Questions asked during May 2006

 

Contents

General Questions

·         Where are the Building Regulations?

·         Will there be questions on Deregulation?

·         A query about which section of the course will be in which section of the  Exam Paper

 

Specific Questions

·     A question about compliance in new Building Regulations
 
 
Please note:  the questions asked are in bold black italic – the answers are in blue or red.
 
Location of Building Regulations
Sorry to bother you, I cant seem to find the link on your site to the new building regulations. Sorry it may be completely obvious but just don't seem to see where it is. Just wondering if you could let me know as I wanted to read through them before the exam.
 
I am puzzled – if you go to the main page then Building Regulations are in the right hand column as shown below.   If you follow the link thins will not only give the new regulations but also the 1994 and 2002 ones as well.   Section L1a is probably the most important – i.e. the regulation covering new building in houses.
 
 
 
Question on Deregulation

 

Looking over the past papers there have been qu's related I think more to the deregulation coursework - linked to energy price calculations: break point, and tariffs. But seeing as no-one did this coursework and that such numerical examples were not in the lectures/handouts we wouldnt be
expected to do the calculations on that scale would we?

 

Questions for the exam are set before Christmas, and the content of the course will vary from year to year and so will the exact nature of the questions to reflect what was been actually taught.  

 

Question about Sections in the Exam Paper

 

Having looked through your lecture notes I have identified 16 areas.
 
1. Energy / GDP
2. Energy Economics
3. Thermal Comfort
4. Energy use and conservation
5. Energy Balance Tables
6. Heat Transfer
7. Heat loss calcs
8. Energy Management
9. Building Regs
10. Electricity Conservation
11. Thermodynamics
12. CCGT's
13. CHP
14. Heat Pumps/Recovery
15. Energy Conservation UEA
16. Energy Analysis
 
The exam consists of parts A B and C.
 
Can you tell me which topic numbers crop up in which section, with specific reference to the Calculations, i.e. which calculations are applicable in this section.
 

There are indeed three sections in the exam – one is 25% and will have three questions all descriptive,  - one is 25% and will have 2 questions both having part descriptive  and part numeric (typically a 30:70 split), and the final section is 50% which will have three questions,  one of which is partly numeric partly descriptive, the other two are entirely descriptive.   You should note that the order of the sections may vary to ensure that page breaks do not occur within a question.

 

With regard to the content of a particular section, it depends whether the question is numeric or descriptive.  Thus many of the topics could be in either the entirely descriptive section or the section including numeric parts.   Thus there have been questions on Energy Balance Tables which have been descriptive and others which have been numeric.   The same has been true for Heat Pumps, Energy Management, CHP etc. Questions in the 50% section a distinguished in that the questions are more substantive, but could be on almost any topic, or could include questions requiring a knowledge of two or more sections.  

 

You should have a look through the previous exam papers for an indication of the format.

 

 

Building Regulations Compliance

 

I have been looking at the work we did on Building Regulations and I am a little confused with regards to the 2005 Regulations in terms of ways to comply.
 
Is it like the 1994 and 2001 Regulations where you meet either or all of
1) SAP (1994 only)
2) Target U
3) Elemental Method
4) Carbon Emmissions Rating (2002)  No this should be Carbon Index
 
First the Carbon Index was not used in 1994 – it was brought in SAP 2001.   Both 1994 and 2001 had both the Target U and Elemental Methods for compliance.   In 1994,  the SAP rating was a method for compliance but was dropped in 2001 after it became discredited.
 
Now continuing with your query
 
Except using just
 
Dwelling Emissions Rating
 
for the 2005 regulations.
 
Yes: the Dwelling Emissions Rating must be calculated and must be shown to be less than the Target Emissions Rating (which is in effect a derivative of the original target U value method of previous regulations).
 
Yes also the Carbon Index is no longer used
 
The above is the sole main compliance requirement.  However the following criteria must also be considered by the planning authorities to ensure compliance
 
 
 
1) Limits on flexibility of design – i.e. you can no longer achieve compliance by putting in a super efficient boiler for example into a poorly insulated fabric – In the past a problem arose with this approach as the heating system may be replaced in the future with an inferior one making a nonsense of the regulations. 
2) Consider Solar Gain – overheating can occur in super insulated buildings leading to air-conditioning requirements in summer thereby partly negating benefits of super low energy in winter.
3) Quality of Performance - Pressure Testing.  This is tending to become more common practice and will often be as a percentage of new houses, not necessarily every one.
4) Providing Information – HIPs.   This will eventually come,  but at present no one knows how this will be done,  but a benefit will be is that it will give information on actual as opposed to predicted performance