Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)
Display Energy Certificates (DECs)
Air Conditioning Inspection
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)
As a result of the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive (EPBD), Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) are required to be produced for all conditioned buildings over 50m2 when built, made for sale, or made for rent. The EPC is intended to be used as a saleable feature for the building and attempts to provide an easy to use rating system to enable interested parties to consider energy consumption when clients are choosing the property they intend to occupy.
GENEX are fully capable of delivering EPCs for all complexity of buildings. Our experienced assessors have undertaken assessments on a wide range of building types and are fully conversant with the latest legislation. Assessors can undertake calculations from proposed designs or from a survey of the property in question and have worked with major managing agents, international contractors, engineering consultants and national government departments.
Display Energy Certificates (DECs)
Distinctly different from an EPC, a Display Energy Certificate (DEC) is a rating based on actual consumption of a building, or part of a building. It is required for all publicly occupied buildings or parts of buildings over 1000m2 that regularly receive visits from the public. The rating system is an easy to understand A – G rating calculated by comparing typical benchmark data for similar building types to the actual consumption of the property based on billed data.
The purpose of a DEC is to present the consumption of a building to the public and thereby encourage building users to pursue energy efficiency and therefore efficient use of public funds. A DEC is valid for 12 months and therefore performance year on year can be measured.
Building parts or site meters can be apportioned based on the floor area, but to benefit from accurate ratings, individual supplies to buildings is encouraged.
GENEX are extremely experienced at delivering DECs for individual buildings, small portfolios as well as large portfolios for regional Councils involving site investigations and communications with energy managers. Recent large projects include delivery of over 70 DECs for Kirklees Council including Advisory Reports (AR) and individual energy audits for over 110 non-domestic properties. GENEX staff all hold suitable security clearances to work within schools and other such restricted environments. Other projects include production of DECs for NHS Primary Care Trusts, national government departments, university developments as well as commercial buildings.
From the 1st January 2011, DECs must be in place for all public building over 250m2 that will be regularly visited by the public, dramatically increasing the number of DECs required. Further proposals have indicated the government is considering making DECs mandatory for all commercial properties. Indeed DECs are a simple method of communicating energy performance of the site, and have been successfully used to encourage responsibility from all building users, thereby reducing costs and carbon emission; DECs can also help to contribute to a BREEAM In-Use assessment.
Precise requirements to enable the DEC (and AR if required) can be, in some instances complicated dependant on the site and metering provision. The ability to produce the DEC is also dependant on the availability of suitable data. GENEX would be happy to discuss precise requirements for your property in more detail to enable simple presentation of your certification.
Air Conditioning Inspections
All air conditioning systems with an effective rated output of more than 12kW must be regularly inspected by an Energy Assessor. The inspections must be a maximum of five years apart.
The regulations require the first inspection of the affected air conditioning system be carried out in accordance with the following:
• For all systems first put into service on or after 1st January 2008, the first inspection must have taken place within five years of the date when it was first put into service.
• For other air conditioning systems, where the effective rated output is more than 250kW, the first inspection must have occurred by 4th January 2009.
• For other air conditioning systems where the effective rated output is more than 12kW, less than 250kW, the first inspection must happen by 4th January 2011.
An Air Conditioning Energy assessment allows your organisation to ensure compliance with the European Directive legislation which is now in effect within the United Kingdom. The benefits and objectives to the client from undertaking an air conditioning inspection report are to:
• Provide building owners/operators with information about system performance.
• Identify opportunities to reduce your CO2 emissions.
• Save energy and money.
The output of the inspection will be a report highlighting measures which, if adopted, will have the potential to save energy and money within a reasonable payback period. Inspection reports will remain valid for five years, after which the system will require another inspection.
GENEX have the ability to deliver these inspection reports through our own CIBSE trained and accredited engineers. All of our assessors are Charted Engineers with many years of building services design and management experience. We are therefore not only independently accredited to deliver these services but have the depth of knowledge to maximize the potential benefit of the relevant works, thereby maximizing any potential energy savings to our clients.
