Overview of VE-SBEM interface features

L2 (2013/2014) SBEM constitutes one of the Regulatory Frameworks covered by the VE Compliance view of the Virtual Environment. A brief summary of its features follows.

Interface features shared with other Regulatory Frameworks

The VE Compliance view covers the following Regulatory Frameworks, which may be selected using the Regulatory Framework (Regs) selector on the VE Compliance toolbar:

· Part L2 (2010) – England/Wales

· Part F (2012) – N Ireland

· Section 6 (2013) – Scotland

· Part L1 (SAP 9.80) – England/Wales

· Part L2 (2013) – England

· Part L2 (2014) - Wales

· UK Dwellings

The VE Compliance view offers the following Methods, which may be selected using the Method selector on the VE Compliance toolbar:

· ApacheSim - compliance

· ApacheSim - EPC

· SBEM - compliance

· SBEM - EPC

This Guide covers the last two methods above, in conjunction with selecting Part L2 (2013/2014) from the Regulatory Framework (Regs) selector on the toolbar.

The different Regulations all share core features of the VE Compliance view, such as the model workspace, the browsers, the menus and the toolbars. For a description of these please consult the VE Compliance View User Guide.

Actual, notional and reference buildings

Under the SBEM method, the actual, notional and reference buildings are generated within SBEM and their properties cannot be viewed.

Building regulations Space Data

Data relating to individual rooms is entered via the Space Data tabs. General Building Regulations data, such as the room ‘activity’, is specified on the Building Regulations tab. SBEM specific data, including all Lighting data is also entered on this tab.

Other tabs specify data for room conditioning, systems and Transpire Solar Collectors.

Editing of Space Data can be done via Tabular Space Data:

The internal gain data for the room’s Building type and Activity is read by SBEM from its own copy of the NCM database, so Space Data’s Internal gain and Air exchange tabs are not visible (as they would be for the ApacheSim method).

HVAC and hot water systems

HVAC and hot water systems for SBEM are described using counterparts of the parameters appearing in the iSBEM interface.

Building regulations construction data

Building regulations data relating to constructions (for instance, whether a window is classified as display glazing) is entered via fields labelled ‘Building Regulations’ within the construction data dialogs in CDB.

Part L2 analysis and results

The Part L2 analysis and results dialog on the lower edge of the VE Compliance view is divided into two tabs:

· Part L2 (2013) - England - Analysis: facilities for specifying the Part L2 analysis to be performed. In the case of Part L2 (2014) Wales, this will be labelled ‘Part L2 (2014) - Wales – Analysis’.

· Results: facilities for viewing the results of the analysis

The content of the first of these tabs depends on the room selection.

When at least one room is selected it displays editable data for the NCM activities assigned to the selected rooms.

When no room is selected it provides access to the Building & System Data dialog, which displays data at building or system level required by the BRUKL compliance and EPC generation modules, together with thermal bridging data.

In either case the tab also displays options for running compliance or EPC analyses.

The Results tab displays the results of the compliance or EPC analysis.