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Knowledgebase : SBEM and DSM
The simplification of guidance (paragraph 4.08 Issue 7 NDEPC Conventions) from the NDEPC Conventions Group has instigated a review of our guidance on this. The guidance here is intended to provide improved modelling but does not replace the guidance given...
The advice in the article is for meeting the following extract of convention 6.06. There is separate advice for SBEM and DSM _Where the DHW serves multiple buildings, the losses should be apportioned between those buildings based on floor area.__If the l...
This patch corrects a bug in determining the size of the Notional PV in _As Built_ Shell and Core BRUKL calculations (England and Wales).  The patch is not required for DSM. Patch 02 has been included in Patch 03. For more information on Patch 02 see ar...
This patch must be installed by Energy Assessors certified by Kaizen Certification when using DesignBuilder v7.2.0.032 to generate XMLs. It ensures that Kaizen Assessor numbers are recognised correctly by EPCgen and does not need to be installed by Energy...
Specifying Low Flow showers in the DHW dialogue can reduce the demand of a DHW system by up to 35%. However in many cases, low flow showers and showers employing Waste Water Heat Recovery may not reduce the demand at all. The SBEM database includes a fie...
This patch is required for DesignBuilder v7.1.4.005 for English BRUKL calculations in which the building has a District Heating System. * It is required for both SBEM and DSM * It is not required for EPC calculations whether or not the building has a...
DesignBuilder does not support forward compatibility and this means that it's not possible to load models saved in newer versions into older releases.  See: DesignBuilder dsb file version compatibility [https://support.designbuilder.co.uk/index.php?/Knowl...
DSM WEATHER DATA If you plan to use the new software v7.2 for DSM assessments of buildings in England (2021 regs), you are required by the Regulations to use the latest 2016 CIBSE weather data. You can order this data from our CIBSE Weather Data [https:/...
For English buildings being assessed under Part L 2013 using v6.1.8 / SBEM or DSM v5.6.b you must set transaction to ‘mandatory issue property on construction’ – otherwise these will not lodge on the register.
Part LA 2021 sets out the requirements for Display Lighting in New Buildings: i. have an average light source efficacy of 80 light source lumens per circuit watt * Simply set the luminous efficacy for the display lighting system ii. have a rated powe...
Interfaces to SBEM v6 (including DesignBuilder 7.1) raise an error and do not complete the calculation for buildings which have no heated zones. This is because SBEM checks that the model includes a non-zero setting for Foundation Area (as defined in the...
When you run an EPC calculation using SBEM v6.1b, the TER may be negative in some cases, and while this doesn't prevent the XML being generated, it will fail to lodge. Negative TER values can be generated by the latest version of SBEM because the 2021 No...
FOUNDATION AREA A new term 'Foundation Area' has been introduced with the 2021 NCM. It is defined as: Foundation Area = Total conditioned Area / Nstoreys DesignBuilder v7.1 calculates the Foundation Area automatically using this formula and uses the in...
When loading existing SBEM models into v7.1.0.115 and later, the NCM version is automatically updated to v6.1b. You can check this on the Project Details dialog.
If you get the error message "Navigation to the webpage was cancelled" after running a SBEM calculation then to fix this problem please reinstall the ACROBAT READER or your default PDF reader application. Please contact our Support Desk [https://support....
UPDATING V1 AND V2 SBEM MODELS v1 and v2 models can be directly loaded into later versions of DesignBuilder. Note that you will have to make some manual changes to the model. The main changes will be to change the Building Type (Sector) and Activities. Ne...
UPDATING SMALL V1 AND V2 SBEM MODELS v1 and v2 models can be directly loaded into later versions of DesignBuilder. Note that you will have to make some manual changes to the model. The main changes will be to change the Building Type (Sector) and Activiti...
GUIDANCE ON NCM HVAC SYSTEM TYPE SELECTION The following represents the official definitions and advice on how to select the most appropriate HVAC of the 26 HVAC system types handled by SBEM and DSM. There are four overall categories covering heating, co...
