Thermal Engineering Services

The thermal solution for your project is perhaps the key design consideration when building a new home. The Building Standards sets out the minimum levels of thermal performance required for your house design/s dependent on the fuel type being used and various other Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) solutions (e.g. Mechanical Ventilation and Heat Recovery System, Air / Ground Source Heat Pump, Photovoltaics (PV) etc.).

Many customers wish to achieve a higher level of thermal performance / energy efficiency to reduce energy costs, CO₂ emissions, future proof their investment and achieve a high standard energy rating within the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).

Scotframe believe in the principles of a Fabric First solution and strongly advise the house holder investing in a high as possible thermal envelope.

SAP Calculations
Scotframe can supply three types of SAP Calculations:

• Estimating SAP Calculation: Initial SAP Calculations to give the customer an indication of various options, including options that will achieve compliance with the current Building Standards.
• Design SAP Calculation: This SAP Calculation (Chosen from the various options supplied within the Estimating SAP Calculation) along with all supporting documentation is submitted to the Building Standards as part of the Building Warrant application.
•  ‘As Built’ SAP Calculation: Upon completion or near completion of dwelling a completed signed Developers Statement shall be issued to Scotframe Timber Engineering Ltd to allow the ‘As Built’ SAP Calculation to be completed and the ‘As Built’ EPC to be issued along with all supporting documentation.

Thermal Bridging
Thermal bridging heat loss through the buildings thermal envelope can account for approximately 25% of the total heat loss from a dwelling. Scotframe Timber Engineering Ltd have developed / designed their own details which significantly reduces thermal bridging. Thermal bridging is measured by virtue of *Psi(ᴪ) values W/mK, Scotframe’s Psi values will give a significant improvement on the default values for each of these junctions. This will improve the **Y along with the overall thermal envelope of the dwelling.

Default Psi (ᴪ) values for a typical bungalow would achieve – 0.14 W/m²K
Scotframe Psi (ᴪ) values for a typical bungalow would achieve – 0.04 W/m²K
This is giving circa 25% of a saving in CO₂ emissions.

* Psi(ᴪ) values are a measurement of the cold bridging between elements.
** Y Value is the combination of the total Psi(Y) values within a dwelling construction.

Compliance with Building Regulations
Scotframe Timber Engineering Ltd can offer two methods of complying with the current Building Standards.

1. Scotframe have in-house approved Certifiers of Design for Section 6 – Energy and these certificates can be issued to Building Standards to sign off Section 6. If this certificate is used/issued at the time of the Building Warrant submission with the local authority, there is a 10% saving to be had on the Building Warrant fee and this method will also speed up the application as the local authority do not need to verify and of the supplied documentation’s as this information has been issued by a suitable qualified person and company body. This method will also include all of the Design SAP calculation documentation.

Design SAP calculation including all the relevant documentation can be issued to Building Standards for signing off. The local authority verifier will check all the submitted documentation, which will take longer and the 10% discount on the Building Warrant fee is not availably using this method of compliance.