Thursday 23 August 2018

SAP 10 - Big Changes Afoot for Solar

Image: Viridian Solar


A new version of the Government's Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) for the calculation of energy use in dwellings has been published and it contains a number of changes to the way the impact of solar technologies is assessed. 

The key outputs of the calculation described in SAP are:

Dwelling Emission Rate (DER) - the carbon emissions from energy use to heat the house, provide hot water and power lighting, pumps and ventilation. It is expressed in kgCO2 per square metre of floor area per year.

SAP Score - a figure rating the energy costs normalised by floor area to heat the house , provide hot water and power lighting, pumps and ventilation. A house with a score of 100 has energy cost of zero each year, a house with a score of 0 has huge energy costs. The scores from 0-100 are divided into bands corresponding to EPC ratings from 'A' to 'G'

Fabric Energy Efficiency (FEE) - the space heating requirements for the dwelling in kWh/m2

Energy Consumption per Unit Floor Area - which can exclude plug-in appliances (as the above measures do), or include an allowance for appliances and electrical equipment.

Not Just for New Build

SAP is used to calculate the energy efficiency of newly built homes to meet Building Regulations. New homes must currently have a Fabric Energy Efficiency and Dwelling Emission Rate below a mandatory maximum.

Through Reduced Dataset SAP (or RdSAP), the calculation is also used to generate Energy Performance Certificates for existing properties. Over time the SAP rating of homes has become embedded in a range of government initiatives and incentives, for example EESSH in Scotland requires that all social rented homes in Scotland achieve a minimum SAP score by a certain date, and access to preferential Feed in Tariffs are linked to the house having an EPC rating higher than D.

What's Changed?

Carbon Intensity of Grid Electricity



The electricity grid has decarbonised with the move away from coal burning power stations and greater input from gas fired generation and from renewables (see my blog on this subject here). The proposal is to reduce the carbon intensity of electricity from 0.519kgCO2/kWh in SAP 2012 to 0.233 kgCO2/kWh in SAP10.

Discussion

This is a huge (55%) reduction compared to the current version of SAP, and lower than the figure consulted upon (0.398 gCO2/kWh). However, it is only a reflection of the huge progress that has been made in decarbonising the grid.

The impact for solar photovoltaics is that solar systems will need to be more than double the size of current systems to produce the same carbon benefit in the calculation, which could reduce the competitiveness of solar PV as a means of meeting building regulations. SAP10 will only be brought into use for the next update to the Building Regulations, and government will need to carefully consider whether it is now time to change the primary focus of the regulations away from emissions and towards energy consumption (like for appliances).

For example, emissions from mains gas will be 0.210kgCO2/kWh in SAP10. When you take into account efficiency losses from burning gas in a boiler to heat a house, developers will be able to achieve the same dwelling emissions rate using simple electric heating instead of gas - for example panel heaters and a hot water tank with immersion heater. It may be possible to remove the whole wet heating system and gas supply from new homes, yielding considerable construction and maintenance savings, but possibly saddling house buyers with unaffordable energy bills (unless, perhaps, solar is also fitted).


Export of Solar Generated Electricity

The value of exported electricity in SAP10 is 3.8p/kWh, whereas the cost of grid electricity is 16.6p/kWh on standard tariff. In SAP2012, exported solar electricity is assumed to be of the same value as electricity bought by the householder (which was dubiously justified by the existence of Feed in Tariffs - despite that in solar schemes for social tenants the tariffs went to financiers).

SAP2012 also assumed that 50% of generated electricity was used in the house (called the beta-factor) and 50% exported.  While this generally accepted assumption has started to look rather shaky as installed solar systems got larger, it didn't really matter because the value of exported electricity was the same as the saving made for energy not bought from the grid.

For SAP10, a more sophisticated treatment of the beta factor is used. The proportion of energy used in the house is now a function of the size of the solar system's energy output as a proportion of the energy demand. Larger solar systems attached to small energy demands will have a smaller beta factor and smaller solar systems attched to a large energy demand will have a higher beta factor. Adding a battery into the property will increase the beta factor.

PV diverters can also contribute towards energy for hot water in SAP10, so long as a battery is not present and the hot water cylinder has a sufficient volume (more than daily demand). 80% of generation, less the beta factor is available for input to the hot water cylinder, and the benefit is further diminished by a factor of 0.9 to take into account increased cylinder losses due to higher average storage temperatures.

Discussion

None of these changes affect the Dwelling Emissions Rate used for current building regulations. Solar PV saves carbon whether the electricity is used in the house or not.

These changes do, however, impact the SAP score and EPC band, as they impact on the calculation of the energy bills associated with the house.

The calculation of the beta factor was derived from a relatively small data-set, some of which was provided to BRE by the Solar Trade Association. An industry group is working to develop a much more comprehensive set of data to improve confidence in the value that SAP produces and to feed into the Microgeneration Certification Scheme guidance to solar / battery installers.



Shading

The PV shading penalty has been increased, that for solar thermal remains unchanged.

SAP2012 applies the following penalties to energy production - Modest shade 0.8, Significant shade 0.65, Heavy shade 0.5

SAP10 modifies as follows - Modest shade 0.5, Significant shade 0.35, Heavy shade 0.2
As an alternative the MCS overshading figure can be used.

Discussion

Industry were concerned about a complex two-step shading calculation process that was proposed in the consultation, and it seems that these concerns were noted, albeit with what look like penalty default values for systems with shading.


Hot Water Demand

A new, more complex calculation for domestic hot water demand reflects the growing importance of this area of energy consumption as increased insulation levels drive down space heating requirements. This is an area that the solar industry has been lobbying for change.

The new calculation takes into account the higher flow rates and lower inlet temperatures associated with the now more common mains hot water showers (either from pressurised hot water cylinders or combi boilers), when compared with header-tank fed systems.

Inlet temperatures have also been reduced for both header tank and mains fed systems as a result of input from the solar industry (by 2-3 degrees).

Discussion

I calculated a 10% increase in hot water demand for mains pressure fed systems compared to SAP2012. The decrease in inlet temperature will add a further 5% or so to the energy required to heat the water.

An increase in the assumed hot water energy will be welcomed by the solar thermal industry in particular, but higher general energy consumption will aid all energy producing technologies.



Solar Thermal Space Heating

In previous versions of SAP, solar thermal could only be applied to meeting hot water demand, which created an restriction on its potential contribution to household energy demands.

The Solar Trade Association proposed EN 15316-4-3 as a potential route to the inclusion of solar space heating in addition to solar water heating, and provided BRE with guidance and assistance in assessing the new method.

The published version of SAP 10 did not include details of the new method as testing was not complete at the time of publication, so the solar thermal appendix currently has holding text. I will be able to discuss more about how the new calculation works and the results it gives once the final version is revealed.

Discussion

The solar industry will welcome that SAP includes solar space heating. Less for the opportunities it brings in new build (where space heating demands are limited due to high levels of insulation), rather for the possibilities it opens up to improve the EPC ratings of existing properties with high space heating demand. The domestic Renewable Heat Incentive only supports solar water heating at present due to there being no approved method of 'deeming' (calculating) the expectd savings. The new SAP methodology will open up the enticing prospect of solar themal payments under dRHI linked to heat generated for both water and space heating.