‘PAY AS YOU GO’ LICENCE SERVICE TO BE RETIRED Due to changes in the way that EPCs are generated in recent versions of SBEM, we are unfortunately no longer able offer a ‘pay as you go’ (PAYG) licence option, and the latest DesignBuilder v6.1.8 does not s...
Release version 5.0.2 incorporates SBEM v5.2.d, v5.3.a and v4.1.g It is currently (Jan 2020) approved in Northern Ireland in conjuction with SBEM v4.1.g. As an interface to v5.2.d and v5.3.a It has no approvals. The 41g interface is accessing some v5 ...
The procedure for producing the potential rating for a buildings EPC can be flexible and fit in with your workflow. The process of identifying suitable recommendations for the building and the Potential rating are directly related and so it makes sense to...
If you get the error message while running SBEM "_THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE ADOBE READER (507.507 OR 523.523)_", then this is an issue with the Adobe reader being set in protected mode. To fix the problem you will need to turn this feature off followi...
You will see this error when SBEM encounters a problem in processing the calculation data. The cause of the error will not be reported in Errors and warnings. Historically there have been many causes for this error. This article will not list existing his...
This feature was introduced for Scottish Section 63 assessments but can be used to extract any DesignBuilder model from an XML generated using DesignBuilder. This requires the user to download the XML and save it to their system. Note also that DesignBui...
This information is relevant for lodgements in England and Wales (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire?) . Landmark requires address details in the following format The address lines need to be input precisely as they appear in Model Options
1. Once your CIBSE weather file order has been paid for you should receive an email with a link to a page on our website which allows you to download the weather data. 2. The file you download will be compressed in .zip format. You should unzip the file ...
This article has been produced specifically for SBEM 5.5.h / DesignBuilder 6.1. It may be updated a number of times during 2019 so please check for updates. Please check our approvals page for BER/BRIRL approval status. GENERAL NOTES FOR NEW AND EXISTIN...
DesignBuilder cannot assign more than one partition construction to a single internal wall plane. This behaviour can cause issues for cases when there is more than one partition type on a single plane. This could for example be a "heavy partition" at grou...
These instructions apply to DesignBuilder version 5. A Section 6 2002 calculation is part of the assessment process for identifying if a building requires a Section 63 analysis and is performed during the EPC calculation. The status of the check BER < ...
These instructions apply to DesignBuilder v5 software. Later versions may not need the steps outlined here. SBEM produces two types of Data Reflection Report. These are presented and formatted differently:     1. PDF format: this is the later format and ...
At the beginning of 2017 the security certificate for SBEM v3.5b expired so any communication between SBEM and the registry gets rejected. BRE released a patch for SBEM that addresses this issue. INSTALLATION NOTES FOR SBEM V3.5B PATCH: 1. Download the...
USING THE CORRECT COMBINATION OF DESIGNBUILDER VERSION AND SBEM VERSION. DesignBuilder approvals are given for specific combinations of DesignBuilder and SBEM and XMLs will not be generated with an incorrect version. This can be followed by an SBEM expi...
Please note that ‘PAY AS YOU GO’ LICENCE SERVICE HAS BEEN RETIRED in February 2021.  For more information see: PAYG - ‘Pay as you go’ Licence Service To Be Retired [https://support.designbuilder.co.uk/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/211/18/payg---pa...
USING THE CORRECT COMBINATION OF DESIGNBUILDER VERSION AND SBEM VERSION. DesignBuilder approvals are given for specific combinations of DesignBuilder and SBEM and XMLs will not be generated with an incorrect version. When importing an existing model int...
RECOMMENDATIONS In the v4.7 release there have been two problems with recommendations. * Any editing of the automatically generated recommendations and the creation/editing of user recommendations will be lost if there is ANY (apart from further rec...
LIGHT TYPES Some light types are not available for Industrial type activities. This problem has been reported by a number of assessors. The types not available through the interface are Tungsten and LED. This bug has been fixed ready for the next releas...
