Sustainability
Section 6 energy compliance, Scotland
SBEM and dynamic simulation modelling for Section 6 compliance in Scotland, produced as part of the building warrant application rather than after it.
- Discipline
- Sustainability
- Typical timescale
- Design-stage model and report typically 1 to 2 weeks once the fabric and services strategy are settled
WHAT IT IS
Section 6 is the energy section of the Scottish Technical Handbooks, supporting the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004. For a non-domestic building, compliance is demonstrated by calculating the building's emissions and primary energy against a notional building of the same size and shape, using the Scottish National Calculation Methodology.
The calculation is run either in SBEM — the Simplified Building Energy Model — or in an approved dynamic simulation model where the building has features SBEM cannot represent. The output is the compliance report that accompanies the building warrant application.
SDE produces both the model and the report, and runs the model as a design tool from Stage 2 rather than as a submission exercise at Stage 4.
WHEN YOU NEED IT
Before the building warrant is applied for, which in Scotland means before work starts — there is no equivalent of the English building notice route, so a model that fails cannot be quietly fixed during construction.
In practice that means Stage 2 or early Stage 3. The compliance result is decided by fabric performance, glazing ratio, ventilation strategy and heat source, and all four are effectively fixed by the end of spatial coordination.
OUR PROCESS
While options are open
The model is built early and run against each option under consideration. A model that first runs after the design is fixed can only report the answer. A model that runs while the heat source and the glazing ratio are still in play can change it.
At warrant submission
The compliance report, the model file and a written note of exactly what the model commits the design to — flow temperatures, efficiencies, control strategy, air permeability, specific fan powers. Those inputs become obligations on the contractor, and the most common cause of a failed completion is a substitution that nobody checked against them.
At completion
The as-built position is reconciled against the submitted model, with the commissioning and air permeability evidence the verifier expects.
DELIVERABLES
What you receive
- SBEM or dynamic simulation model of the building
- Section 6 compliance report for the building warrant
- Notional-versus-actual comparison, with the failing elements identified
- Schedule of the inputs the model commits the design to
- As-built reconciliation and completion evidence
STANDARDS
Standards applied
The editions in force at the time of design. Where a standard is amended mid-project we confirm which edition the appointment is based on.
- Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004as amendedlegislation.gov.uk
- Technical Handbook Section 6Energy (non-domestic)Scottish Government
- Technical Handbook Section 7SustainabilityScottish Government
- Scottish NCMNational Calculation Methodology modelling guideNCM
- New Build Heat StandardDirect emissions heating in new buildings, ScotlandScottish Government
- CIBSE TM54Evaluating operational energy use at the design stageCIBSE
QUESTIONS
Common questions
What is Section 6 compliance?
Section 6 is the energy section of the Scottish Technical Handbooks. Non-domestic compliance is demonstrated by modelling the building against a notional building of the same size and shape under the Scottish National Calculation Methodology, using SBEM or an approved dynamic simulation model. The resulting compliance report is submitted with the building warrant application.
What is the difference between Section 6 and Part L?
Part L applies in England, with a separate Welsh edition; Section 6 applies in Scotland. They set different targets, use different notional building definitions and are administered through different processes — a building warrant granted before work starts in Scotland, against Building Regulations approval in England. A design demonstrated compliant under one is not automatically compliant under the other, and the modelling has to be re-run rather than transferred.
Does the New Build Heat Standard ban gas boilers in Scotland?
The New Build Heat Standard prohibits direct emissions heating systems in new buildings where the building warrant is applied for on or after 1 April 2024, which rules out gas and oil boilers and direct electric resistance heating as the primary system in those buildings. It applies to new build rather than to work in existing buildings, and the practical consequence is that the heat source decision and the Section 6 model are now the same decision rather than two.
When is dynamic simulation needed instead of SBEM?
When the building has features the simplified method cannot represent fairly — significant natural ventilation, atria, complex shading, mixed-mode operation, or plant whose part-load behaviour materially affects the result. SBEM applies standardised assumptions that can penalise a good design in those cases, and a dynamic model will often show compliance where SBEM does not.