With just 50 accredited assessors, more stalling tactics and a get-out-of jail-free card, has the Government really done its homework on energy performance certificates? B&E reports.

THE DELAY and handling of the government’s Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) has been nothing short of farcical – and worse still, nothing short of unexpected.

Just weeks away from introducing EPCs on commercial buildings sold, constructed or let, the government has backtracked and allowed property owners an extra six months to get a certificate for developments marketed before 6 April.

The EPC is designed to provide a rating of the energy efficiency of a building on a descending scale, from A to G.

The government claimed it made the amendments after droves of property owners got in touch to find out what would happen to those developments already on the market after the April deadline.

EPCs for PCs?
When it came to the roll out of EPCs for houses last June, as part of the Home Information Packs, the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) had to admit at the eleventh hour that it had less than half of the assessors it needed.

Less than one year down the line, nobody is surprised to discover that a lack of trained assessors has been rooted out as the primary cause for the latest delay.

The DCLG told B&E this month it had approximately 50 trained assessors. When asked if the delay had anything to do with software problems a spokesperson denied the department was aware of any problems with it, or that anybody has raised the issue.

John Reyers, partner at Knight Frank is currently qualifying to be an accredited commercial assessor. He says the delay is good news because the new version of the software that produces the certificates hasn’t long been approved. “There aren’t enough trained assessors and the software has glitches,” he says. “Literally every week there is an update on the software. Version 3 was the workable one, which only came out about two weeks ago. So if you didn’t have software that could actually produce the certificate until two weeks ago, you were never going to be ready. You can’t train someone on a system that is not developed.”

Reyers says that as long as the system is up and running, as it is now, and the accredited courses can get enough people through, there shouldn’t be a problem. “Everyone is committed to following the government on this but basically they had it implemented before the system was ready.”

Techno-turmoil
Roger Watts, director at Trident Building Consultancy says that it is unfortunate the government didn’t take guidance from third parties before deciding on the Building Research Establishment’s Simplified Building Energy Model (SBEM) as a measure for assessment. “It is just not a functional working option,” he says. “It would have been far easier to go down a similar assessment method for public buildings, which require a Display Energy Certificate (DEC).”

DECs will come into effect on 1 October and will be calculated from the building’s energy bills. An EPC rating is calculated on the heat loss of the fabric and the energy ratings of different zones of the building. “If we had been consulted we would have said it needs to be done in a more simpler way,” says Watts. “Total floor area over total fuel consumption. I wonder how close the rating would have come out?”

For better or for worse, the roll-out will begin on 6 April for buildings with a floor space greater than 10,000m2 once constructed, sold or let.

So just who is it going to affect and how? Here is B&E’s pan-industry A to G reaction.

ARCHITECTS: “WE NEED MORE DESIGN TIME”
The energy rating of a building is likely to spur architects and contractors to work even closer with engineers to build to the developer’s specifications.

Martin Herron, head of sustainability at commercial architect RPS Burks Green, says the client will drive the demand, but the practice is uncertain as to how much it is going to cost.

Part L of the Building Regulations is likely to be the equivalent of a B to C rating. “For some that’s enough, for others, it’s not,” says Herron. “It is difficult to know where to aim for without knowing how much it is going to cost.”

RPS’s recent projects have included retail units for PC World in East Kilbride and a 50,000m2 distribution centre for Amazon.co.uk in Bedfordshire. Herron says the fabrics of the buildings the practice is designing won’t change an awful lot to achieve ratings of B or C. However, radical changes will be required to achieve an A rating.

“To achieve an A rating it is fundamentally about the building’s primary source of energy generation,” he says.

The government will therefore have to make the economics of using renewable technologies such as ground source heat pumps and combined heat and power (CHP) systems more attractive.

“The average build stock of the UK is pretty bad,” he says. “But to get a B rating you might be looking at being 50% more efficient. That is a big number as we’ve only just got our heads round the last 30% from the changes to the Building Regulations.”

In order to deliver higher specifications, Herron says, there must be more design time. “There has got to be more upfront work to work out the best and most affordable way of achieving whatever grade it is you’re aiming for.”

