Aspiring to A1

Skr4wny

Is it worthwhile to go all out and spend enough to get to A1 as opposed to A2, A3 or B1?? Or does the cost just not be worth it towards the real high end?

Your thoughts?

MicktheMan

My tuppence worth:

Define "worth it".

Have you thought about Passive?

If I was building I would keep it simple and design to the passive house standard. Then make sure the the builder is clued in and experienced in delivering low energy/passive buildings. Note I havent referred to any particular rating!

fclauson

The BER system is flawed and aiming for A1 can be inappropriate - you should aim for a Passive Cert/close to Passive initially and then take a financial look to see if you want to go to an A1 as well.

B3 to A1 is about adding renewables and has very little to do with making the fabric more efficient - if you read my artical in an old CI you will see that the closer you get to Passive Certified the worse your BER can become because your demand for energy is lower and hence the pull from your renewables is lower.

MOTM

fclauson wrote: »

The BER system is flawed and aiming for A1 can be inappropriate - you should aim for a Passive Cert/close to Passive initially and then take a financial look to see if you want to go to an A1 as well.

B3 to A1 is about adding renewables and has very little to do with making the fabric more efficient - if you read my artical in an old CI you will see that the closer you get to Passive Certified the worse your BER can become because your demand for energy is lower and hence the pull from your renewables is lower.

Is that a flaw with the BER system or with the definitions available in TGD L? DEAP follows the available definitions in TGD L (10kWh/m2/yr). The term "reasonable" is not something that DEAP can say is complied with, hence compliance is demonstrated against the number given in TGD L surely!

fclauson

True
DEAP is the defacto tool to show compliance
TDG is the guide

the word "reasonable" in the actual Part L act is something which lawyers love as its meaningless and hence will take a court action to change from DEAP/TGD

MOTM

BTW on the renewables issue, if the dwelling is of small or moderate size, the renewables requirement would likely be met by a well sized solar water heating system. The amount of hot water required in DEAP depends on dwelling size (tapering off for large dwellings), not on BER grade. The moderate or small dwelling would have a reasonably large water heating demand per m2 floor area. Not so the case in the large or obscenely large dwelling.

Skr4wny

Thanks for the input folks, I'm not building but looking to improve my current house. Interesting points on the BER vs passive, I guess passive is more what I'm hoping to achieve or as close to it as possible. What would be the first steps to take to make a house more passive or to assess it's current passsiveness?

MicktheMan

Skr4wny wrote: »

Thanks for the input folks, I'm not building but looking to improve my current house. Interesting points on the BER vs passive, I guess passive is more what I'm hoping to achieve or as close to it as possible. What would be the first steps to take to make a house more passive or to assess it's current passsiveness?

Have a full and in depth heat loss & building survey carried out by an independent & experienced professional. This survey should assess the current insulation and airtightness levels and effectiveness/weaknesses as well as the ventilation and heating systems. Recommendations should then flow from this taking into account such things as house location & use, projected household size, budget, your future plans and goals.

Skr4wny

MicktheMan wrote: »

Have a full and in depth heat loss & building survey carried out by an independent & experienced professional. This survey should assess the current insulation and airtightness levels and effectiveness/weaknesses as well as the ventilation and heating systems. Recommendations should then flow from this taking into account such things as house location & use, projected household size, budget, your future plans and goals.

Perfect, thanks.

Skr4wny

Found the below on the SEAI website, it's a really good read.

http://www.seai.ie/Publications/Renewables_Publications/Passive_House_Retrofit_Guidelines.pdf

Does anyone know any companies/people who assess houses for passiveness and give advice on the best ways to retrofit? If becoming fully passive was a major cost which I'm pretty certain it is, I would just try to improve things as much as possible within my budget.

MicktheMan

pm sent