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VOLUNTARY BUILDING STANDARDS:
WHY BOTHER?
Dr Lucelia Rodrigues
Head of Architecture & Urbanism Research Division
Department of Architecture and Built Environment
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Seminar Stream: Passivhaus | Session: Introduction to Passivhaus
Tuesday 05th of March 2013 | 10.45 - 12.15

Dr Lucelia Taranto Rodrigues
Ecobuild 2013 | Seminar Stream Passivhaus - Introduction to Passivhaus 05.03.2013
Suppose we wanted to keep a certain bucket full of water.
Our common sense would have us repair the leaks
rather than just refilling the bucket continually...

Contents
Key Benefits of Using a Building Standard
Bridging the Theory

Key Benefits of Using a
Building Standard
Why should you bother?

Level 1: Compulsory Standards
• Building Regulations firstly introduced in the UK in 1965
• Enforceable by law, focused on setting of standards in
functional terms to verify design before work starts on site
• In general, the building regulations:
→ Define what falls under the control of the regulations
→ Explain what types of buildings have to comply
→ Set out the procedures that must be followed
→ Set out requirements for specific aspects of building
design and construction
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments

Buildings which are
comfortable,
enjoyable,
accessible,
durable,
safe,
and sustainable.

Building Regulations
• Part A. Structure
• Part B. Fire safety
• Part C. Site preparation and resistance to contaminants and moisture
• Part D. Toxic substances
• Part E. Resistance to the passage of sound
• Part F. Ventilation
• Part G. Sanitation, Hot Water Safety and Water Efficiency
• Part H. Drainage and waste disposal
• Part J. Combustion appliances and fuel storage systems
• Part K. Protection from falling, collision and impact
• Part L. Conservation of fuel and power

Part L: Conservation of fuel and power
https://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/partl/

From the brochure “Built for the future: The ISOVER Multi-Comfort House available” at
www.isover.sk/cms/File/Multi-ComfortHouse_E.pdf (Webb, R., 2002: p. 36, p. 9)

(Utley, J. and L. Shorrock, 2008)
Stricter Building Regulations

Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP)
• The Government’s Standard Assessment Procedure for
Energy Rating of Dwellings
• Used for Building Regulations Part L compliance for new
dwellings
• Indicators of
→ energy performance are Fabric Energy Efficiency (FEE)
→ energy consumption per unit floor area
→ energy cost rating (the SAP rating)
→ environmental impact rating
• based on CO2 emissions (the EI rating) and Dwelling CO2
Emission Rate (DER)
http://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/SAP/2012/SAP-2012_9-92.pdf

Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP)
• The Environmental Impact rating is based on the annual
CO2 emissions associated with space heating, water
heating, ventilation and lighting, less the emissions saved
by energy generation technologies
• Based on floor area so that it is essentially independent of
dwelling size for a given built form
• Expressed on a scale of 1 to 100, the higher the number
the lower the running costs
• The Dwelling CO2 Emission Rate is a similar indicator to the
Environmental Impact rating, which is used for the
purposes of compliance with building regulations
• Worksheet accompanied by a series of tables

Energy Performance Certificate

Level 2: Voluntary Standards
• A step further – improved performance
• Compliance with building regulations
• Potential improved staff productivity
• Higher potential income from rent
• Publicity benefits - more lettable/sellable buildings
• Reduced energy use and, consequently, running costs
• Climate change mitigation and possibly adaptation
• Potentially ‘guaranteed’ performance in practice

British Certification - BREEAM
• Building Research Establishment
Environmental Assessment Method
(BREEAM)
• The world's foremost environmental
assessment method and rating
system for buildings
• 200,000 buildings certified and over
1 million registered for assessment
since 1990
• Sets the standard for best practice
in sustainable building design,
construction and operation
• BREEAM for Housing:
Code for Sustainable Homes
www.breeam.org

BREEAM
• Uses recognised measures of performance set against established
benchmarks, to evaluate a building’s specification, design,
construction and use
• The measures include aspects related to
1. energy use (calculated through SAP),
2. water use,
3. the internal environment (health and well-being),
4. pollution,
5. transport,
6. materials,
7. waste,
8. ecology and
9. management processes
• Classification: Pass 30%, Good 45%, Very Good 55%,
Excellent 70% and Outstanding 85%