You can find the compliance input .inp file in the DesignBuilder SBEM folder immediately following a Part-L calculation. Any future Part-L calculations will overwrite this file so take care to submit the right file. The SBEM file you need for submission i...
Models created using a copy of DesignBuilder which has only a PAYG SBEM license must have a credit deducted for the model before being usable with an annual Certification license. If you see a message saying: _This building was created using an EPC pay a...
First check that your building has sufficient hot water demand to make the incorporation of a solar hot water system worthwhile. Also, the solar characteristics need to be carefully set. Forced circulation will increase the auxiliary contribution and addi...
The XML file required for EPC lodgement is generated by EPCGen when DesignBuilder runs SBEM. Please also see knowledgebase article XML not generated when model loaded into latest approved interface [http://support.designbuilder.co.uk/staff/index.php?/Kn...
SBEM rounds all reported zone general lighting wattages to the nearest 50W and thus any zones with installed lighting power below 25W will be rounded down to zero. Note that for calculations SBEM will use the unrounded wattage.
The usual reason for the 'total useful floor area' being reported smaller than the areas input is that blocks have been drawn using internal measurements without accounting for the fact that blocks should be drawn using external measurements. If you are u...
We have received this answer from BRE support summarising the reasons for differences in SBEM 4 and SBEM 3.5 results: "While the methodology for calculating the asset rating has not changed in the 2010 NCM Modelling Guide (compared to the 2006 Guide), pl...
There is a bug with SBEM 3.5.b which causes recommendations to be repeated in the report that is directly generated by SBEM and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it until the next SBEM is released. However you should find that the final rec...
SBEM v3.5.b and later used in DesignBuilder includes a security function for EPCs in England and Wales requiring final certificates to be obtained from the Landmark database. EPCs displayed within DesignBuilder (and all other SBEM software) will always in...
No, DesignBuilder communicates directly with the SBEM calculation engine and cannot export NCT format files.
The 'main heating fuel' reported at the bottom of the EPC is determined by SBEM as either the heating fuel or the hot water fuel depending on which of these 2 systems consumes more energy. In some buildings, fuel consumption due to hot water generation is...
Ground floor U-values used in constructions adjacent to ground can either be entered as being corrected for 3-D conduction effects or not and the setting to define whether the U-value is corrected or not is set on the Constructions dialog for ground floor...
Vehicle access (and other constructions) will only be shown under Criterion 2 of the BRUKL report if they are positioned in condirioned zones, i.e. zones that are heated.
SBEM always generates the secondary recommendations report with a watermark as it is not part of the official documentation. This is the same behaviour as iSBEM.
This data corresponds to the 'Rating with Improvements' data entered on the calculation options dialog. To obtain this data you should copy the actual model (to a different dsb file) apply the recommendations, note the rating with these measures applied t...
SBEM has an upper limit on the number of surfaces it can handle and this limit can be exceeded for very large buildings. To help get round this problem you can use the option 'Lump similar partitions' found on the Advanced tab of the Model options dialog....
SBEM 3.3.b now allows some domestic activities in predominantly non-domestic buildings such as flats above pubs. This is first implemented in DesignBuilder v.1.9.2. For earlier versions the comment from BRE applies:"SBEM can currently be used for non...
Note from BRE:"The recommendations in the Recommendations Report are grouped into the following sub-sections: short payback (up to 15 recommendations), medium payback (up to 10 recommendations), long payback (up to 5 recommendations), and other recom...
When to use 'Semi-exterior unconditioned' zones The zone type should be set to 'Semi-exterior unconditioned' when the zone is unheated, uncooled, unoccupied and there is no significant energy consuming equipment. Examples include unoccupied roofspaces,...
The failure is probably caused by a heated zone being adjacent to an unheated zone and the partition (wall or internal floor/ceiling) construction between them is uninsulated. To fix the problem either insulate the partition between the heated and unheate...