Kevin O’Rourke (Chair IGBC), Marion Jammet (IGBC) and Brian Dolan (Saint Gobain) launching version 2.0 of HPI at Better Homes 2019
The Home Performance Index is an independent 3rd party certification system that assess the overall environmental and sustainability credentials of residential developments across a range of indicators.
It was developed to bring a greater awareness and understanding of the overall environmental impacts from residential developments and from the supporting infrastructure. Over 130 homes have been built and certified under the system with a further 2150 homes registered and currently in the construction stage.
The latest version of the Home Performance Index (HPI v2.0) was launched by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government in November 2019 at the Better Homes Conference.
Pat Barry (CEO of IGBC) presenting HPI Version 2.0 at Better Homes 2019
Originally launched in 2016 the latest version was launched in November 2019 to coincide with the publication of changes to TGD Part F and TGD Part L. The main changes are outlined below.
- The system is designed to align with national policies for climate, planning and regulation, with European climate policy, and with global climate and sustainable development goals. Research was carried out to align the indicators with CEN Standards (European Committee for Standardization) as part of EU Horizon 2020, Smarter Finance for Families. IGBC has partnered with the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) to align HPI v2.0 with their ILFI Zero Carbon certification. Through the introduction of additional Health and Wellness performance criteria, HPI is to be recognized under WELL Communities as an approved Health and Wellness Rating system for use in Well Communities certification.
- There are updates to EN 6.0 Energy and Carbon in Use to reflect the new Building Regulations, TGD Part L 2019 Conservation of fuel and Energy- Dwellings.
- To encourage a greater understanding of the relationship between operational and embodied carbon EN 6.0 has been split into 6.1 Energy in Use and 6.2 Carbon in use
- HPI v2.0 defines a clear pathway to demonstrate a zero-carbon building in terms of both operational and embodied carbon. A Zero Carbon standard is introduced through combining exemplary points in various criteria. There are modifications to EN 7.0 Embodied Impacts of Homes and LCA, to encourage optimisation at early design stage.
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Johanna Varghese (IGBC) and John Fingleton (IGBC) presenting HPI Version 2.0
Individual oil and gas boilers are no longer permitted in HPI certified homes as we transition towards zero carbon homes.
- To encourage more car independent home ownership, points for low car parking provision and additional cycle storage are introduced.
- Indoor Air Quality has been modified to be less prescriptive and to encourage alternative ways of ensuring the maintenance of ventilation systems. It now also considers separation distances for ventilation intakes from external sources of pollution.
- Mechanical ventilation is now widespread and good design can eliminate any noise disturbance from these systems and is addressed in the new sub-indicator HW 3.4 Internal Sources of Noise.
- Post Occupancy Evaluation has been introduced to ensure that buildings are performing as expected and feedback is provided to occupants after 12 months on how they can further reduce emissions.
- Radon Testing and Water Quality are also tested post completion to ensure the health of the occupants is not compromised by building quality or local water quality.
- Overall the points system has been simplified to make it clearer to the user, which criteria carry the most weight. The system has been simplified to two levels Certified and Gold, while Certified has been increased from a score of 35% to 45%.
Download Manual V2.0 here and join our next online training