SANS 10400XA Energy efficiency in buildings

SANS 10400-XA, published in August 2011, is the new part of the South African standard for environmental sustainability and energy usage in buildings, and forms part of the National Building Regulations. For now, its focus is purely on energy consumption and maximum energy demand. In order to comply with the standard, various “deemed to satisfy” insulation and glazing requirements are provided, with some sections requiring compliance with parts of SANS 204 (meeting all SANS 204 requirements would automatically meet all requirements for SANS 10400-XA).

While the “deemed to satisfy” approach will lead to an efficient building, it is still a general solution that can sometimes be difficult to meet, and can almost always be improved upon by a custom design optimised for a particular building’s unique demands. Fortunately, the standard allows for a competent person to certify a design based purely on a building’s theoretical performance (total and peak energy usage, as well as occupant comfort, need to be proven to exceed SANS 10400-XA requirements). This isn’t a “get out of jail free card” – but it does mean that unnecessary costs can be avoided, and only those aspects that genuinely improve the performance of your particular building need to be implemented. This cost is therefore calculated into the phase 2 of the project as seen above.