Paul Murphy
Question:647. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the projected cost to build a zero-carbon home. [47231/19]
View answerTuesday, 19 November 2019
Questions (647, 648)
Paul Murphy
Question:648. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the projected cost to build 100,000 zero carbon homes. [47232/19]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 647 and 648 together.
The Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB) requirement will apply to new dwellings commencing construction from November 2019 subject to transition arrangements.
An NZEB dwelling is one that has a very high energy performance, as determined in accordance with Annex I of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive Recast (EPBD Recast) 2010/31/EU of 19th May 2010. The nearly zero or very low amount of energy required should be covered to a very significant extent by energy from renewable sources, including energy from renewable sources produced on-site or nearby.
My Department has progressively updated Part L of the Building Regulations, relating to the Conservation of Fuel and Energy in Dwellings, over the last decade in order to improve the energy and carbon dioxide emissions performance of all new dwellings to achieve these “NZEB” performance levels. Many of the techniques required to achieve NZEB, such as improved fabric and renewables, have been introduced on a gradual basis into Part L of the Building Regulations since 2007.
These incremental improvements have effectively eased the transition and minimised the additional effort required to achieve the NZEB performance for dwellings.
A modelling and cost study was carried out by an external cost economic consultant for the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for NZEB. The range of increase in costs was 0.7% to 4.2% over current construction costs depending on the dwelling types and design specification applied. The average uplift in cost across all dwelling types modelled was 1.9%. Based on this study, typical uplift in cost for a typical semi-detached dwelling will be in the range of 1,483 euro to 3,822 euro depending on the specification of the heating and ventilation system installed.