Property

Energy bars

Measures to lower costs and reduce energy use in new construction as well as provide renewable sources are here to stay. John Cahill outlines the investment required against prospective future gains

The impact of the new measures will become apparent in the amount of research needed for planning permissions and to get your cost budgets properly calculated. Planning applications 20 years ago consisted of three or four documents; today there are 25 or more, and the cost of the entire enterprise is sizable.

This is because you have to calculate how you are going to achieve the targets set under BREEAM (the local authority is going to ask you) or, under the London initiatives, laid out by the current mayor. Ken hits higher targets than anywhere else in the country and, hardly being the bedfellow of independent education, is likely to see your school as a suitable case for objection, should the opportunity arise (and he has the legal right to do so for certain projects in the GLA area).

Costs versus savings
There are eight categories under which renewables appear in planning documents. The information presented here about capital cost, running cost and availability may be different in two months’ time and may be markedly different in a year.

The key points:
• Natural ventilation: design your building to cool naturally with a passive ventilation system and “night cooling”;
• Wind turbines: very appealing to planning authorities, very expensive and don’t generate much energy, but are just about cost-effective as part of a package;
• Photovoltaics: again, appealing to planning authorities but possibly the most ineffective as a capital investment.
We will see huge technological leaps in the next five years as companies invest in it. If the cost comes down and the efficiency goes up, this could be significant, but I wouldn’t recommend it yet;
• Solar water heating: this is one of the most cost-effective renewable energy systems available, but you need the right orientation, with the plant in view of the sun;
• Biomass biofuel: crops grown to make energy pellets or waste crop products or biocrops such as oilseed rape. Boiler sizes are going down, availability is increasing and biocrops are becoming more readily available. Put this high on your list;
• CHP (combined heat and power): this is a way to generate electricity and heat simultaneously which increases the energy output of the fuel you use from 40 to 75 per cent efficiency. It depends, however, on the size of the building, location of plant etc, but should be on your shopping list;
• Rainwater harvesting: this requires capital investment and a payback period, but if you invest the capital it will pay back in about 12 years; and
• Ground source heat recovery: this is one of the most used sources at the moment, but it is being overtaken by biomass.

Counting the cost
You have to invest to save. Typically of central government, they demand a lot with capital-funded projects, but actually don’t give any more money (or very little) to do it with, so modern state buildings simply don’t incorporate them. However, in the independent sector, if you are prepared to play the long game, some serious investment in the cost of your building will reduce your costs in the future and is to be thoroughly recommended.

We are in that twilight zone where the technology is new and developing, but over the next two to three years there will be much greater clarity, a bigger marketplace and a greater willingness to take this matter extremely seriously.

John Cahill is managing director of Barnsley Hewett and Mallinson. John can be contacted on jc@bhmarchitects.com

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