Unregulated energy and why planning policy excludes it
Cooking, appliances, lifts and catering sit outside the Part L compliance calculation. Energy statements in London have to report them anyway, and a growing number of adopted plans ask for a total figure.
Unregulated energy is the electricity and gas a building uses that the Building Regulations compliance calculation ignores: cooking, appliances, small power, IT equipment, lifts, external lighting, server rooms and commercial catering. Part L measures regulated energy only, so a scheme can pass Part L comfortably and still run an annual demand half again as large as the compliance figure suggests. Planning policy has been catching up with that gap for a decade, and in London the energy statement has to report both numbers.
For an architect assembling an energy statement, the practical question is narrow. Which loads go in the regulated column, which go in the unregulated column, and where does a local policy require the second column to be filled in rather than left blank.
What the compliance calculation counts
Approved Document L of the Building Regulations covers fixed building services. In a dwelling, the SAP calculation counts space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water, fixed lighting and the auxiliary energy used by pumps and fans. In a non-domestic building, the national calculation methodology counts the same families of service through the simplified building energy model, and the output lands in the BRUKL report.
Those are the services the designer specifies and the building control body can inspect. The 2021 uplift changed the metrics for dwellings to a primary energy target, a carbon target and a fabric energy efficiency target, and it kept the same boundary around what is measured.
So the regulated figure is a statement about the building as built. It is not a prediction of the electricity bill.
What falls outside it
Everything plugged in, broadly. Cooking, washing machines and dryers, televisions, computers, phone chargers. In a commercial building, the list is longer and the loads are larger: trading floors, kitchens, data halls, refrigeration in a food store, stage lighting in a theatre, laundry in a hotel. Lifts and escalators sit outside the dwelling calculation. External and amenity lighting usually sits outside too.
In a Passivhaus-style dwelling with a heat pump, the unregulated share of total electricity can exceed the regulated share, because the regulated part has been driven so low. That inversion is the whole reason policy writers started asking for the second figure. A building assessed only on regulated energy looks better the more its designers improve the fabric, even where the occupier's actual demand has barely moved.
Why the line is drawn there
The Building Regulations control the works, and the works stop at the socket. Nobody specifies what tenant moves in or what equipment they bring, and holding a developer to an operational figure they cannot control is not something the regulations attempt. There is a genuine defensibility argument here, and it is the reason the boundary has survived successive reviews.
The weakness is obvious enough. A compliance route that excludes the fastest-growing part of demand will understate the grid impact of a scheme and overstate how close it sits to net zero. The design-for-performance movement and operational rating schemes exist to close that gap, and they sit outside the planning system rather than inside it.
Policies that ask for unregulated figures anyway
The London Plan 2021 requires major development to be net zero-carbon and sets a minimum on-site improvement over the Part L baseline, with any shortfall met through a cash-in-lieu contribution to the borough's carbon offset fund. Greater London Authority energy assessment guidance goes further than the compliance calculation: the energy statement has to report regulated and unregulated emissions separately at each stage of the "be lean, be clean, be green, be seen" hierarchy, and the monitoring stage expects actual metered consumption for both.
Outside London, the pattern varies by authority. Some adopted local plans and sustainability supplementary planning documents ask for total predicted energy use, some ask for an energy use intensity figure in kilowatt hours per square metre per year, and some say nothing at all and leave it to the Energy Statement author. Check the adopted plan and the validation checklist before you choose a reporting format, because retro-fitting an unregulated estimate into a submitted statement is slower than including it from the start.
Warehouse and logistics schemes are the clearest case where the unregulated load dominates, since racking lighting, chargers and refrigeration can dwarf the small conditioned office. That asymmetry sits alongside our note on energy statements for logistics schemes.
Estimating unregulated loads without inventing numbers
The defensible route is to state the method, state the source of each benchmark, and show the arithmetic. Three approaches are in common use.
- Published sectoral benchmarks applied to floor area by use, with the publication and edition named in the statement.
