Tenders with energy efficiency requirements

Incorporate energy efficiency requirements

The best way to ensure energy efficient solutions in new construction is to incorporate energy efficiency requirements in tenders. It is important to clearly identify the energy requirements from the start of the process to enable them to be incorporated in the design of the solutions. Once you have selected a supplier, it is often too late to add additional requirements – for example, on energy efficiency.

Follow 3 good tips

• Remember to formulate your energy efficiency requirements clearly in the tender for your construction project.
• Remember to ensure that compliance with the requirements is documented, implemented and checked in accordance with the Danish standards in force.
• Remember to be realistic in terms of your financial framework – prioritise the most important energy solutions.

Special focus areas
When putting new construction out to tender, you should define the requirements for a range of areas that have an impact on energy consumption. Some examples of focus areas are:

• Energy class
  Over and above the current requirements, there are 2 low energy classes defined in the Danish building regulations:
  
  • Low energy class 1: A building in this class may only use 50% of the energy used by a building which merely conforms to the basic building regulations. Energy class 1 is expected to become a legal requirement from 2015, so it would be reasonable to require that buildings conform to this class.
  • Low energy class 2: A building in this class may only use 75% of the energy used by a building which merely conforms to the basic building regulations.
• Frontages
  In relation to buildings and frontages, it is a question of a compact building shape, and a good directional placement of the building in relation to sun and the prevailing wind direction. There should also be a focus on avoiding thermal bridges and poorly sealed weather protection.
• Windows
  Specify requirements for the u-value of windows (e.g. their insulation performance), their location and size. This means using daylight, as well as avoiding over heating and heat loss.
• Installations
   Installing meters for part or secondary consumption, and good-quality insulation of all installations.
  > The Interior Layout Guidelines produced by the Trust lists many recommendations for energy efficient design.

Let contractors or developers pay for electricity consumed on the construction site
Make entrepreneurs or developers pay for the electricity consumed on the construction site. This is good motivation to keep consumption low during the construction phase. Electricity consumption on a construction site can often be the equivalent of 3-4 years consumption used by the finished building

Reverse the tender – and choose the most energy efficient
If you want to place particular emphasis on energy efficient requirements in a tender for new construction, you can also prepare a tender in which you "reverse" the selection criteria.

Instead of laying down requirements, and then selecting the cheapest, you could state a fixed price and then accept the offer that provides the most energy efficient solutions within the fixed price. The price framework can be supplemented with other requirements and wishes in terms of functionality, etc.