SO – What are the new Parts S & O of the Building Regulations

SO – What are the New Parts S & O of the Building Regulations about?

By insulatedwalls – Jan 22

The Government have recently introduced two new parts to the Building Regulations, those being Part S and Part O, (SO) what are these and is there any affect to our industry?

Part S – Infrastructure for the charging of electric vehicles

On face of it, this new regulation could be easily overlooked by the insulated walls industry as not being very relevant to what we do, but dig a little deeper and there are some points of interest.

For new dwellings the regulation stipulates the following.

Where associated parking spaces are provided for a new residential building, the number of associated parking spaces that have access to an electric vehicle charge point must be a minimum of either of the following.

1. The number of associated parking spaces.
2. The number of dwellings that the car park serves.

NOTE: Where no associated parking spaces are provided, there is no requirement to install an electric vehicle charge point.

Therefore, with new dwellings the accommodation of an electric charging point will have to be provided the following apply.

1. The associated parking space is not within a covered car park.
2. The average connection cost for each electric vehicle charge point connection is less than £3600, determined according to paragraph 1.5

Major renovations of residential buildings

For a residential building where all of the following apply, electric vehicle charge points should be provided for the associated parking spaces.

a. Major renovation work is being done.

b. The main purpose of the major renovation work is not to improve the fire safety of the walls or roof of the building.

c. When work is complete, there will be more than 10 associated parking spaces for the use of the dwellings.

d. Renovation work includes any of the following works carried out within the site boundary of the building.

i. Substantial work to the car park, such as resurfacing.

ii. Work to the electrical infrastructure of the car park.

iii. Work to the electrical infrastructure of the building, where the car park is located within the building

In the main this standard will have very little affect on our industry, with the exception of a few new details to accommodate the charging points  and access to the power supply as well as the fixings requirements into external wall insulation and insulated concrete formwork, both of which already have typical solutions.

Part O – Overheating

Whilst Part S of the Building Regulations really has no impact on our industry as such, Part O is a slightly different matter.

Part O is all about the mitigation of risk of overheating, in particular with the development of the Future Homes Standard, which is scheduled to be introduced by 2025 and will require a much higher level of thermal efficient building fabrics. This higher level of thermal insulation for the building introduces a potential issue of overheating, which has to be designed out of the building and hence Part O has been developed.

The intention of Part O is to protect the health and welfare of the occupants of the building by reducing the occurrence of high indoor temperatures. This is to be done by

1. Limiting unwanted solar gains in summer.
2. Providing adequate means for the removal of excess heat from the indoor environment.

To comply with this standard, two methods will be adopted, the simplified and dynamic thermal modelling methods.

Simplified

For the simplified method, the strategy to reduce the overheating risk should be selected according to the location of the new residential building and whether it has cross-ventilation.

Dynamic Thermal Modelling (DTM)

Provides a standardised approach to predicting overheating risk for residential buildings using dynamic thermal modelling as an alternative to the simplified method. DTM enables thermal modelling of every aspect of thermal performance, from annual energy consumption to individual surface temperatures.

Part O interacts with many other parts of the Building Regulations including Parts B, F, J, L, K, M and Q and whilst not have a direct impact on our industry is a subsequence of providing greater thermal performance for buildings.

If you would like to find out more about these regulations, then please click on the links below to access the full document.

Part S

Infrastructure for charging electric vehicles: Approved Document S (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Part O

Overheating: Approved Document O (publishing.service.gov.uk)