elphin local area plan 2009 - 2015 - Roscommon County Council

10.25.2 Energy Conservation
Chapter 10: Development Management Guidelines and Standards
Roscommon County Council is committed to encouraging more sustainable development through energy
end-use efficiency in all new building projects. Energy conservation measures should be incorporated into
new development at a pre-design stage so maximum energy savings are yielded. The list below also
contains options for existing buildings to improve the efficiency of their energy consumption. With the
European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive coming into force, these measures should be
implemented where appropriate and feasible. The council shall also be looking to the options as a means
of meeting the national and international targets with regard to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The
following objectives are to be pursued:
• Encouraging responsible environmental management in construction;
• Promoting sustainable approaches to housing developments by spatial planning, layout, design
and detailed specification;
• Ensuring high standards of energy efficiency in all housing developments under its remit, and
encouraging developers, owners, and tenants to improve the environmental performance of the
building stock, including the deployment of renewable energy;
• Anticipating the operational implementation of the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of
Buildings (EPBD) by encouraging the energy rating and labelling of building energy performance,
so as to give visible recognition to such improvements.
Developers will be required to set a target in association with the following design and technology
options, which will include renewable energy technologies as an initial step towards achieving greater
environmental sustainability,
• Site layout and associated bio-climatic/ passive solar design measures;
• Enhanced levels of insulation in walls, roofs, floors, glazing and doors;
• Reduced uncontrolled air infiltration losses;
• Use of healthy and controllable ventilation systems;
• Heat recovery systems;
• Use of daylight;
• Water conservation measures;
• More sustainable building materials;
• Improved heat generation appliance efficiency, e.g. condensing boilers;
• Intelligent heating system
• Efficient provision of domestic hot water;
• Fuel switching to low or zero CO 2 emitting fuels;
• Energy efficient lighting systems;
• Provision of appropriate group or district heating systems.
In the case of non-domestic buildings, additional options include:
• Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and controls;
• Electrical energy use including motive power;
• Efficient lighting systems and controls;
• Building Energy Management Systems;
• Occupancy controls;
• Monitoring and Targeting systems;
• Combined Heat and Power (CHP).
Elphin Local Area Plan 2009-2015 Page 147