The Problem with EPCs

Depending on who you talk to there are various different statistics quoted around how much of the UK’s energy and consequently carbon emissions are caused by the built environment. The precise figure is not really important, what is important is that it is a great deal, certainly enough that people should care about how energy efficient buildings are. Unfortunately however people don’t, they just do not care. If people did care they would want to see an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) when they viewed property, they would want to know why it had achieved the rating it had, and what could be done to improve it, but that just doesn’t happen.

When people are buying, leasing or renting a building, they are interested in how much it will cost, where it is located, what it looks like, what the local amenities are like, what the terms of the lease are, what the rates and service charges are, when it will be available etc. Against these factors in their decision making the building’s energy performance comes a very poor second.

So if it is not seen as important by the people buying or renting the property it is also not important to the sellers and landlords that are required by law to have a valid certificate when a property is sold or leased. As a result obtaining an EPC is seen as a regulatory burden…. a cost….more government red tape. Understandably irritated by what they see as another useless piece of paper sellers and landlords source an EPC from the cheapest possible energy assessor they can lay their hands on.

Typically this energy assessor will not be an expert with years of knowledge under their belt. They will be someone who until recently was looking for a career change to the shiny new world of the “green” collar worker. The will have paid an extortionate price for a training course from a company telling them that there was a severe lack of assessors in the market and emerged bleary eyed after as little as 5 days actual training with their accreditation.

This energy assessor soon discovers that there are many people like them and too few buildings to go around and so in an effort to draw some income they lower their price to such an extent that they have to get through more and more assessments each week to make ends meet.

As a result quality suffers and certificates are produced from a set of default values to speed up the process, and the energy assessor who isn’t really in a position to provide sound advice based on the small amount of training they have received anyway will get way with it because the Landlord doesn’t really care what the certificate or accompanying report says, just that they have one.

Thus EPCs which could be used as a mechanism to dramatically reduce the energy use of our building stock will ultimately be devalued through price erosion, lack of knowledge on behalf of the Energy assessor and lack of interest on behalf of buyers and landlords to a useless piece of paper and a self fulfilling prophecy.

Until there is a reason for buyers and tenants to take a real interest in a buildings energy rating (linking the EPC rating to business rates and council tax payments has been discussed) EPCS will continue to be, to paraphrase Edmund Blackadder, like a broken pencil……pointless!

I say, I say, I say, what is the difference between an EPC and a DEC?

Unfortunately there is no punch line, the rather tedious and simplistic answer to this question is:

An EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) is required for a commercial property over 50 square metres at the point that it is marketed for sale or let. It shows an asset rating for the building which conveys its potential to be operated efficiently and is updated every ten years.

A DEC (Display Energy Certificate) needs to be displayed by public buildings with a floor area greater than 1,000 square metres. It shows an operational rating which conveys how efficiently the building is actually being run and is updated on an annual basis.

This however begs the question; why distinguish between the certificates that are produced for public buildings and those that are produced for commercial properties? What is an even greater puzzle is why public building certificates should focus on operational efficiency whilst commercial buildings are only concerned with the asset rating and not the actual energy use.

After all when the Carbon Reduction Commitment comes in to force in April next year both public and private sectors will sit on the same league table, and their position on it will be determined by their ability to reduce carbon emissions, which will involve improving both the asset and operational ratings of their building stock.

In reality the answer to the original question is that DECs and EPCs are two halves of a larger picture and without both halves it is difficult to make any meaningful evaluation. For example, by way of an analogy, if Bill gets 40 miles to the gallon from his car and Ben gets only 30 it would be tempting to suggest that Bill is the more efficient, until that is you learn that Bill is driving a Ferrari and Ben a Honda Civic.

So if we are going to have any kind of certificate (and as an accredited energy assessor I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t) lets have one that is the same for all buildings and provides a rating based on both the asset and operational efficiency of the building.

One puzzle however remains. Both DECs and EPCs are born out of the European Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) the redrafting of which is currently the subject of a piece of government consultation. As part of this consultation answers and opinions are sort on a whole range of issues including whether or not DECs should be extended to all public buildings over 250 square metres, and whether EPCs should be included as part of advertisements for properties. None of the questions however are concerned with whether or not the existing system of producing DECs and EPCs provides any useful or meaningful information. It is rather like asking if jelly should be fixed to the ceiling using nails or screws.

Next week…..Why it doesn’t matter what the difference is between an EPC and a DEC.