What is Home Performance Index

What is Home Performance Index

Home Performance Index Certification is Ireland’s national certification for new homes. Similar to certification for commercial development like LEED and BREEAM, except that it’s specifically designed for residential development and aligns to Irish building regulations, EU CEN standards and international WELL certification for communities.  The certification was awarded 5 out 5 for best practice and transparency by the European Construction Sector Observatory.

The Home Performance Index stamp of approval provides a robust and nationally tailored green home label, that is aligned with the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy and also with Level(s), the new EU sustainable buildings assessment and reporting framework. It is a readymade solution for finance providers seeking third party assurance that eligibility criteria for new “green” homes are met.

Home Performance Index is independently assessed and awards certificates with a rating of HPI or Gold HPI for the standard of a home’s design, construction and environmental sustainability

 

Developed by the Irish Green Building Council and since its first trial in 2016, demand for Home Performance Index certification has grown exponentially.  Many reputable developers will use the certification as a symbol of quality assurance in their upcoming developments.

Residential developments registered for Home Performance Index can be found here.

How is Home Performance Index assessed

The easy-to-use Home Performance index manual guides design teams to consider standards and criteria to produce great quality homes, healthy and comfortable, with efficient use of resources, minimising waste and destruction of the environment.

HPI certification is based on over 30 verifiable indicators in five categories. Mandatory requirements are set in the most important areas, such as water efficiency, ventilation, thermal bridging, and enhanced airtightness. For each level, mandatory performance standards in certain indicators must be achieved, in addition to the required score. The applicant is required to demonstrate that homes are designed to meet minimum performance levels in certain indicators which may exceed standard building regulations.

Environment

Measures the full environmental footprint of the housing development, including land use, loss of biodiversity, density, water consumption, energy use, and the impact of materials used.

Health and well-being

Deals with issues that impact the well-being of occupants, e.g. daylight, indoor air quality, acoustics, walkability of the neighbourhood.

Economics

Addresses occupant running costs, from transport to energy, and the long-term value stability of the home, such as its capacity to adapt to changing family circumstances.

Quality assurance

Measures the quality of the design and construction team, air infiltration and other measures, ensuring a rigorous approach to the design and construction process plus a testing regime to ensure that the design intention is achieved.

Sustainable location

Assesses the connectivity of schools, shops, parks, services, public transport, walking and cycling paths and key risks on the site, such as flooding.

Points are awarded for each indicator and the development must meet a target score. The minimum score is based on good performance across the core indicators and evidence must be provided in support of each indicator before points can be awarded.

Information on HPI assessors and training can be found here. Fees and cost can be found here.

Who manages Home Performance Index

The Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) manage and review Home Performance Index. IGBC is a unique network of organisations from the entire built environment value chain in Ireland. Founded in 2011 as a non-profit organisation with a membership of over 200.  Members include universities, professional institutes, NGOs, local authorities, contractors, architects, engineers, energy companies, and leading national and transnational companies.

Home Performance Index was developed through the study and analysis of many existing certification systems including Sweden Green Building Council’s Millöbgygnnad, Germany’s DGNB system, UK’s Code for Sustainable Homes, international LEED for Homes, picking the most useful criteria to create a high-quality benchmark for new homes in Ireland.