Inner Journeys, LLC Group

I was sitting in the living room yesterday enquiring into Non-Domestic Energy Performance Contractors and I drafted this feature. What are your thoughts? Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are needed whenever a property is built, sold or rented. You must order an EPC for potential buyers and tenants before you market your property to sell or rent. In Scotland, you must display the EPC somewhere in the property eg in the meter cupboard or next to the boiler. EPC assessments are carried out by accredited domestic energy assessors (DEA). DEA’s come in all shapes and sizes. If you are selling or renting your home, your estate agent may have an energy assessor who works for them. Assessors can also be self-employed, can be employed by local councils or can work for insulation and renewable energy companies. You can use the EPC register website to find your own local DEA, or can search online or in the phonebook if you prefer. If you are having an EPC done as part of your Green Deal Assessment, your Green Deal provider will allocate an assessor to you. A qualified and accredited domestic energy assessor will carry out the inspection and issue you with your EPC. Your estate agent or letting agent may suggest an assessor who can complete the inspection for you, or check the EPC register for accredited assessors in your area. The Minimum Energy efficiency Standards (MEES) legislation requires a rating of level E or better for domestic and commercial rented properties, this is confirmed by the EPC, and if the rating is below E then actions to take to improve the energy performance of the building can be implemented. From 1 April 2018, it became a legal requirement that for new commercial leases the property must have an EPC rating of at least 'E' (on a scale from A to G, with A being the most efficient). From 1 April 2023, the minimum requirement will come into force retrospectively and it will be an offence to continue to let properties which do not achieve the minimum E threshold (unless a valid exemption applies). Any building that is even partially occupied by a public authority such as a local council, college or NHS Trust and has a total floor space greater than 250 square metres and, which is regularly visited by the public has to have a DEC on display on a page no smaller than A3 size in an easily accessible location. Failure to do so can incur a £500 fine. Private organisations aren’t required to have a DEC, but they do need to have an EPC. To check that an energy assessor is a member of an accreditation scheme, a search facility is available on the register website (www.epcregister.com). If a person does not have access to the internet they can ask the energy assessor for the name of the accreditation scheme of which they are a member and for their membership number. This information will help the person who has commissioned the EPC to confirm with the accreditation scheme that the energy assessor is accredited and fit and proper to practice as an energy assessor and to produce the EPC for the type of building being assessed. Energy efficient purchases should not be viewed as an expense, but as an investment with utility savings that add up over the service life of the product. Savings can offset the initial price premium on energy efficient options, and offer a significant return in comparison to conventional, non-efficient alternatives. Furthermore, the return you pocket through savings will only increase over time as energy prices continue to rise. The Energy Act 2011 contains a number of provisions that affect owners of property; the most significant of these is MEES, which aims to improve the energy efficiency of the most energy inefficient properties. MEES also contributes to the UK legislative targets of reducing CO2 emissions for all buildings to around zero by 2050. For privately rented non-domestic properties, from 1st. April 2018, Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) regulations will affect all commercial landlords and property owners. The regulations state that any property having a new lease granted, or an existing lease renewed, must achieve an EPC rating of E or above. From April 2023, the regulations will apply to ALL leases, whether up for renewal or current. Maximising potential for non domestic epc register isn't the same as meeting client requirements and expectations. SBEM Calculations An Energy Performance Certificate is a legal requirement for most homes and lasts for ten years. If you carry out improvements on your property which leads to better energy efficiency, it is always worth updating your EPC. It is important that the money you have invested is reflected in an improved EPC rating. If you do not update your EPC on completion of the work, it will simply remain as it did when you originally acquired the property. An EPC will list ways to improve your rating and give indicative costs. These improvements will help you, your buyer or your tenants save on bills, and lessen the environmental impact of the property. The cost of the Commercial Energy Performance Certificate can have an impact on the quality of the EPC produced. Cheap EPCs can affect the amount of time the Energy Assessor spends on the energy assessment. If you are renting or selling your property as of the 1st of October 2008 you will require an energy performance certificate also known as an EPC. This is required before marketing of your property can commence. The EPC lasts 10 years and is carried out by one of our accredited energy assessors. This certificate is fully compliant and can be used with any estate agent. An EPC is much like a mini survey and an assessor will look into wall, floor and roof constructions, heating, controls and central heating systems, boilers and ventilation, windows, doors and glazing, hot water tanks, lighting, any forms of insulation, and any renewable energy present. Professional assistance in relation to commercial epc can make or break a commercial building project. It is a legal requirement to have a valid EPC for a property when marketing for sales and/or lettings. There are exemptions for certain property types, and all exemptions have to be registered on the national register. Each registered exemption is valid for five years. In addition, from 1st April 2018 any property let on a new tenancy or a fixed term renewal must meet the new minimum EPC rating of E or higher. A Commercial EPC assesses a building by giving a standard energy and carbon emission efficiency grade from ‘A’ to ‘G’. An ‘A’ is the best and ‘G’ the worst, with an average rating of a commercial property to date being D/E. Like domestic EPCs, commercial EPCs are also issued by trained and certified assessors after a thorough assessment of the property and evaluation of various factors like energy saving products used