GloassaryGlossary
A
Accredited/Accreditation
Authorisation, approval or recognition of meeting a standard.
AR - Advisory Report
Also referred to as a Recommendation Report, this is a mandatory document which accompanies an Energy Performance Certificate or Display Energy Certificate. An Advisory Report outlines cost-effective measures for saving energy and recommends various green technologies and the short, medium and long term paybacks which can be expected following implementation.
Air Tightness Testing & Measurement Association (ATTMA)
The Air Tightness Testing and Measurement Association (ATTMA) ensures that its members maintain high standards of service in air leakage testing and measurement applications. All members of ATTMA must be accredited by UKAS in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025, with a scope covering air tightness testing to ATTMA Technical Standard 1 and BS EN:13829 (2001).
ATTMA membership is required to demonstrate competence in the completion of air leakage testing on non-domestic buildings in the UK, in accordance with the current Building Regulations Part L. The alternative (for domestic air testing) is BINDT (the British Institute for Non Destructive Testing.
Developing the role of airtightness evaluation in environmental control. The building industry can make important contributions to reducing the UK's emissions of greenhouse gases if it can design and construct buildings that are less prone to air leakage through the external envelope.
Awarding Body of the Built Environment (ABBE)
ABBE is a specialist awarding body providing nationally recognised qualifications for disciplines within the built environment sector.
B
BER
Building Energy Rating (BER) The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) stipulates that a Building Energy Rating Certificate (BER) be obtained whenever a residential building is put on the market for sale or rent in Ireland.
The BER provides an asset rating for the building, rating its energy efficiency on a scale of A-G, where A is the most efficient and G the least. The result is based upon a survey carried out by a fully qualified and certified energy assessor which takes into account both the buildings fabric and fixed services.
British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT)
The Institute’s aim is to promote and advance the science and practice of non-destructive testing, condition monitoring, diagnostic engineering and all other materials and quality testing disciplines. BINDT runs a recognised competent persons scheme for air leakage testing restricted to domestic properties only. Stroma is one of only two providers currently approved to deliver this training.
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)
The leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance.
C
Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC)
The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) is a proposed mandatory cap and trade scheme in the United Kingdom that will apply to large non energy-intensive organisations in the public and private sectors.
Certification
Certification refers to the confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, or assessment.
Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH)
The Code for Sustainable Homes is an environmental impact rating system for housing in England, setting new standards for energy efficiency (above those in current building regulations)[1] and sustainability which are not mandatory under current building regulations but represent important developments towards limiting the environmental impact of housing.
Communities and Local Government (CLG)
Stroma Accreditation Ltd has been approved by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) to train and accredit energy assessors for existing dwellings, newly constructed dwellings, public buildings and non-domestic buildings
Compliance Testing
Conformance testing or type testing is testing to determine whether a system meets some specified standard.
To aid in this, many test procedures and test setups have been developed, either by the standard's maintainers or external organizations, specifically for testing conformance to standards.
CPD
Continuing Professional Development
D
Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is a British government department created on 3 October 2008 by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take over some of the functions of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (energy) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (climate change)
Design Reiews
A comprehensive review carried out by experiecned air-tightness consultants.
Design Workshops
A simple but effective method of interrogating the air-tightness strategy and key drawn details.
Display Energy Certificate (DEC)
All public buildings require a Display Energy Certificate which shows the energy usage of the building and its overall energy performance on a scale of A-G, where A indicates the highest level of energy efficiency. The rating is calculated using the data gathered from the building’s gas, electricity and water meters. A detailed survey of the building must be performed by a certified assessor and the resulting certificate and Advisory Report (AR) must be lodged by a government-approved certification scheme. The DEC is based on actual gathered operational data.
Stroma was the first company in the UK to lodge a live DEC. Our team of fully employed, certified energy assessors can carry out the survey, generate the certificate and lodge it with the government; Stroma was also the first ‘live’ certification scheme in this field in the UK.
Dynamic Simulation Model (DSM)
Dynamic Simulation Model (DSM) is a form of government-approved software that is used on more complex non-residential properties to produce a more accurate energy appraisal than would be possible using SBEM.
E
Energy Assessment
This refers to the preparation and issuing of an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and the accompanying Recommendation Report (RR) and the carrying out of any inspections undertaken for the purposes of issuing the EPC or RR.
