Energy assessor schemes accredited

Schemes from the HVCA and CIBSE have been approved by the Department for Communities and Local Government to operate accreditation schemes for energy assessors.

Assessments of energy use in buildings are needed under provisions contained in the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

The provision of building energy performance certificates (EPCs) and the regular inspection of air conditioning equipment have been addressed by the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections (England and Wales) Regulations, which came into force in March last year.

“These require owners of all buildings to have a current EPC – and all ‘publicly owned and publicly accessed’ premises to feature a display energy certificate (DEC) confirming the energy usage of the building,” explained Bob Towse, HVCA head of technical and safety.

In the case of all commercial buildings, the regulations specify that a current EPC must be in place at handover, construction, sale or rental. They also lay down that air conditioning systems with a cooling capacity of 12 kW or more must be inspected by a competent person, who will provide a report detailing measures that would improve the energy efficiency of the system.

“All systems with a cooling capacity of 250 kW or more are required to have been inspected by January 2009, and the remainder by January 2011,” said Towse. And he stressed that the persons carrying out all of these inspections and assessments must be members of a Government-approved accreditation scheme – such as the one being established by HVCA subsidiary BESCA (Building Engineering Services Competence Accreditation).

“The HVCA believes that there are many skilled individuals within its member firms who are ideally qualified to undertake these new mandatory inspections and assessments,” said Towse. “We therefore anticipate a steady stream of enquiries to BESCA over the next few months”.

The Association also expects the new regulations to encourage greater emphasis on routine service and maintenance and the refurbishment of sub-standard premises.

“That has to be good news for the construction and engineering sectors, for the built environment – and for building users and occupiers,” Towse concluded.

CIBSE Certification has also received approval for its Low Carbon Energy Assessors scheme.