BUILDING CONTRACTORS: “IT’S JUST AN EXTRA SERVICE TO BOLT ON”
Contractors wont find it an issue with newconstruction because they’ve been building to Part L standards since 2006. Typically, a building without air-conditioning and with gas-fired heating compliant with Part L should achieve a rating of between B and C.

Arup director Terry Dix leads the group’s mechanical, electrical and public health business in Europe. He says the biggest impact will be if clients start demanding A-rated buildings. He says corporate social responsibility statements will provide a clear guide to demonstrate the intent of an organisation.

“It is giving the client the opportunity to demand an A or B-rated building,” he says. “We are getting clients now phoning us up and saying they want an upper level B or an A.”

For a one-off building, Dix says, it could push construction costs up anywhere between 20% and 30%. “If you start looking more strategically at groups of buildings you might be able to get that cost down,” he says.

Dix says that an EPC could also thrash out any anomalies in Part L. “If somebody comes to do an EPC and the rating isn’t as good as the theoretical Building Regulations to Part L, there will be questions asked. There could be some embarrassing revelations.”

CHARTERED BUILDING SURVEYORS: “IT’S A NONSENSE MECHANISM”
The biggest gripe the chartered surveying fraternity has is that it wasn’t consulted on any part of the certificate. “We are in the market where our clients are buying and selling properties and refurbishing existing buildings, but we are stuck as to what advice we give them,” says Roger Watts, director at Trident Building Consultancy.

Watts, who took part in a five-day assessor training course, says new-build won’t be an issue, but it is assessing existing stock where it all falls apart. “The big issue is that we are being forced down this SBEM route and that is really just a nonsense mechanism.”

SBEM requires separate energy analysis for the zones of a floor of the building. So a reception room, a meeting room, a toilet and kitchen would all require separate data readings. “If you multiply that by how many floors a building has, you can begin to see how long it would take to collect and input this data,” says Watts. “We wanted a more simplistic way based on total floor area over total fuel consumption.”

Watts also feels the mechanism is open to abuse. Both surveyors and engineers are needed to collect the data for SBEM, but it is only the assessor that needs to be accredited. “Commercial companies might have a few accredited assessors but they could potentially send out people who are not terribly well trained to look at the properties and take the measurements and notes.”

Like many in the industry, Watts believes there won’t be enough assessors, which could open it up to further embarrassment. “Under the guidance it says if as an owner you commission an EPC and they can’t do it within two weeks you’re let off,” he says. “I think it is fabulous.”

DEVELOPERS: “THE BATTLE GROUND WILL BE THE HIGH STREET”
Big commercial developers are likely to be the most active as a result of the roll-out.

Some of the large developers will want to see how their portfolio measures up. They might be looking at disposing poorly performing assets or looking at ways to improve them. “A lot of the big developers are saying if we don’t make the right decisions now we could be lumbered with buildings for 20 years,” says Dix.

Dr Paul Toyne head of sustainability at Bovis Lend Lease says the company is training staff on energy efficiency to carry out a lot of the work in-house.

Across its portfolio, the group’s development arm, Lend Lease, runs public buildings, such as hospitals and schools,and owns commercial assets such as retail units. Public buildings will be required to have a DEC by October. In the healthcare market, Toyne says, it is up to the NHS Trusts to lay down their intentions on energy efficiency.

Will Lend Lease upgrade its own assets to an A-rating? “It hasn’t been talked about,” says Dr Toyne. “ We don’t know at this stage. Some of the retail centres we own were designed more than 10 years ago, so they might require investment to improve their performance.”

There are two important points Lend Lease will be considering, says Dr Toyne. “We tend to over-specify a lot of the kit we use when we design buildings. We have to address that and get the most from what we put in there to run the building.”

Amongst Lend Lease’s clients are Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. “There will be a lot of competition there,” says Dr Toyne. “They will be looking at retrofitting and improvement of their existing stores and moving forward when they open new stores, energy efficiency will be at the forefront of their minds.”