- A bottom-up schedule of equipment, quantities, rated power and assumed hours of use, built with the client's facilities team.
- Metered data from an existing building the client operates in the same use, adjusted for floor area and occupancy.
The third is the strongest and the rarest. The second is what a reviewer can actually check, because every assumption is visible on the page. Whichever you use, give the hours of use as a table and label the output as an estimate rather than a prediction, because an officer who sees a single unexplained number will either ignore it or ask for the workings.
| Load family | In the Part L calculation | Typical reporting route |
|---|---|---|
| Space heating, cooling, hot water | Yes | SAP or BRUKL output |
| Fixed lighting | Yes | SAP or BRUKL output |
| Pumps, fans, controls | Yes | Auxiliary energy |
| Cooking, appliances, small power | No | Benchmark or equipment schedule |
| Lifts, escalators | No | Manufacturer data or benchmark |
| Catering, refrigeration, data halls | No | Equipment schedule with client input |
| External and amenity lighting | No | Luminaire schedule and control strategy |
Effect on a carbon offset calculation
Where a policy sets a cash-in-lieu offset, read the policy wording closely on which emissions the shortfall is measured against. London's offset has been calculated on the regulated residual, so improving the unregulated position does not reduce the payment, and a large unregulated load does not increase it. That surprises clients who have been told the scheme is net zero.
Say so plainly in the statement. The honest formulation is that the scheme meets the regulated target through the hierarchy and the offset, and that total predicted energy including unregulated loads is a stated figure which the offset does not address. Trying to blur the two invites a consultee comment you will spend a month answering.
Where an authority has moved to an energy use intensity target, the unregulated estimate becomes part of the compliance case rather than a footnote, and the modelling effort shifts accordingly. That is also where a Whole Life Carbon Assessment and the energy statement start to need the same input assumptions, so align them before either is finalised.
Presenting both figures together
Put one table near the front of the statement with four rows for the hierarchy stages and two columns for regulated and unregulated, in tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and in kilowatt hours per year. Footnote every benchmark. Then write two sentences saying what the numbers do and do not mean.
That structure survives review because it never asks the reader to take a figure on trust. A Sustainability Statement can then cross-refer to the same table rather than quoting a different version of it, which is where contradictions between documents usually creep in.
PlanScope drafts energy and sustainability statements structured to UK planning policy, inserting flags where site-specific figures are still to be confirmed rather than filling them with assumptions. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required. Enter your postcode on PlanScope to see which reports your scheme is likely to need.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as regulated energy under Part L?
Regulated energy covers the fixed building services the Building Regulations control: space heating, space cooling, domestic hot water, fixed lighting, and the auxiliary energy used by pumps, fans and controls. For dwellings the figures come from the SAP calculation, and for other buildings from the national calculation methodology and the BRUKL output.
Does an energy statement have to include unregulated energy?
It depends on the policy that applies. Greater London Authority energy assessment guidance requires regulated and unregulated emissions to be reported separately at each stage of the energy hierarchy. Outside London, requirements vary by authority, so check the adopted local plan, any sustainability supplementary planning document and the validation checklist before choosing a format.
Does a large unregulated load increase a carbon offset payment?
Usually not. Where a policy sets a cash-in-lieu contribution, the shortfall is normally measured against the regulated residual emissions, so unregulated loads sit outside the calculation. Read the policy wording and the borough guidance rather than assuming, and say clearly in the statement which emissions the offset addresses.
How should unregulated energy be estimated defensibly?
Use a named published benchmark applied to floor area, a bottom-up equipment schedule with quantities and hours of use, or metered data from a comparable building the client already operates. Show the arithmetic and footnote every assumption. Label the result as an estimate, because a single unexplained figure invites a consultee request for the workings.
Why can a Part L compliant home still use a lot of electricity?
Because the compliance calculation stops at the fixed services. Once fabric and heating are improved, appliances, cooking, IT equipment and chargers can account for more than half of total electricity in a well-built dwelling. The regulated figure describes the building as constructed rather than predicting what the occupier will consume.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.