Energy Performance Certificates: what you need to do

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is the EU’s attempt to raise energy efficiency standards within the European property market. The directive, published in January 2003, requires a reduction in CO2 emissions for all new buildings and the preparation of energy performance certificates (EPCs) to be implemented in full by January 2009.

One of the most significant requirements under the EPBD is the need to provide an EPC for new and existing residential and non-residential buildings whenever they are constructed, sold or rented out.

The certificate will include an overall energy rating expressed on an A to G colour-coded bar-chart scale. It will also give recommendations for cost-effective improvement of energy performance and it will remain valid for 10 years, provided there are no changes to layout or construction.

The certificate provides an asset rating which is a measure of the intrinsic performance capability of the building. It rates the standard of the building fabric and building services equipment and controls for a standardised pattern of use and climate.

Buildings over 1000m2 occupied by public sector organisations will be required to have a display energy certificate (DEC) to enable the public to interpret easily how well the building performs. These are slightly different from energy certificates and merely show how a building performs operationally.

Impacts of the ratings

Achieving positive ratings on EPCs and DECs is a further challenge facing property managers and landlords. Both technical and cultural measures can help in pushing performance ratings higher, and it is anticipated that higher ratings, representing more efficient buildings, will appear more attractive to potential purchasers or tenants, thus improving a building’s “competitiveness” within the property market.

How to prepare an energy performance certificate

The A to G energy rating is based on the CO2 emissions calculated using BRE SBEM, or other accredited computer software. There are two distinct parts to this process: data capture and building modelling.

Information is required about the building’s geometric layout, plus construction details of the building fabric and m&e installations. The geometric information takes the form of accurate, up-to-date floor plans from which dimensions may be scaled.

Other information includes, for example, details of the roof, window and wall construction, electrical installation, lighting and HVAC. The level of detail required exceeds that gathered during a normal due diligence building survey.

For relatively new buildings, the information may be readily available in O&M manuals or from in-house maintenance staff. In most cases, however, it will need to be obtained largely by site survey. This may require measured surveys and/or detailed building services audits.

It is important for building owners and landlords to act now to avoid the bottleneck that many expect to occur when the legislation is implemented, because of an anticipated lack of assessors.

The best way to reduce the risk of being caught in the bottleneck is to prioritise property portfolios and assess gaps in the available information so data gathering can begin.

This data will form part of the input for the SBEM computer analysis. At the moment this software calculates the CO2 emissions for compliance with Building Regulations Part L, but BRE is in the process of updating it to include the final step of determining the A to G energy rating.

Gathering building data and undertaking the calculations may take many weeks and therefore fall outside the normal due diligence timescales for property acquisition.

The data will have to be more detailed than that required for due diligence surveys.

In practice, it will fall to landlords to prepare EPCs.

Multi-let and multi-use buildings

The key to understanding the requirements for EPCs for multi-use and multi-let buildings lies with the building services present and the activities taking place.

It is unclear whether an individual EPC will be needed for each tenanted area, but it is unlikely that one EPC will serve an entire multi-use building – a balance between the two will be required.

This strengthens the case for up-front research and analysis regarding the level of information available for each property.

Co-operation and sharing of information from tenant to landlord is critical as the landlord alone cannot prepare an EPC. In particular, landlords will need to know precise details of the tenants’ fit-out.

What can be done now?

Landlords should start gathering data, including:

• accurate, current floor plans;
• details of the building fabric from O&M manuals or other sources;
• details of the M&E installation from O&M manuals, building log books or maintenance personnel.

Where information is not available site surveys can be undertaken.

When data has been gathered, the CO2 emissions can be calculated using the beta version of the SBEM software. This may be completed when the SBEM software is finally updated. In short, a substantial amount of work can be undertaken now in advance of the April deadline.