Conservation of Fuel and Power

The requirements for the conservation of fuel and energy in Ireland are covered by Part L of the Building Regulations.  New standards for dwellings came into effect in 2003, which meant that low emissivity glass was required in all new and replacement windows in dwellings, and in domestic conservatories.

The Technical Guidance Documents are split into two parts, one for dwellings and the other for non-dwellings.

Technical Guidance Document L for buildings other than dwellings was updated in 2017 to become effective from 1st January 2019.  These changes set energy requirement to achieve Nearly Zero Energy Building performance as required under article 1 of the EU Energy performance of Building Directive 2010/31/EU dated 19th May 2010.

For replacement windows in dwellings in Ireland, there is an independent Window Energy Performance (WEP) Certification scheme.  The WEP rating is provided for a standard window to represent typical window sizes to enable a comparison of the energy performance of different windows.

Solutions to meet the requirements of building regulations include the Pilkington Optitherm™ and Pilkington K Glass™ ranges of low emissivity glass that can be combined with Pilkington Activ™ self-cleaning glass and Pilkington Optiphon™ to give a broad choice of thermal and other properties.  Particularly for non-dwellings, Pilkington Suncool™ is a range of solar control glass products that combine low emissivity glass, low U values with solar control with neutral appearance. 

A recent innovation in energy efficiency is Pilkington energiKare™ Advantage which can provide triple glazing performance in a double glazing. 

To view details of the full Pilkington range of Thermal Insulation glass to help you meet the new Part L regulations please here.