• BREEAM for new housing
• Government's national sustainability standard for design and
construction of new homes
• Voluntary, not a set of regulations
• Should not be confused with zero carbon policy or the 2016 zero
carbon target
• There were 64,662 post construction stage certificates and
113,236 design stage certificates issued up to March 2012
• Energy performance calculated through Standard Assessment
Procedure (Building Regs), a simplified steady state calculation
• There is no requirement to use certified products so there is no
control of their performance
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/greenerbuildings/sustainablehomes/introduction

• BREEAM for Housing – also 9 categories:
Code for Sustainable Homes categories and level of flexibility (Department for Communities and Local
Categories Flexibility
1. Energy and CO2 Emissions
2. Water
Minimum standards at each level of
the Code
3. Materials
4. Waste
5. Surface Water Run-off
Minimum standards at entry level of
the Code
6. Pollution
7. Heath and Wellbeing
8. Management
9. Ecology
No minimum standards

Code for Sustainable Homes improvement over Building Regulations Part L (Department for
Communities and Local Government, 2009 and 2012)
Code
level
Improvement
over Part LA1
2006
(% reduction in
DER/TER)
Improvement
over Part LA1
2010
(% reduction in
DER/TER)
Total
points
score
(out of 100)
Equiv.
EcoHome
rating
(pre CfSH)
Other Equivalent
rating
1★ 10%
below
minimum
36 Pass
Energy Saving
Trust Good Practice
2★ 18%
below
minimum
48 Good
3★ 25% minimum 57 Very good
Energy Saving
Trust Best Practice
4★ 44% 25% 68 Excellent
Loosely similar to
Passivhaus
5★ 100% 100% 84
6★ zero carbon zero carbon 90

• The majority of the certificates issued at design stage (77%) and at post
construction stage (85%) have been awarded at ★★★ rating.

The Value of BREEAM
A Maastricht University report published in 2012 studied the effect of
BREEAM certification on office buildings in London, over a period
from 2000-2009. It demonstrated that:
• There is a positive effect for neighbourhoods with BREEAM
certified buildings in them, around 1.5 to 6%, for rents and
transactions
• There are positive premiums for rents and transactions
prices for BREEAM certified buildings. Rents are 21% higher and
transactions are 18% higher.
• BREEAM buildings tend to be high quality buildings. Future
studies that can distinguish between what constitutes high quality
and BREEAM may find lower premiums
Schneider, 2012. The value of BREEAM

American Certification - LEED
• Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED)
• Developed by the U.S. Green
Building Council
• Rating systems for the design,
construction and operation of
buildings, homes and
neighbourhoods
• Voluntary, consensus-based,
marketdriven program that provides
third-party verification of green
buildings
• 20.000 buildings certified around
the globe (against over 200.000
BREEAM)
The Pixel Building in Victoria, Australia, is
supposedly the greenest building in the world:
• LEED Platinum
• BREEAM Outstanding
• Highest level of Greenstar Rating in
Australia
www.pixelbuilding.com.au

LEED
• Main credit categories:
1. Sustainable sites credits encourage strategies that
minimize the impact on ecosystems and water resources
2. Water efficiency credits promote smarter use of water,
inside and out, to reduce potable water consumption
3. Energy & atmosphere credits promote better building
energy performance through innovative strategies
4. Materials & resources credits encourage using
sustainable building materials and reducing waste
5. Indoor environmental quality credits promote better
indoor air quality and access to daylight and views
• Classification:
Certified: 40–49 points, Silver: 50–59 points,
Gold: 60–79 points, Platinum: 80 points and above

The Value of LEED
How LEED certification can help a business (according to LEED):
1. It sets you above in a competitive landscape
2. It reduces risk
3. LEED attracts tenants
4. It’s cost effective
5. It offers “green magic”
https://new.usgbc.org/leed/applying-leed/leed-for-business

PassivHaus
• Defined as “a building, for which thermal comfort can be achieved
solely by post-heating or post-cooling of the fresh air mass, which is
required to achieve sufficient indoor air quality conditions”
• Passivhaus does not cover other aspects of sustainability other than
comfort and energy efficiency
• Over 37,000 buildings in use worldwide http://passiv.de/en/
• Passivhaus is not a brand
name, but a German
construction concept based
on building physics
• Passivhaus is not a ranking
system, it is a standard
• Fabric first approach

PassivHaus Criteria
• Criteria based on performance and calculated through the very
robust Passivhaus Planning Package (PHPP)
• Products and components have to be certified http://passiv.de/en/
Specific heating
demand, or
Specific heating load
≤ 15 kWh/m2year
≤ 10 W/m2
Specific cooling
demand
≤ 15 kWh/m2year
Specific primary
energy demand
≤ 120 kWh/m2year
Air tightness ≤ 0.6 ACH @50Pascals
In warmer climates and/or during summer
months, excessive temperatures (>25oC) may
not occur more than 10 % of the time.