within the building. However, the assessors have to be more skilled as they need to assess the HVAC system of the property which is one of the most significant factors in EPC. Commercial property experts are on hand to deal with any questions you might have about MEES and the upcoming changes. They can review your existing leases to work out whether improvements can be made (or which party would be responsible for the costs of these). They can also advise you about MEES issues in future leases. Homes account for 13% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions or 22% when electricity is taken into account5. The Climate Change Act 2008 committed the Government to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% of 1990 levels by 2050. Scenario analysis undertaken by the Government and others suggests that buildings would likely need to meet near zero emissions to reach that target, primarily through energy efficiency and low carbon heating. An understanding of the challenges met by mees regulations can enhance the value of a project. Accurate Energy Efficiency Ratings As a buyer, understanding the energy efficiency of a property you are considering purchasing is extremely important. For one thing, it will directly affect how much you have to spend on fuel bills each year. An EPC will also give you some additional information that may not otherwise have been mentioned. This could be things like what type of boiler the property has or how thick the loft insulation is. If your property’s EPC rating falls below band E, an energy assessment will make recommendations on how to improve its energy efficiency. It’s important to note that if your EPC rating is E or higher, you don’t have to follow through with the recommendations. That being said, improving the energy efficiency of your property can make it more appealing to tenants, and may save you money in the future. Sustainable energy is the practice of using energy in a way that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. An energy performance certificate, or EPC, helps demonstrate how efficient a building is and is a legal requirement. An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is a document that sets out the assessed energy efficiency and potential CO2 emissions for a property. The property is rated on a scale from A to G with A being excellent and G a disaster. Very, very few houses achieve an A-rating and most tend to be D or above. Those languishing in the E, F or G brackets need to be encouraged to take immediate action. An EPC has been required for the construction, sale or letting of property, since 2008, but until recently it was just simply a tick box exercise as part of the transaction. However, now EPC and MEES have wider implications for commercial landlords and tenants than just energy efficiency, and not all EPCs are created equally (poor data in, low EPC out). Advising on matters such as epc commercial property will provide benefits in the long run. The UK Government website has a handy tool to find a list of your local accredited energy assessors. You can search either by postcode of the property requiring the EPC to get a list of all the assessors close by. Or if you know the name of an EPC assessor you can enter their name. If you choose the postcode option you will be shown a list of all the accredited energy assessors close to the postcode you entered. The list will include their contact details (Phone and email), their assessor ID and details of which accreditation scheme they are a member of or you can search by name. Around half of UK homes currently have an EPC rating of D. Improving your home’s EPC rating can increase it’s asking price by an average of 6% – there are regional variations, though, and EPCs have less influence on prices in the South East, as demand for houses is so high here. Aside from going to market, an EPC is also needed when your property is viewed, when written information is requested, or the moment when contracts are being exchanged. In any case, it’s best to have this requirement taken care of ahead of time. An EPC is graded with an energy efficiency rating from A to G. With A meaning the property is well insulated and very energy efficient. Modern homes tend to be rated quite highly due to new building techniques and materials. At the other end of the scale if a property is graded G, it is likely to be a property with no insulation, draughts, and old lighting/electrics. Green Deal Finance allows you to pay for some of the cost of your energy improvements in instalments under a Green Deal Plan (note that this is a credit agreement, but with instalments being added to the electricity bill for the property). The availability of a Green Deal Plan will depend upon your financial circumstances. There is a limit to how much Green Deal Finance can be used, which is determined by how much energy the improvements are estimated to save for a 'typical household'. There are multiple approaches to facilitating a mees in the workplace. Commercial EPCs Explained EPCs let the person who will use the building know how costly it will be to heat and light, and what its carbon dioxide emissions are likely to be. The EPC will also state what the energy-efficiency rating could be if improvements are made, and highlights cost-effective ways to achieve a better rating. Even if you rent your building, some improvements noted on the EPC may be worth implementing, such as switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs. An energy performance certificate (EPC) must be issued by an energy assessor who is accredited to produce EPCs for that particular category of building. An EPC must express the asset rating of the building and include a reference value such as a current legal standard or benchmark. An EPC assessor establishes the construction of the main house and any extensions and inputs their approximate age ranges to enable the software to assess the thermal efficiency of the house. Measurements are taken inside and out and the heating system and controls are recorded. The levels of current insulation are assessed alongside any energy saving measures already undertaken. This information is input into the software which produces the report to be uploaded into the central register. One can unearth additional insights about Non-Domestic Energy Performance Contractors on this UK Government Website entry. Related Articles: Background Insight With Regard To Commercial EPC Contractors More Background Information On Commercial Energy Performance Certificate Contractors More Findings About Low Carbon Energy Assessors More Findings About Commercial Energy Performance Contractors More Findings About Commercial Energy Performance Contractors Background Findings With Regard To Qualified Domestic Energy Assessors More Findings With Regard To Non-Domestic EPC Contractors