Modern Building Services

12 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES MAY 2022 NEWS ANALYSIS A lmost a decade has passed since the Building Regulations, the holy grail of our industry, underwent a rewrite. In the intervening nine years, a lot has happened, not least six fundamental amendments and a global health pandemic that has profoundly altered how we view indoor air quality and disease transmission risks inside the buildings where we work, live and play. In recent months, you may have heard some rumblings about fresh changes to Part F (ventilation standards and air quality requirements) and Part L (fuel and power conservation). The changes are being made specifically in response to public consultation on the Future Buildings Standard (FBS). The two- part consultation was concluded in April 2021 and the FBS is due to come into force in 2025. The overarching driving force is the government’s net zero 2050 target, now set in law. As a result, four new Approved Documents (AD) have been published under Part F and L: 1. Volume 1 for dwellings 2. Volume 2 for non-dwellings (commercial and industrial). The rules take effect on 15 June 2022, with a one-year transition for existing planning applications. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring The first major area to highlight is the introduction of a new ‘Indoor air quality monitoring’ section. Specifically, this covers points 1.21 to 1.23 in AD Part F, Volume 2 (pages 8-9). 1 We welcome this new guidance on monitoring air quality that has surely been forced into existence – perhaps long overdue – by the pandemic and the failings, shortco it has uncovered and turbocharged up everyone’s priority list. The new section makes repeated reference of ‘Occupiable Rooms’ in places like offices, gyms, theatres, hotels – anywhere where “members of the public are likely to gather”. It should be noted that the following areas are not considered as occupiable rooms:“bathrooms, sanitary accommodation, utility rooms or rooms or spaces used solely ormainly for circulation, building services plant or storage purposes”. For offices, outdoor air should be supplied at either 10 litres per second per person (current guidance) or 1 litre per second per m2 floor area (new guidance) – whichever provides the highest total rate. See 1.32 on page 10. The umbrella advice formonitoring IAQ states:“Thismay be achieved using CO2monitors or othermeans of measuring indoor air quality.” At S&P supplies, we’ve recently launched our AirSens range of intelligent wireless IAQ sensors. They benefit from in-built demand- controlled ventilation and work by sending a signal to ventilation systems to increase airflow rates if a spike is detected in CO2, volatile organic compound (VOC) or relative humidity (RH). ➜ Ian Davis , Technical Manager at ventilation specialists S&P UK, casts his near 40-year expert eye over incoming changes to Building Regulations Part F and L and unpicks three important areas for HVAC professionals before they come into force in Summer 2022. 3 changes to Building Regs Part F and L that you need to know before the summer