Passivhaus Criteria
• Achieving the performance targets requires a balance between
the use of very high insulation levels for opaque and
transparent elements, high airtightness, and the elimination of
thermal bridges.
• The following values are recommended, but not obligatory:
→ Opaque fabric U-value ≤ 0.15 W/m²K
→ Windows/doors U-value ≤ 0.80 W/m²K (0.85 W/m²K inst.)
→ Thermal bridging Y-value ≤ 0.01 W/m²K
→ Whole house MVHR system with 75% efficiency
→ Air tightness ≤ 0.6 ACH @50Pascals
(Mead and Brylewski, 2010: p.3)

Form Factor
• Form factor is the ratio of external envelope to treated floor area
• Form heat loss factor (FF)=Heat Loss Area(HLA)/Treated Floor Area (TFA)
• The lower the HLA, the less insulation is needed to meet kWh/m2
Form
Factor
Typical type of dwelling it might
represent
Approximate U-Values
needed to reach what can be
considered ‘energy efficiency’
(below 15kWh/m2.a)
<2 Apartment block or terraces 0.15W/m2K
2 to 3
Semi-detached or compact detached 2
or 3 stories property
0.10 to 0.15W/m2K
3 to 4
Less compact detached house or
bungalow
0.10W/m2K
>4 Very spread out bungalow 0.05 to 0.10W/m2K
(Values provided by WARM: low energy building practice)

Passivhaus in Different Climates
Project Report "Passive Houses for different climate zones", May 2012, 536 pp
Editor: Wolfgang Feist, Passivhaus Institut and University of Innsbruck, Authors: Jürgen Schnieders,
Wolfgang Feist, Tanja Schulz, Benjamin Krick, Ludwig Rongen, Reiner Wirtz

The Value of Passivhaus
http://passipedia.passiv.de/passipedia_en/basics/affordability/investing_in_energy_efficiency/are_
passive_houses_cost-effective

Interserve Passivhaus Office
“Office in Leicester is allowing its tenants to
generate £2300 in energy profit per year”
www.interserve.com

Costs for energy efficiency measures
and Passivhaus in Guadalajara
CONAVI, SEMARNAT. Supported NAMA for Sustainable Housing in Mexico - Mitigation Actions and Financing
Packages. Mexico City 2011 (available for download at: www.conavi.gob.mx/viviendasustentable)

‘Compulsory’ Targets
• Increasingly strict building regulations are making the prediction
of the likely environmental performance of a building more
important
• As well as the building regulations there are government targets
for low carbon construction
• All new homes should be zero carbon from 2016, transition from
the 2006 through performance milestones:
→ 2010 Building Regulations: 25% emissions reductions
→ 2013 Building Regulations: 44% emissions reductions
• The National Planning Policy Framework favours sustainable/ low-
carbon developments, and developments with resilience to
climate change
(The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government)

Timeline for zero carbon policy (www.mottmac.com/files/page/289381/The_Zero_Carbon_Timeline_270912.jpg)

The Zero Carbon Hierarchy – stepped progress towards a workable definition
http://www.zerocarbonhub.org/resourcefiles/FEES_ExecSummary_15_3_10.pdf
Zero Carbon Hierarchy
Building fabric
performance
Carbon
Compliance =
On-site heat and
power generation
+
Energy efficiency
On-site low/zero
carbon energy
(and connected heat)
Allowable
solutions
Zero Carbon =
Solutions
addressing the
carbon emission
reductions that
are difficult to
achieve on site
+
95% Complete
75% Complete
5% Complete

Fabric Energy Efficiency
• Fabric first approach – similar to Passivhaus
• In addition to Carbon Compliance performance levels,
dwellings will also be required to achieve high fabric
performance levels
• FEE is the first element of the zero carbon homes policy
hierarchy
• FEES is now incorporated in the Code for Sustainable
Homes and should be in Part L in 2013
(Zero Carbon Hub, 2012)

Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard
• Proposed maximum space heating and cooling energy
demand for zero carbon homes
• Aims to ensure that a good minimum standard for fabric
(the longest-lasting part of a home) will be embedded in all
new homes
• It is measured in kWh/m2yr and is therefore not affected by
carbon emission factors for different fuel types
• For the majority of homes, levels of 39 and 46Wh/m2/year
are proposed
http://www.zerocarbonhub.org/zero-carbon-policy/fabric-energy-efficiency-standard

Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard
http://www.zerocarbonhub.org/zero-carbon-policy/fabric-energy-efficiency-standard

• Suggested fabric characteristics
(Zero Carbon Hub, 2012)
Fabric Energy Efficiency
Dwelling type
Passivhaus4-storey
apt. Block
Mid terrace
End
terrace/
Semi
Detached
Target Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard
(kWh/m2/yr)
39 39 46 46 15
Walls (W/m²K) 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.18 ≤ 0.15
Floors (W/m²K) 0.18 0.18 0.18 0.14 ≤ 0.15
Roof (W/m²K) 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.11 ≤ 0.15
Glazing (W/m²K) 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.3 ≤ 0.80
Thermal Bridging (W/m²K) 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.04 ≤ 0.01
Air Permeability (m³/m²/hr@50Pa) 3 3 3 3 < 0.6 ACH
@50Pa

Bridging the Theory
The Reality Gap

Research shows that most buildings do not perform as they are designed to.
In some cases the heat loss is over a 100% worse than expected.

Mind the Gap!
Image by Richard Partington Architects

Route to Zero Carbon
© Passivhaus Trust
Passivhaus and Zero Carbon - Technical briefing document - 5th July 2011
(www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/UserFiles/File/Technical%20Papers/ 110705%20Final%20PH%20ZC%20Brief.pdf)

New Build Dwellings in the UK
Wingfield et al.(2011) at CeBE Leeds Metropolitan University

Passivhaus Performance
Graph from Passipedia article: Energy Use – Measured Results
(passipedia.passiv.de/passipedia_en/operation/operation_and_experience/measurement_results/energy
_use_measurement_results)

Passivhaus Performance
Space heat consumption levels determined by measurements, extrapolated for a whole year and
normalized to 20 °C indoor temperature (‘normalized space heat consumption’) compared to the
consumption of conventional new buildings and to the values calculated in advance using the Passive
House Planning Package (PHPP) (Jürgen Schnieders, Andreas Hermelink, 2006)

Why Bother?
Buildings which are
more comfortable,
more enjoyable,
cheaper to run,
more lettable/sellable,
more sustainable
and more reliable.
Nottingham H.O.U.S.E., University of Nottingham - Image by Anita De Domenico

The Biggest Uncertainty is

If we could see heat flowing in and out of a building
as we see water leaking from a bucket,
then our attitudes might be different.
Image by www.wyominghometuneup.com

Lucelia.Rodrigues@nottingham.ac.uk
Department of Architecture and Built Environment
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
www.creative-energy-homes.co.uk
www.facebook.com/CreativeEnergyHomes
www.nottingham.ac.uk/abe [Architecture and Built Environment]
THANK YOU.
Dr Lucelia Rodrigues

References
Association for the Conservation of Energy (2007). Fact sheet 01 – Key trends in UK domestic sector energy use,
October 2005. London.
DECC – Department of Energy & Climate Change (2011). Energy Consumption in the United Kingdom 2011 Factsheet.
National Statistics, London. Available at www.decc.gov.uk [last accessed on 18th of May 2012]
Department for Communities and Local Government (2010). Household Projections, 2008 to 2033, England in Housing
Statistical Release C.a.L. Government, Editor National Statistics: London.
Gething, B. (2012) . Design for future climate – opportunities for adaptation in the built environment. TSB technical
report. London, UK.
Gillott, M., Rodrigues, L. T. , et al. (2010). "Low-carbon housing design informed by research." Proceedings of the ICE
- Engineering Sustainability 163(2): 77 -87.
Jürgen Schnieders, Andreas Hermelink, CEPHEUS results: measurements and occupants’ satisfaction provide evidence
for Passive Houses being an option for sustainable building, Energy Policy, Volume 34, Issue 2, January 2006, Pages
151-171, ISSN 0301-4215, 10.1016/j.enpol.2004.08.049.)
Rodrigues, L., Garratt, T., Ebbs, N., (2012). "Is added sustainability equal to added value? ." Energy Conversion and
Management 60(Article in Press - ECM 4799).Retrieved Article in Press - ECM 4799, 60, from
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890412001276.
Rodrigues, L., Gillott, M., (2012). "The Climate Resilience of a Low-Energy Prototype House." Proceedings of the ICE -
Engineering Sustainability.
Utley, J. and L. Shorrock, Domestic Energy Fact File 2008, BRE, Editor. 2008, Energy Saving Trust/Department of
Energy and Climate Change: London.

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