Energy Assessor
An energy assessor is an individual who is a member of an accreditation or certification scheme.
Energy Audit
An energy audit is an inspection, survey and analysis of energy flows in a building, process or system with the objective of understanding the energy dynamics of the system under study. Typically an energy audit is conducted to seek opportunities to reduce the amount of energy input into the system without negatively affecting the output(s).
Energy Management
A continuous planning process that is used to accomplish the efficient use of energy in a building or system.
Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
All commercial properties require an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) which rates the energy efficiency of the building on a scale of A-G, where A signifies the highest level of efficiency. Unlike the DEC (which gives an Operational Rating) the EPC provides an asset rating of the building fabric and fixed services, based on a survey of the building. The survey must be performed by a certified assessor and the resulting certificate and Advisory Report must be lodged by a government-approved accreditation scheme.
Stroma was the first company in the UK to lodge a live commercial EPC. Our team of fully employed, certified energy assessors can carry out the survey, generate the certificate and lodge it with the government. In addition, we were the first live certification scheme in this field.
Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)
The Directive on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD) is the Directive 2002/91/EC (EPBD, 2003) of the European Parliament and Council on energy efficiency of buildings.
I
iSBEM
iSBEM is a freely available software interface program provided by the government which is used for SBEM calculations.
ISO 9001
A family of standards for quality management systems. ISO 9001 is maintained by ISO, the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies
L
Landmark
An information group set up to search EPCs and HCPs.
Life Cycle Costing
A procurement evaluation technique which determines the total cost of acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal of items being acquired.
N
Nil-rated certificate
A certificate obtained for inclusion in the Home Information Pack (HIP) of a dwelling which has not been built to a Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) level.
O
Operational Rating (OR)
A feature on the DECs showing the buildings ratings in certain areas.
P
Pre-test inspections
An inspection, prior to the test, carried out by our consultants who scrutinise the air barrier details throughout the building.
R
RdSAP
Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure (RdSAP) is the government-approved program used to carry out an energy assessment on an existing residential property in order to generate an EPC. The pre-fix ‘reduced data’ acknowledges that the assessor will have to make assumptions about the building - such as age, wall thickness, type of insulation - when carrying out the assessment due to the absence of design information.
Stroma has developed its own industry-leading RdSAP software which is available free of charge to all Stroma-certified DEAs
Retrofit
Retrofitting refers to the addition of new technology or features to older systems. An example of this is car customizing, where older vehicles are fitted with new technologies: power windows, cruise control, remote keyless systems, electric fuel pumps, etc.
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
The Royal Institute of British Architects is the UK body for architecture and the architectural profession. We provide support for our 40,500 members worldwide in the form of training, technical services, publications and events, and set standards for the education of architects, both in the UK and overseas.
S
Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM)
Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM) is the computer program used to produce an evaluation of the monthly carbon emissions of a non-domestic property. It is acknowledged by the government as part of the national methodology for calculating the energy performance of a building and thus is used as the calculation tool for producing non-domestic EPCs.
Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP)
Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP 2005) is the process required for a new residential property at both design stage and upon completion to calculate energy consumption and ensure compliance with Building Regulations. Once the assessment has been carried out on the completed building, an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is issued.
Stroma’s team of fully certified, fully employed energy assessors can carry out the SAP assessment and generate and lodge the EPC. Stroma Accreditation provides training and certification services for on construction domestic energy assessors.
Sustainable Design
Sustainable design (also called environmental design, environmentally sustainable design, environmentally-conscious design, etc) is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.
T
Technology Strategy Board
An organisation set up to push innovation in the UK and make the UK a global leader in innovation.
U
United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS)
Companies assessed are measured against the criteria outlined in the internationally established guidelines, ISO17025. This gives customers/clients confidence in the quality and reliability of a company’s services.
Being UKAS accredited demonstrates that Stroma has an internal quality system in place to ensure that we deliver a consistently high level of service which is in keeping with the government’s criteria. We are one of the largest UKAS accredited testing bodies in the country for air tightness testing and we also hold UKAS accreditation for acoustic testing and the calibration of air tightness testing equipment.
W
Working units (unless otherwise noted)
Area [m²]
Energy [kWh]
Energy density {kWh / m²]
Carbon dioxide emissions [kgCO2]
