Accuracy improved with latest DEC software

“There’s obviously been some tweeking of benchmarks and improvement of the central information portal,” said Richard Hipkiss, marketing director of i-Prophets and a DEC assessor whose recent work includes Transport for London and the Portsmouth hq for the Coast Guard. “Running data through the latest version gives me slightly higher ratings than using the last version, meaning it’s probably more accurate.”

However, assessors must still input data in sequence and cannot save information if they need to gather more data.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said the software will likely be refined over the coming months.

CIBSE, whose DEC training courses start in June, has urged the government to increase promotion of the need for DECs and also for an inspection of air conditioning systems over 250kW by January, as required under the EU Energy Performance in Buildings directive.