High Street retailers such as Marks and Spencers and John Lewis will soon be helping homeowners with insulation, double glazing, solar panels and a range of other improvements.

The initiative is being led by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). It aims to help reduce the energy use from homes and meet the government’s carbon reduction target of 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

The scheme will be called the Green Deal and is planned to operate  on a pay as you save basis. It works by the government lending money to make home improvements that will lower running costs. The occupants will continue to pay energy bills at their old rate while the savings accumulate and repay the funding.

The financial responsibility for paying back the funding stays with the property rather than with the owner and any new occupants continue the arrangement which will eventually lead to an annual profit from energy savings. The scheme is expected to be launched in the autumn.

Consumers are likely to be able to access loans of up to £10,000 to pay for 23 different types of improvements and the process starts with a survey by an accredited energy assessor who produces an EPC showing the improvements that are relevant. Things continue with a Green Deal advisor and on to a provider (Like Marks and Spenser, John Lewis, B&Q, etc).

But unlike other home improvements, the provider will only use certified installers to carry out the work. These people will be trained and monitored and will have processes in place to take responsibility for the work they have carried out and for issues such as complaints and safety. When works are complete a final EPC will confirm the property’s new efficiency.

The Government are describing the scheme as the largest change to British Housing since the Second World War.

Which measures will your home or buy to let portfolio benefit from? Click here to book your energy survey and find out!

(The Green Deal will be for commercial properties too – watch this space!)

It’s been no secret that considerable numbers of assessors that took early training to produce EPCs were poorly trained.

Many never completely qualified and worked as data collectors, relying on third parties to remotely sign off their work.

The government has recognised this and things have changed over the last few years with a raft of tougher standards outlawing bad practices – better still for quality standards, assessors who have not passed new examinations by the 1st April 2012 will be suspended.

Why is the government so worried about quality standards? That’s because the new EPC will be the first step towards accessing green deal funding for home owners as well as qualifying a property for feed in tariff payments. Not to mention when in 2016, it becomes illegal to market an inefficient property rate G or F.

From April, the calculation software that works out property’s energy savings has been beefed up. A survey using the new RdSAP 9.91 is more involved than previously and allows assessors to better reflect the actual efficiency of a particular building by recording evidence about the property’s  thermal performance and relies less on generic assumptions.

Improvement recommendations have been extended too. Systems are now available that reclaim heat from shower waste water and keep the heat that is normally lost from boiler flue gases.

Add all that up and you’ve got better assessors, better EPCs and some genuinely interesting improvements that can bring today’s home up to tomorrows standard of efficiency – probably without needing to even spend any of your own money!

Need to book us for an EPC survey? Just click here for a prompt quotation

Now, the government has redesigned the EPC which primarily gives the savings in money and this is the section of the EPC that the agent will display.

The Landmark database will be adapted to give agents an easy method of downloading a web friendly EPC front page. Agents will first need to register for the service and then use the reference number that the energy assessor provides for each property.

Under the new rules, the agent will need to satisfy themselves that the EPC is either already in existence or has been instructed at the time of marketing and be able to prove that they have used all reasonable efforts to secure the EPC within 28 days.

In most residential cases the agent has already complied with this – the biggest changes come with commercial property.

What is different for commercial agents?

Since 2008, commercial EPCs were always intended to be in existence at the time of marketing a commercial property – this hasn’t changed. However, a loophole that meant commercial agents were not liable if the building owner didn’t obtain an EPC has been closed. The agent is now liable along with the building owner – after April, Commercial agents have a duty to satisfy themselves that an EPC is either in existence or has been commissioned. This is backed up by fines of up to £5000 for those who fail to implement the new rules. At the same time trading standards officers will have the Power to Require the Production of Documents.

 What can we do to help?

We can help you locate a lost or missing commercial EPC if you think there may be one in existence.  Our regular customers also know that from us, their EPCs are delivered promptly and are accurately produced – we are regularly audited by our accreditation body for quality and across around 1000 surveys, have passed every time!

Click here to ask us a question or get a prompt quotation.

Energy savings in London

Text messaging, satellite TV, cameras on phones – you don’t need any of those things either. Yet we come to rely on them, unnecessary or not. Of course there are advantages that smart businesses are fast discovering, not only does energy efficiency add something to the bottom line, it can improve the way we feel about working in a building. A comfortable indoor climate, natural lighting or ventilation makes us feel better - for instance, efficiently designed lighting systems are known to improve productivity.

Well designed and efficient buildings stand alongside our country’s historic structures in many towns and cities. Both have their merits. Surprisingly, its not fully acknowledged that both new and old alike can improve efficiency – savings are often missed in newer buildings because it’s assumed that the efficiency is somehow inherent within its structure rather than being a result of the way the building is used and businesses occupying older buildings often  don’t bother – “its too old, right”?

What ever the type of space a business occupies there are usually savings that an energy audit can uncover. A modest saving on a weekly basis may be considerable when viewed on a yearly basis or over the period of a lease.

We may think that energy efficiency is an add on extra  – the trouble is though, exactly like text messaging, satellite TV, cameras on phones,  once you’ve achieved better efficiency its difficult to imagine how you can live without it!

Click here to get a quote for an energy audit on your building

Finding savings - London Underground’s AC

Since that time, considerable savings have been found, often by implementing ‘no cost’ improvement measures. AC systems vary considerably and we deal with all types and size systems across London – however few organizations spread themselves as broadly across town as London Underground.

What a fascination few months it was towards the end of last year inspecting London underground’s AC systems within a range of buildings of all ages that support the operation of the tube. 

From training centres, canteens and comms rooms to staff accommodation, simulators and offices!

To deliver on time, large projects need extra care. Aside from our usual inspection and reporting, it’s important to understand the individual requirements of a company – its procedures and processes. For instance, tube sites present their own collection of risks to mitigate and careful evaluation is needed from the outset.

But once everything is in place, delivering on time is easily achievable. So too is finding the hidden savings lurking within annual energy costs which are known to be considerable in the case of air conditioning systems.

If you or your client have a project that needs careful consideration, why not click here to ask us a question – we’d be happy to take a look and discuss the potential for the reduction in running costs that a system might have  - whether that be above or below ground!

*Air Conditioning systems over 12 kw need to have an TM44 report in place by a 4th January 2011 and then re-inspect every 5 years.  

This is required by Part 5 of the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations 2007, which implements Article 9 of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.