ENERGY ASSESSORS: “IF I’M SWAMPED, I’M HAPPY”
As B&E went to press, the government claimed to have approximately 50 accredited assessors to carry out EPC assessments for commercial buildings. But is this enough? A spokesperson said: “Our estimates are that this is the number we’ll need to be carrying out EPC assessments. This only applies to buildings of more than 10,000m2 so the number of those in the UK is approximately 5,000.” Depending on how complex the building is, an EPC could cost up to £5,000.

David Kirkbride, director of Plan 3 Solutions is an accredited energy assessor. From his perspective, if he is swamped with work, he is happy. He says only time will tell if there are enough accredited assessors to deal with the workload. “Improvements will come from zero carbon technology; in particular, heating options such as ground source heat pumps, occupancy censor lighting and district heating on business parks.”

He is confident the zoning principles of SBEM, which will be used for buildings such as converted houses and office blocks, is not a complicated assessment. “The devil is in the detail,” he says. “Each zone has different characteristics. You might have a zone with different glazing so the solar gains in relation to that are completely different to perhaps a toilet area. There is also an opportunity to absorb zones into each other if they have similar characteristics.”

Kirkbride says it is too early to comment on how much certificates will cost, but he says a typical 15-to-20-year-old 1,500m2 office block with two floors could take up to four days to assess.

Buildings older than 20 years are unlikely to have CAD drawings, which will cost extra time and money to obtain. And even with CAD drawings, the building will still need to be zoned.

FACILITIES MANAGERS: “ASSETS WILL BE NAMED AND SHAMED”
Energy efficiency will be top of the list for FM managers. This is not confined to EPCs, but extends to the DECs required for publicly funded buildings, bringing into play universities, schools, hospitals and Ministry of Defence buildings.

For FM managers, one of the biggest hurdles will be changing the operational behaviour of the buildings’ users. “It will be a challenge in terms of lighting, controls, and how you use the building,” says John Reyers. “Can you wind energy systems down? Can you get people to tolerate slightly higher temperatures in peak summer? It will be those kinds of questions that will come into play.”

Both DECs and EPCs produce recommendations on how to improve energy efficiency. Reyers says he can envisage private companies producing DECs on their buildings as a way of competing against each other on the high street as they are displayed on shop windows.

At the moment there is no imperative for landlords to have energy efficient buildings.

“The reality is energy costs for most commercial organisations have historically been below 1% of their operating costs,” says Dix. “Not many people tend to get terribly excited about shaving 0.2% off their operating costs.”

Dix says energy certificates will impact on rents, and companies could use poor energy performance as a negotiating tool in purchase or tenancy agreements.

GOODS AND SUPPLIERS: “THE GOVERNMENT MUST BE THE BENCHMARK”
If the construction industry acts upon the EPC report’s recommendations, product manufacturers will receive a timely boost and there will be a thriving market for retrofitting energy efficient products.

The plethora of period buildings in city centres that have been converted into shops and offices offer huge potential for upgrades. The same goes for shopping centres built before the last Building Regulations, which required lower u-values in cavity walls, which should be relatively easy to upgrade.

“If a commercial building doesn’t have loft insulation then that will probably be number one or number two on the list of priorities,” says Stephen Wise, technical development manager at Knauf Insulation.

Retrofit cavity walls will also be high on the agenda, he says. “A cavity wall in a house is the same as in an office really. If it is suitable for domestic then it will be equally suitable for certain types of nondomestic construction.”

EPCs for homes came into effect last August and were a requirement of Home Information Pacts. Wise says Knauf is insulating approximately 4,000 cavity walls a day in the domestic market.

If energy efficiency is to surpass the standards required in Part L, Wise says construction clients will have to take a greater role in driving them forward. It is also worth remembering that the government is the construction industry’s biggest client.

“If the Government demands A-rated buildings when it procures buildings, then that will be a massive boost,” he says. “Also, if it says it will only rent buildings that are A-rated then that will drive the market too.”

Although there is currently no obligation for clients to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings once they have received a rating, Wise warns that enforcement might not be too far away.

EPCS IN FIGURES
6- The number of months’ stay of execution for developers and property owners who market their properties before 6 April. Certificates will be required by October at the latest.

10-The number of years an EPC remains valid for.

50-The number of trained assessors in the UK.

5,000-The estimated cost of an EPC on a large, complex, building (sterling).

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