SAP Calculations

All new buildings including some Conversions and extensions now require a SAP rating prior to the building stage. The SAP assessment is used to determine if the complies to local buildings regulations for energy efficiency.

Various parts of the UK follow their own buildings regulations with energy efficiency guidance detailed in the following sections;

• ‘Part L’ for England and Wales
• ‘Section 6’ for Scotland
• ‘Part F’ for Northern Ireland

SAP works by assessing how much energy a dwelling will consume, when delivering a defined level of comfort and service provision. The assessment is based on standardised assumptions for occupancy and behaviour. This enables a like-for-like comparison of new dwelling performance against a target building of the same size and shape.

Related factors, such as fuel costs and emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), can be determined from the assessment. SAP quantifies a dwelling’s performance in terms of:

• Energy use per unit floor area
• A fuel-cost-based energy efficiency rating (the SAP Rating) and
• CO2 emissions (the Environmental Impact Rating).

These indicators of performance are based on estimates of annual energy consumption for the provision of space heating, domestic hot water, lighting and ventilation.

Other SAP outputs include estimate of appliance energy use, the potential for overheating in summer and the resultant cooling load.

We would recommend that the SAP assessment is undertaken early in the design process, this will help to prevent any costly re-design of the dwelling.

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So why come to us?

Well, when you instruct Scottish Energy Services to carry out your SAP assessment, you will receive a number of benefits:

• Hiring a team with experience and knowledge of the industry, therefore meaning that you get a seamless and professional SAP calculation.
• Rather than provide a Pass or Fail result, we will be able to advice on how to make sure the development complies with building regulations in the most cost effective way for you.
• All SAP calculations can be done remotely without the need for us to visit your site therefore causing the minimum of disruption to you and your site contractor.