Energy Performance of Buildings (Scotland) Regulations 2025: non-domestic buildings research
This research presents an illustrative comparison between the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ratings of five archetypal non-domestic buildings in Scotland when calculated using the current and revised rating systems.
Modelling Test Cases
For use as the archetypal building test cases in the comparative modelling exercise, HBD provided BRE with the EPC XML files of fie ‘real’ buildings, which had been modelled using the iSBEM software and whose EPCs had been lodged on the Scottish Registry. The anonymised test cases are listed in Table 1.
We extracted the ‘NCT’ file from each of the XML files. The NCT file is the iSBEM file format where all the geometry, construction, and building services data (as originally input by the Energy Assessor) for the building model had been stored. This is the data required by the software in order to estimate the energy demand and consumption in the building, as well as the corresponding CO2 emissions.
| Test case identifier | Building type | Total floor area [m2] |
|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen Office | B1 Offices and Workshop businesses | 477.4 |
| Aberdeen Storage | B8 Storage or Distribution | 343.3 |
| Dundee School | D1 Non-residential Institutions - Education | 4862.7 |
| Kyle Industrial | B2 to B7 General Industrial and Special Industrial Groups | 158.7 |
| Wick Retail | A1/A2 Retail and Financial/Professional services | 43.5 |
We ran the energy and emissions calculations for the five building models in iSBEM_v6.1.e and generated the current EPC rating and energy band for each of the buildings.
Then, we converted the five NCT files to v6.2.a (using the conversion tool) and ran the energy and emissions calculations for the five models in iSBEM_v6.2.a, generating the revised EPC rating and energy band.
Contact
Email: EPCenquiries@gov.scot