RSP Consulting Engineers

The Building Standards Division of the Scottish Government have recently announced the forthcoming changes to Section 6 of the Building Regulations.  The changes will come into force on 1st October 2010. 

The new regulations include changes to the maximum allowable U-values, system efficiencies, controls packages and maximum specific fan powers.  The most notable changes are the introduction of mandatory air tightness testing and the requirement for all new buildings to achieve a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions from the 2007 Section 6 Standard.

The 30% reduction in CO2 emissions is calculated using the SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) methodology.  RSP can carry out this calculation at the design stage of projects using the NCM SBEM tool or IES software.

For more information on the changes to Section 6 please see the related article.