Building Regulations Space Data

This part of the interface deals with building regulations data relating to a specific room of the building.

Building regulations Space Data is accessed by two routes:

1.     for all rooms - via the <VE> Compliance view menu option ‘Settings/Building Regulations/Building Regs Space Data’

2.     for an individual room - via the Building Regs tab on the Space Data dialogue

Building regulations Space Data is not stored in any template and must be entered separately for each room.

Tick this box to include the room in the building regulations analysis. By switching off rooms using this box you can perform separate analyses on different parts of the model.

If an included room is adjacent to an excluded room, or a room in an inactive layer, there is assumed to be no heat loss through the partition.

Using this selector you can specify certain special types of room identified in the Approved Document, or indicate that a room represents a glazing cavity:

Heated space – includes plant rooms, lift-wells, untreated store rooms, ceiling voids, etc.

Unheated space with pitched roof and insulation between rafters – treated as part of the roof of the space(s) below, with an Elemental Method U-value limit of 0.2 or 0.18 (Table 1 to J3.2 – dwellings – or Table 1 to J8.3 – non-dwellings).

Unheated roof space with pitched roof and insulation between joists – treated as part of the roof of space(s) below with an Elemental Method U-value limit of 0.16 (Table 1 to J8.3 or Table 1 to J8.3).

Room-in-the-roof as material alteration – this room type is for use in the Part L regulations for England and Wales. Section 6 will treat such a room as a heated space.

Glazing cavity – windows, rooflights & doors connecting heated rooms with this space will be treated as external. This type is included to cover cases where a glazing cavity is treated for modelling purposes as a separate space.

Other unheated space or space with low level (<= 25W/m2) of heating – not subject to Section 6 checks (Section 6 Introduction, Regulation 22) treated as part of the fabric for calculation of heat loss from adjacent spaces using BS EN ISO 13789:1999^[2] (paragraph J2.3).

Dwelling living area – identifies all or part of the living area of a dwelling for the Section 6 Carbon Index (SAP) Method. For a Carbon Index analysis, at least one room must be designated Dwelling living area.

Unheated, separated dwelling conservatory – identifies an unheated, separated conservatory, principally for Part L1 (England and Wales). For definitions of conservatory and separation see ADL1 paragraphs 1.58-1.62 and SAP 2001^[3] section 3.3.3. If this room type is used in Section 6, glazed partitions between heated rooms and unheated, separated conservatories are treated as external glazing for the purposes of solar gain accounting in the Section 6 Target U-value Method and the Carbon Index Method. For all Section 6 methods an unheated dwelling conservatory is treated as part of the fabric for the calculation of heat loss from adjacent spaces.

Dwelling conservatory ≤ 30 m² (Scotland) – identifies a dwelling conservatory of no more than 30m² floor area. Such conservatories are allowed a U-value of up to 3.3 W/m²/K in the Section 6 Elemental Method, and are ignored for the purpose of calculating the dwelling mean U-value in the Section 6 Target U-value Method. It should be borne in mind that a room of this type will be treated as a heated space in the Carbon Index Method, and a more favourable result for this method may be obtained by assigning the type ‘Unheated, separated dwelling conservatory’ where there is separation as defined in SAP 2001^[3]  section 3.3.3. A heated conservatory of more than 30m² floor area should be assigned the type ‘Heated space’.

This parameter applies only to unheated spaces, including those of type Glazing cavity. It allows for the calculation of the transmission heat loss coefficient through the space from adjacent heated spaces using BS EN ISO 13789:1999^[2].