Further to our recent MEES training by Peter Rowley which I thought was excellent, there were a couple of general points which came up which I’m still slightly confused about … (they are not specifically related to MEES) its probably just me (and maybe Grahame) … so any advise would be appreciated.
The FIRST is regarding an ‘inaccessible’ space above an office built within a warehouse/workshop, there seems to be 2 different recommended ways of handling it depending upon which AC you talk to … its not usable so you wouldn’t want to include the floor area …
… option 1 is to create it as a separate zone and give it a floor area of 0.1 mtrs but create its envelopes to account for the heat-loss/gain (particularly the external roof).
… option 2 is to include it as part of the larger warehouse zone with an additional floor (to the offices) and to include the wall and roof envelopes above as part of the warehouse-zone.
I’ve used both methods depending upon who you are going to lodge with and presumably it shouldn’t make any difference to the EPC results … option 2 generally seems to be the easiest and most logical way but there are clear printed instructions going around regarding the other method.
My SECOND area of confusion is regarding the ‘default’ conditioning of an adjoining building to which you do not have access and that does not clearly fall into an obvious building classification, should your party walls be to a conditioned or unconditioned space.
Most buildings are obvious but I’ve assessed ‘warehouses’ that have offices build all along the party wall, so without access should I assume that the adjoining building is the same … conversely I’ve had (mainly) offices with goods-in and storage along the party wall and next door seems to be a mirror of my building … … its not always clear but it can make a huge difference to the EPC rating.
The conventions seem to indicate that you should treat it as conditioned if there is any doubt or unknown, but where do you draw the line.
I’ve spoken to AC’s about this and as always it depends who you talk to on any given day … mainly I’m told to use conditioned if I do not know and the precise usage is not clear.
Any other thoughts on these issues ?
Regards
Bryan
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