The Department for Finance in Northern Ireland recently announced a consultation on a review of energy efficiency requirements and related areas of Building Regulations. This consultation has now closed and Elmhurst are pleased to have responded on behalf of its members.

Consultation Overview

This consultation has been published in preparation for significant changes in Northern Ireland relating to new and existing dwellings, and outlines potential next steps for key areas, such as:

• Building Regulations
• Conservation of Fuel and Power – low carbon heating such as heat pumps
• Ventilation
• Overheating

Elmhurst’s Response Summary

A summary of the key responses we have submitted following the consultation can be found below:

• We support the introduction of the Primary Energy metric, along with Fabric Energy Efficiency metrics and associated targets.
• Where possible, we are largely in favour of an alignment with the current building regulations in England, examples include:
  • 1 year time period for approved applications to commence on site
  • Replication of Sections 5 and 6 of England’s Approved Document on building services and controls
  • Assessment of Heat Networks
  • Adoption of the BREL for notice of compliance
  • Amendment of Technical Booklet K to address ventilation alongside fabric retrofit work
• We agree that a new regulation and guidance is required to mitigate overheating in new dwellings. We believe that new overheating requirements should not just be for new dwellings but also include material change of use and extensions.
• We do not support the effort to more closely align the NCM towards passive house standards. We believe that SAP has a more detailed analysis of heating and hot water generation which is vital to the overall energy demand of a home.
• We agree that the consideration of embodied carbon should be on a UK wide level to ensure implementation across all regions is consistent.

To read Elmhurst’s full response to the consultation, please click the following link: https://www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk/app/uploads/2023/12/Consultation-Response-Northern-Ireland-Building-Regulations-1-1.pdf

For more information on the consultation, please click the following link: https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/consultations/review-energy-efficiency-building-regulations

This consultation closed at 23:59 on 15^th December 2023.