Conservation of Fuel & Power

As is the case with an increasing number of councils and depending on the size of the development, an energy statement often referred to as a sustainability report may be requested by the council to accompany planning applications. The purpose of the assessment is to ascertain that the development is designed to a standard that on completion will fall in line with the council’s vision for the borough, and will not increase the carbon emissions at a rate higher than their plans.

A SAP assessment is often confused with an EPC, which is only the final certificate that is produced after the building has been built. A SAP assessment will calculate all fabric elements, building services and take in to account orientation, size and location of the property.

Although all new dwellings require SAP reports, the standards required for New built dwellings as opposed to dwellings created by a change of use, differ slightly. Our assessors will work with the client to ensure that if the design falls short of the standards they will advise on the quickes, least intrusive and cost effective solution to meet the standards.

Quite simply put an SBEM calculation is the commercial version of a SAP assessment. Any shop, office, school, hospital or any non domestic dwelling requires an SBEM calculation.

An SBEM also takes in to account the usage of the area and zones the property according ensuring that the standards are met for each sub zone within a room if necessary. Due to the nature of commercial properties, our assessors are expee4ienced in helping clients meet the requirements in a manner that will not cause unnecessary delays to the projects build and completion.

Under approved document L1A for domestic properties and L2A for non domestic properties, developments need an air permeability certificate in order to discharge their SAP or SBEM calculations.

An air permeability test is carried out by one of our trained testers by applying a blower door to the new property. The fan then causes a steady flow of air to enter the property through leaky holes in the property.