U Values Republic of Ireland, Part L technical guidance document
The Republic of Ireland government has introduced the 2005 amendment to Part L (May 2006 edition), Conservation of Fuel and Energy, to provide for the implementation of the EU Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD).
To satisfy the requirements of the EPBD, new improved energy performance standards have been set for new buildings. These include:
New calculation methodology for achieving minimum target CO2 emissions from new dwellings. The methodology is being initially introduced for new dwellings only and entitled Dwellings Energy Assessment Procedure (DEAP).
The 2005 amendment to Technical Guidance Document L (May 2006 Edition) provides guidance for dwellings and non-dwellings and is sub-divided into 3 sections:
- Section 0 provides General guidance
- Section 1 deals with Dwellings
- Section 2 deals with Buildings other than dwellings (including residential buildings other than dwellings).
The EU Directive on the EPBD contains a range of provisions aimed at improving energy performance in residential and nonresidential buildings, both new-build and existing. The EPBD requires specific forms of information and advice on energy to be provided to the building purchaser, tenants and users.
As part of the Directive, a Building Energy Rating (BER) certificate, effectively an energy label, will be required at the point of sale or rental of a building, or on completion of a new building.
In the Republic of Ireland, BER energy labels and advisory reports is applied to all New dwellings since 1 January 2007.
For dwellings, the primary method of demonstrating compliance is to show that the calculated rate of CO2 emmisions associated with the operation of the dwelling does not exceed a target value specified in Part L Technical Guidance Document (Appendix C) using DEAP calculation framework.
Appendix C of the amended Part L document provides a set of reference values for the parameters of a DEAP calculation, which are used to establish a maximum permitted CO2 emission rate (MPCDER) and notional dwelling of same size and shape as the actual dwelling.
