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Draft amendment to Ordinance No. 7 on energy efficiency of buildings

21/06/2017

Draft amendment to the Ordinance on the energy efficiency of buildings was published at the website of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works.

According to the announced draft Ordinance to amend and supplement Ordinance No. 7 of 2004 on the energy efficiency of buildings, published on 20 June 2017 at the website of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (see more here), amendments to the ordinance are envisaged.

 

REASONS FOR AMENDING THE REGULATION

1) The adoption of the normative act is required due to the need to bring Ordinance No. 7 of 2004 in line with the EEA amendments from December 2016.

2) The need to regulate the tolerance of the values of the thermal transmittance through the surrounding building envelope with an argument for more accurate implementation of the ordinance.

3) The need to clarify the concept of "energy demand" in the various applications of energy generation in buildings (and to reflect the increasing use of heat pumps).

4) The need for editorial changes – the requirements for the development of the Energy Efficiency part were supplemented with respect to the required design competency of the individuals who develop this project part, achieving terminological compliance, completing the list of standards, etc.

CHANGES (extract)

1) § 1. in Art. 1, Para. 3 replaces § from 1 to 7 with the summary "(The Ordinance does not apply to) buildings that fall under the exceptions of Art. 38, Para. 1 of the Energy Efficiency Act");

2) References to ordinances and standards with outdated names are corrected with current names:

3) In Art. 4, Para. 3, Item 5 the words "conditioned systems" are replaced by "air conditioning systems".

4) In Art. 6, Para. 1, Item 4, concerning A+ energy class, is annulled;

5) In Art. 7 the statement concerning the treatment of mixed-use zones (different thermal zones) within the buildings is refined

6) Art. 13а. is amended as follows: "The values of thermal transmittance through building envelope bordering the outside air of new buildings and in the places of renovation/repair/reconstruction of existing buildings, except in the cases referred to in Article 4, Para. 6, may not exceed by more than 10 percent the referenced values in Table 1 and Table 2".

7) Art. 25:

- In Para. 1, Item 3, it is specified that the changed energy performance for reconstruction above 25% are for the building envelope and/or energy performance of the systems for microclimate maintenance of the building.

- Para. 4, a separate "Energy Efficiency" part could be drafted as long as it is provided with the design assignment.

- Para. 5 is drawn up, according to which, when it is not necessary to design a separate "Energy Efficiency" part, the calculations of the technical indicators under Art. 4, Para. 5 and 6 shall apply to the "Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning" part and, where the project does not include such part, the calculations shall be applied to the "Architecture" part.

8) In Art. 26, Para 1 and in Art. 27a, Para. 2, Item 3 in the phrase "draft energy performance certificate", the word "draft" is deleted and after the phrase "for a new building" (in the order of the EEA) is added.

- It Art. 26, Para. 3: the statement for the integrated indicator is refined to "specific annual primary energy consumption in kWh/m2 conditioned floor area of the building"

9) In Art. 27, "heated/cooled area and volume" is refined to "heated area, cooled volume area, conditioned area, gross and net volume". And Para. 2 is supplemented with the requirement that the EE part, in the phase of technical and work design, shall contain all necessary data for completing the template and issue of a certificate for new building energy performance. Para. 4 is supplemented with the statement "The conformity assessment with the energy efficiency requirement may also be carried out as part of the due diligence report under Art. 142, Para. 6, Item 2 of the Spatial Planning Act, when the condition of Art. 142, Para. 11 of the SDA is met."

10) In the Additional Provisions, some definitions were corrected and extended:

- "net energy needed" excludes the requirement for the provision of regulatory parameters;

- "energy needed" is amended to "gross energy needed" and its definition is changed;

- "new building" shall be called any newly constructed building up to 6 years after its commissioning.

- changes are made to the concepts "industrial system", "overhaul".

11) In Annex No. 3 to Art. 5 "Calculation methodology of energy consumption and energy performance of buildings indicators", the text to Item 3.1. General Principles is amended.

12) In the "Transitional and Final Provisions", the explanatory text on where the Ordinance applies is added.