BEAM Plus New Buildings

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BEAM PLUS FOR NEW B UILDINGS E NERGY USE (E U)
V ERSION 1.2
Copyright © 2012 BEAM Society Limited. All rights reserved.
Page 90
EU1 OPTION 2
ALTERNATIVE ROUTE:
PASSIVE DESIGN
EU1 Option 2 Alternative Route: Passive design has been included in the
assessment procedure to provide the practitioner with an alternative
method to quantify the benefits of passive building design. It considers
the following aspects:
 Site planning and building operation;
 Envelope heat transfer;
 Natural ventilation;
 Daylight design; and
 Common area servicing.
It encompasses EU1: Reduction of CO2 Emissions, EU2: Peak Electricity
Demand Reduction and EU13: Energy Efficient Building Layout from the
conventional assessment; these credits should not be assessed when
following this route to prevent double counting. The same total numbers
of credits are available from both routes.
BACKGROUND Electricity generation accounts for around 60% of the total CO2
emissions from energy use in Hong Kong, and buildings, particularly air-
conditioned buildings, account for more than half of the electricity
consumed each year. Ensuring buildings are designed for good energy
performance is the key to the conservation of resources and reductions
in environmental loadings.
Power stations operate under licences issued by the Director of
Environmental Protection, requiring operators to employ Best Practicable
Means to control emissions to acceptable levels. However, a growth in
demand is resulting in the construction of further generation,
transmission and distribution capacity. Mainly because of air-
conditioning, buildings are responsible for much of the peak load that
occurs around midday during summer months. Demand side
management can reduce the rate of expansion of supply-side capacity
and emissions to the atmosphere.
4.P PREREQUISITE EU P1 MINIMUM ENERGY PERFORMANCE
BACKGROUND BEAM provides incentives to achieve energy performance better than
the minimum compliance with the local energy codes. Consequently,
compliance with the Building Energy Codes (BEC), a government
initiative currently under review for mandatory implementation, is taken
as the energy performance prerequisite for BEAM certification, unless
otherwise agreed by the BEAM Society Limited.
BEC currently refers to four other Codes of Practice for Energy
Efficiency, namely Air-conditioning Code [1], Lighting Code [2], Electrical
1 Electrical and Mechanical Services Department. Code of Practice for Energy Efficiency of Air Conditioning Installations
(2007 Edition) and the subsequent amendment
2 Electrical and Mechanical Services Department. Code of Practice for Energy Efficiency of Lighting Installations (2007
Edition) and the subsequent amendment
ANNUAL ENERGY USE AND
MAX ELECTRICITY DEMAND
S YSTEMS+E QUIPMENT
PERFORMANCE
P ROVISIONS FOR
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
ENERGY USED FOR AIR-CONDITIONING (HEATING AND COOLING)THE
BUILDING /PREMISES
+
ENERGY USED FOR LIGHTING, E QUIPMENT, SMALL POWER