Technical Conditions 2021- new guidelines for energy saving and thermal insulation of buildings

In recent discussion about the future of construction and development market and especially the factors affecting the increase of the housing construction costs, it is the new regulation on Technical Conditions that seems to be pointed on more and more frequently. Technical Conditions 2021 (in short ‘WT 2021’) are the new requirements for newly constructed buildings, which will come into force from the beginning of 2021.

The legal basis for introduced changes is the Regulation of the Ministry of Transport, Construction and Maritime Economy from the 5th of July 2013, amending former regulation on the technical conditions to be met by buildings and their location. This regulation implements into Polish law the provisions of the Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (Official Journal of the EU L 153 from 18.06.2010, p. 13). WT 2021 is the third amendment, after two previous that came into force in 2014 and 2017, introducing much stricter criteria regarding energy efficiency of buildings. Such a periodic updates of regulations are primarily aimed at using and implementing new opportunities resulting from technological progress in the construction and building materials industries.

The new requirements will apply primarily, but not only to those investors, who will obtain a building permit and start the investment after December 31 this year. Moreover, unfinished projects (in this case the formal closing of the construction process is considered as the moment of completion), will have to be adapted to the requirements of the new provisions. Furthermore, this requirement will also apply to buildings already in use if expanded or modernized.

The new technical conditions introduce changes in two main areas – required minimum thermal insulation of building partitions and the determination of the maximum permissible level of building demand for non-renewable primary energy used for heating and hot water preparation, as well as ventilation and cooling.

The level of thermal insulation of building partitions is expressed by the U coefficient, determining the amount of heat permeating through a specific unit of the partition surface at a given difference of temperature on it’s both sides. Therefore, the lower value of the indicator, the barrier isolates better. WT 2021 regulation introduces increased requirements for the insulation of external walls (from the current UC (max) = 0.23 to 0.20), roofs, flat roofs and ceilings under unheated attics or over passages (from 0.18 to 0.15), windows, balcony doors, transparent non-open surfaces (from 1.1 to 0.9) and roof windows (from 1.3 to 1.1) and external doors (1.5 to 1.3). This, of course, forces investors to use more expensive building materials of better parameters, what raises controversy regarding the profitability of the adopted solutions. According to some estimates, the cost of some building materials will increase even by more than 30%. However, other calculations indicate that despite this, the building cost of entire investment will increase by just a few percent. Of course measurable benefits resulting from the use of energy-saving technologies, including above all incomparably lower costs of building maintenance should also be remembered here.

WT 2021 also introduces a new level of acceptable building demand for non-renewable primary energy. For single-family buildings it has been reduced from the current level of 95 to 70 kWh / (m2·year) and in case of multi-family buildings from 85 to 65 kWh / (m2·year). Primary energy is the sum of the energy directly used for heating, hot water preparation, ventilation and cooling of the building (final energy) and the amount of energy used to produce and deliver it. The level of primary energy results then not only from the direct energy demand of our building, but also from the type of used fuel or the heating method.

Therefore, while in case of changes in requirements for the insulation of building partitions, estimating differences in construction costs is relatively simple, which this makes sense, of course, only for a specific investment, in case of lowering the level of acceptable building demand for non-renewable primary energy it is a more complex issue. Based on a very interesting analysis of the possibility of meeting new requirements by a multi-family building, entitled ‘Multi-family buildings according to the requirements of WT 2021’ by dr inż. Szymon Firląg and mgr inż. Weronika Górecka from the Warsaw University of Technology it can be concluded that the level of additional costs associated with necessary adaptations of the investment to the requirements of WT 2021 may depend on two main factors. Firstly, the availability of individual energy sources in a specific location, including above all the availability of the municipal heating system, and secondly, it’s efficiency. Interestingly, in some cities, for the adopted example building, even connecting to the municipal heating network would guarantee meeting the requirements of WT 2021 (in terms of demand for primary energy). This would be the case of Gdansk, Bialystok, Zielona Gora, Lodz, Lublin, Katowice and Rzeszow. In the few largest Polish agglomerations however (i.a. Cracow, Wroclaw, Poznan) it would be difficult even with the use of additional renewable energy sources.

There is therefore no question that the new technical conditions will affect the level of construction costs of all types of buildings, both residential and non-residential. However, this impact will vary considerably depending on the type and location of the investment, and any attempts to generalize its level do not seem to make sense. Similarly, simple profitability calculations of using particular, more expensive building materials and negating on that basis the legitimacy of the adopted solutions make no sense either. At a time of scientific consensus on human impact on climate change, new requirements should rather be assessed as indispensable. Additional costs in this context seem secondary.

Jerzy Ptaszyński
Research and Market Service Director