EPC headline

October 1st is here. All buildings (sold, constructed, re-leased) will need one.

Strange that so few people in services have become EPC assessors.

Stats to come.

Interesting idea

Guido is at it again.

Remove VAT from fuel. Sadly won’t work. VAT on fuel is lower (I think) already….

Much better to go with Mr Kyriades - always impressed. However he is a lawyer so his ideas are good.

Economics is always hard and simple solutions usually lead to unforeseen consequences. Quite unlike engineering.

IES exciting news

IES VE and sketchup - so excited. One day i will check this out. So busy recently.

Also IES has a blog yay!

BREEAM 2008 Outstanding and EPC zero

As everyone says zero is the new black (seth godin is always ahead of the curve - he said this in 2007; mind you construction is mostly stone age).

So BREEAM has updated itself to fend off LEED in Europe. I like the outstanding. It’s definitely cool. There are some minimum standards now too. Nice.

Best bit? The forced mandatory post construction audit. Stops those nasty developers.

Anyway i’m still looking for a UK zero carbon outstanding building. Ho hum i will have some time to wait i suspect.

Landlords, EPCs and risk

Nice to see a good article on Landlord Law about EPCs. She has it right. By bringing this to the attention of landlords and tenants prior to lease in a very legal way it makes people care. Its the 99% of buildings that matter - Building is taking the correct stance.

Landlords want money. Tenants will use poor EPCs to leverage a lower price per sq. ft. - at least try anyway.

Lastly this year will see the bad building really come out. DECs and EPCs will, hopefully, sort the wheat from the chaff in building design. I think we’ll go through the next few years seeing what happened to doctors happen to us. THe engineers who only do high budget eco friendly stuff will do well in the league tables. Others less so.

Questions

When will the NCM be released?

Will SBEM’s source be ever released?

When will the zero carbon guide for commercial buildings be released?

My bets are not this year. Sigh. Damn credit crunch.

Thomas has been doing EPCs simulations in Scotland as well. The LCEA Scotland tells me that you don’t have to register your EPC in those parts……I guess the Scots are cheaper. Its only £35….

Sigh. Still the Sullivan report was good. I agree with Mark of House 2.0. It is a credible report.

Finally the government is finally waking up and smelling the coffee. Urban wind turbines don’t work. Even the Register (my favourite of websites) has got in on it. Report here.

CIBSE and some brief stats

Some interesting stats…taken from cibsecertification?

How many assessors do the big boys have (Fabers, Arups, WYG, WSP, Atkins and the other big whorehouses - oops i mean modern day engineering satanic mills, damn it i mean places of excellent graduate learning)? Lets find out…

Fabers - 9

Arups - 5

WYG - 4

WSP - 1

Atkins - 0

Not exactly setting our world on fire is it? We are the only accreditation body that can realistically do complex buildings (think facade engineered free cooled building with complex BMS) and some of our largest consultancies do not even use us for their certification work….Mmmmm. Not impressed Atkins.

Lastly it appears that neither Mel Starrs (Elemental) or Casey Cole (Carbon Limited) appear to be even under assessment. Shome mishtake, shurely?

Oh well all will come out in the wash; hopefully i can get a few homers and have a nice holiday soon. Maybe some wine too. Mmm wine. Too early for a glass - not on holiday.

 

PS if i missed any big hot shot consultancies let me know.

New EPC guidance, CIBSE and a belated return

 

Wow it been 3 months…..well i moved and other important things have been happening in my life.

There is new EPC guidance (the second edition too). Best bits so far are the recognition that the levels 3,4,5 have to be delineated better. Essentially the guidance states that now level 3,4 are for common systems and outlines what DSM is for better. Still a bit of a pigs ear but better than the two lines that came before.

Also the FAQ appears updated; I live the fact that it now has an answer to all the EPC factories out there (you know who you are). Yes you can get the junior engineer as as he is fit and proper….i quote

The Accredited Energy Assessor must ensure that anyone visiting a property or gathering information on their behalf is both ‘fit and proper’

Mmmmmm good luck juniors….as the recommendation report of an EPC says you have visited the site…you monkey boy will be sent to tick this box.

Also get some of the questions in the FAQ:

• If I am offered work on a farm and that employment comes with a tied building, should I expect to see an EPC? If so, for which part of the building?
• Should an EPC be provided to every new resident of a care home?

Love it…

We are wrong about plastics (and renewables)

Excellent FT article this weekend in their magazine. Plastic is bad, right?

“societies without sophisticated packaging lose half their food before it reaches consumers. In the UK, waste in our supply chains is about 3 per cent. In India, it is more than 50 per cent. The difference comes later: we throw out 30 per cent of the food we buy - an environmental cost in terms of emissions equivalent to a fifth of the cars on our roads.”

Mmmm not so simple when you look at things now?

Reminds me of clients who only want wind turbines and photovoltaics - being visibly green is more important than being green.

About the FT article - there was a nice graph; not on the linked article :-( that said wine was one of the worst offenders for packaging. Being a drinker i don’t mind lsoing corked bottles but losing glass seems a step too far….

addenda - <better uk link> check out the graph especially.

addenda - <the packaging presentation> from the article.

Tom

Things i’ve learnt this week - end April 2008

One day i will the del.ico.us thing (but i have to understand the plug in thingy).

Bottom feeding - Alice, a rather delightful architect, comments on how most architects are ignored by RIBA. I worked for a starchitect and RIBA really is their friend. RIBA think, in their dark bowels, that the future of architecture is with larger practices. This leaves most architects who aim to get good in large practices and then start their own one man bands very much alone. I hope the little man stops paying their subs…..its the only way to change.

A bit old but RMJM Hillier is a having a laugh. RH are saying that there are not enough architects out there……Reality check - They are a starchitect and they need their slaves to do the work winning. Sorry the slaves are asking for decent salaries and now they need more. This reminds me of the housing bubble - suddenly everyone doesn’t want to architecture (rejoice!)