Have benchmarks for energy efficiency been published in parallel to the revised Building Regulations?
A. No. General benchmarks for overall energy efficiency have been published as such. However, the notional building used as the basis of setting the CO2 target provides a specific benchmark, in that it represents the performance of a building of the same size, shape and usage pattern as the actual building constructed to the elemental standards set out in the 2002 editions of the Approved Documents for Part L. The proposed building must be 20% better than the notional building in the case of new dwellings and from 23.5% to 28% better for other buildings dependent upon whether air conditioning etc is proposed. See Table 1 in ADL2A.
