificates become mandatory from January 2009 forthe second-hand market for both residential and non-residential buildings at point of sale or lease/rent.

In addition to and in parallel with the ongoing roll out of the EPBD we are set to see in 2008 significant revisions and advancement of Part L (Dwellings) 2008 and I trust that Part F for ventilation will also be revised.

The draft 2008 Part L proposals represent a significant move forward from the current 2005 Part L with improvements in both scope and standards.

In addition to the 40% improvement in energy efficiency for new homesit proposes a multi-criterion compliance base with Primary Energy and Carbon targets and secondary targets in a contribution to renewables, increased minimum boiler efficiencies, mandatory air tightness targets/testing and guidance on a widening range of technologies such as mechanical ventilation with heat recovery.

However whether an actual 40% improvement is actually achieved is unlikely given the framework and mechanism adopted in the TGD. What has been proposed is actually an equivalent percentage reduction in primary energy and CO 2 off a representative sample of nine house types, which has equated to a required 40% energy reduction and 31% carbon reduction.Coupled with this, there are a number of inflationary mechanisms in the "reference house" mechanism which reduce the actual percentage reduction even further and in some cases the percentage reduction can be as low as 25%. Hopefully this will be corrected in the final document.

In addition to the radical changes we are seeing in the residential Part L, the EPBD will also mandate the need to integrate an equivalent non-residential calculation method into Part L (non-residential) and it is expected that there will be a revision to that in terms of scope and standards also.

This article is an extract fromIRISH CONSTRUCTION OVERVIEW 2008 - TO READ FULL ARTICLE CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE!