Ready for inspection

The Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations for non-domestic buildings will make one of the biggest impacts on the management of the built environment for decades

EPCs

From 6 April an energy performance certificate (EPC) is required on construction, sale or rent of most non-domestic buildings over 10,000m². Modifications that result in the addition or removal of building parts and the extension or introduction of Hvac services may also require an EPC. There are some exemptions, such as places of worship and small or temporary buildings.
The EPC is concerned with the intrinsic energy performance potential of a building, it’s fabric and services rather than the way energy is managed. It gives an asset rating on an A to G scale of energy performance based on CO₂ emissions. EPCs are valid for 10 years unless the building is modified, and are accompanied by a recommendation report highlighting cost-effective energy-saving measures.

The trigger points for EPCs are:

• on construction/modification – the person undertaking the work gives the EPC to the client on physical completion of the building and notifies building control, who will not issue the certificate of completion until the EPC is provided.
  

• on sale/rent – as soon as the building is offered for sale/rent the seller/landlord must make an EPC available to prospective buyers/tenants. The EPC may be for the whole building or individual units, and completion of a contract should not happen without it.

Some multi-tenancy sale/rent scenarios are complex and you should seek advice from an accredited expert to determine the best solution. The maximum penalty for non-compliance is currently £5,000, enforceable by trading standards, and includes the requirement to produce a valid EPC. There are some ‘transitional arrangements’ in place until 1 October which give a little flexibility due to the shortage of accredited assessors.

DECs

From 1 October a display energy certificate (DEC) must be prominently displayed in non-domestic public buildings with a gross floor area over 1,000 m². A public building is one occupied by public authorities or institutions providing public services to large numbers of persons eg central government, local authority, schools, hospitals etc. Publicly-funded facilities such as leisure centres, theatres and public/private hospitals will also need a DEC. Smaller buildings will be ‘caught’ by the Regulations on a site where a group of buildings with a combined floor area exceeding 1,000 m² are connected by a ‘conditioned’ space/corridor or served by the same heating and/or cooling system such as a district scheme.

The DEC will convey the operational rating of the building, again on a scale of A to G, which indicates how well the building is being managed and operated from an energy perspective. DECs are primarily based on energy consumption, so affected FMs should start gathering validated energy consumption data without delay. A DEC is valid for one year and will include advice for improvement in an advisory report, which is valid for seven years. At the time of writing the software to produce DECs has still not been released for industry trial, so meeting the October deadline will provide an interesting challenge for many organisations.

Air-con inspection

FMs must have an inspection report for air conditioning systems with over 250 kW cooling capacity by 4 January 2009. A system is the sum of all individual cooling units in a building under the control of one building owner or operator, including smaller ‘window-box’ and split units that are considered to be part of the ‘system’. Process cooling is excluded. The inspection report will provide information about system performance, identifying opportunities to reduce CO₂ emissions and make potentially significant energy and cost savings. It will also highlight improvement measures with a reasonable payback period and remains valid for five years.

Dave Cocking is the managing director of Arrow Energy Solutions

Non-domestic energy assessment

EPCs, DECs and air conditioning inspection reports for commercial and public buildings can only be produced by an accredited non-domestic energy assessor. Due to the increased complexity of non-domestic buildings there are significant challenges qualifying and accrediting sufficient numbers of assessors to meet the demand. FMs should check that the accreditation and competence of the assessor is suitable for the complexity of their building or system. Cibse launched the Low Carbon Energy Assessor Register on 6 April, and their website provides a wealth of information regarding the competence of assessors in all of the above areas. Information is provided on the Communities and Local Government website, however, this is quite limited. FMs may be better seeking advice from an accredited expert where they encounter one of the many ‘grey areas’.