Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I think its a permanent free license. I have had my FSAP 2009 and then FSAP 2012 free license for at least 5 years; not come across any 30 day limitation. The only drawback of the free version is that reports end up with 'Draft' watermarked across them - and you can't use the free version for filing EPCs.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, ActivePassive said:

The only drawback of the free version is that reports end up with 'Draft' watermarked across them - 

 

True, but it's on a separate layer and, from memory, can easily be removed using Acrobat or another PDF editor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, jack said:

 

True, but it's on a separate layer and, from memory, can easily be removed using Acrobat or another PDF editor.

 

 

Yes, I can confirm that the "draft" is just a graphic on a separate layer.   Any decent pdf editor will be able to remove it.  If you have a problem finding one, you can use PDF Pro online to edit it: https://www.pdfpro.co/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The cat's been out of the bag for years, as I remember finding out how easy it was to remove back in 2013, and it being discussed on the old Ebuild forum.  I may even have mentioned it in my blog, and suspect I've posted a copy of my de-watermarked design EPC either here or on Ebuild in the past.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Can this software be used for the projected EPC/SAP submitted as part of building regs? I understand that the as built one required for completion needs to be lodged through an approved assessor but I'm unsure on the initial one. I've re-drawn and submitted the majority of my reg documents as part of a redesign but I need to modify our original SAP - If I can do this myself I'm happy to try and learn the software this weekend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd actively encourage everyone to do the design SAP themselves, if they can.  The main reason is that spending a bit of time learning how SAP works gives you a bit better understanding of the things that impact the EPC.  The EPC score is far from being the Holy Grail, though, as you can have an appallingly energy inefficient house with an apparently very good EPC score.  SAP is really optimised for conventional new build houses that "just" meet building regs and that don't have a lot of renewable energy generation. 

 

The latter is a significant flaw, as any house that has been trimmed back, in terms of overall energy efficiency, can be made to meet the building regs requirement by just sticking a few solar panels on the roof - not exactly what was intended when the legislation was framed, the idea was to encourage builders to build more energy efficient homes.

 

Finally, I would take any heating requirement figure that you get from SAP with a pinch of salt, if you're building to significantly better than building regs standard.  Our as-built SAP worksheet shows a heating requirement that is just over double our actual heating requirement, for example.  If I'd been daft enough to use the SAP heating requirement to size our heating system it would have more than double the capacity, and would consequently have cost a fair bit more.

Edited by JSHarris
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
On 22/10/2017 at 08:41, JSHarris said:

I'd actively encourage everyone to do the design SAP themselves, if they can. 

 

Jeremy, it was a worthwhile exercise for me, but this comes with a heavy health warning: the house building going on in our area (MK / S Northants) is crazy at the moment and local SAP EPC consultancies just aren't interested in the hassle of doing the as-built if they can't do the as-designed / as-built bundle. So finding someone involved research and ringing around, and in the end I took up @PeterW's referral.  This wasn't a cost saving for me, and I still have to follow through to submission.

 

I don't care what the result is so long as we hit minimum Part L compliance. I don't want to waive a A rating round or whatever.  I am going to be living in the house hopefully for decades, so the certification itself is purely a tick-in-box exercise for me. I know how my house performs in reality and this is in the top %1 of housing stock in the area. 

 

I also really object to my house getting marked down because our planning officer told me that we wouldn't get planning permission if we put PV on our roof because it wasn't in keeping with the street scene.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have the contact details, as I offered to send you via PM if you wanted it on the other thread, for the chap that did our as-built SAP.  I just emailed him the Stroma file plus some other documents, like a copy of the air test report, and he did the as-built and lodged the EPC for me.  He's in Manchester, so just did everything via an exchange of a couple of emails.  He turned it around in a couple of days, IIRC, and charged £100 plus VAT.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too late for me, now.  Sorry.   I had to toss the dice, and chose.  Peter had already given me the contact details for his guy, and he was willing to do the work, so I agreed.  It wasn't worth wasting their and my time to shop around further.  I've just sent him the data pack. 

 

I guess it depends on the individual BInsp, and no doubt some will be hot on double checking, but for ours this seems to be more of a tick on the box exercise.  I just need the EPC lodged and the reports need to show Part L compliance.  What I find so frustrating here is that the likes of the main construction firms use internal company-employed inspectors and template based SAP and EPCs: this a type 22 house so the EPC is X (even though a third of the insulation might be missing).  Anyone taking even the most cursory look at our house can see that it will be top percentile performance, so the certification is simply a paperwork formality.

 

I know that we try to avoid overselling vendors and professional services so some of use tend to PM these sorts of contact info, but especially in this sort of case it would really make it easier for new self-builders to find out a list of SAP/EPC assessors who are willing to work with self builders who have done their own as-designed or whatever.  I know how to use the forum search features, and did do a trawl of post topics on this and to be honest a lot of the useful stuff came up in off-topics where the thread wandered into "you will need your SAP / EPC" asides, but just being able to look at an aggregate summary would be great.

Edited by TerryE
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good idea, I can't see a reason not to post the details for the chap we used, so here they are for future reference:

 

Dan Watt at Ashmount Consulting Engineers Ltd

151 Barlow Moor Road,

Didsbury

Manchester,

M20 2YA

email dan.w(at)ashmount.net (replace the obvious anti-spam change)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

i am resurrecting this thread as i am going through this process, very simple question to start (i couldn't find a user manual for the software).

 

In the dimensions, i am presuming that the areas are the building footprint including external walls, and the 'total living area' is the internal habitable areas (no garages) not including external walls (though for ease including internal walls?)

 

Also my house has a flat roof, does this mean i need to tick the room in roof box?

image.png.bcfed0b7886d9be16e522bfdad9b1f97.png

 

Edit these are internal areas

image.png.c41ff83c2f93b344e9703f56a439ac7a.png

 

in regards to a flat roof, the room in roof box should be unticked

 

image.png.53013bd41b3cd1dfb667cdcad8b972e6.png

 

image.png.eaceed330303760dec339bf657d4d5aa.png

image.png.7e8579c5e82301c34062a1f8498f75b2.png

 

Some really good guidance as below;

 

https://www.bre.co.uk/filelibrary/SAP/2012/SAP-2012_9-92.pdf

 

 

Edited by Moonshine
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well when i thought i was getting somewhere, i have hit a brick wall.

 

After putting all information in i end up with a EPC of 76 and 73 (Efficiency / Impact), which is quite surprising.

 

Also the DER is 27, where as the TER is 17, so its miles over. 

 

So the question is, what is the problem with the house design, or how i have entered the information.

 

U-values as follows;

  • Walls - 0.17
  • Floor - 0.12
  • Roof - 0.12
  • Windows - 1.4

Do these need to be reduced, or are they in the right ball park for a decent EPC?

 

One thing i have noticed in one of the reports is that the space and water heating requirements is nearly 18,000 kWh's per year, based on a 89% efficient gas boiler for CH and water.

 

That seems very excessive, and could it be an indication of an error of input information?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Difficult to tell. TER looks to be in the right ballpark for gas fired heating. Read the SAP document carefully as most answers are in there. Possible errors are air infiltration rate, treatment of linear thermal bridges, thermal mass, boiler efficiency, heating controls...I’ve not used the Stroma software for a long time but would imagine it would give an error message for anything totally out of step with SAP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...