Commercial Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs)
EPCs are required for newly built commercial properties along with those being sold or to be made available for rent.
A Commercial Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is intended to inform potential buyers or tenants about the energy performance of a building, so they can consider energy efficiency as part of their investment or business decision to buy or occupy that building.
A Commercial EPC, which is valid for 10 years, must be made available to prospective purchasers or tenants. It should be made available when the property is marketed and on a request to visit the property.
Exemptions to the requirement for an EPC
EPCs are not required on construction, sale or rent for:
- places of worship
- temporary buildings with a planned time of use less than two years (see glossary terms)
- stand alone buildings with a total useful floor area of less than 50m2 that are not dwellings
- industrial sites, workshops and non-residential agricultural buildings with low energy demand
Information required to produce an EPC
We can help you by providing EPCs for your properties. Our Assessors, who are fully accredited to carry out Level 3 and Level 4 assessments, will visit site to carry out a survey and collect the data required for the Government approved software.
The information that will be required to produce an EPC includes:
- the individual spaces or zones in use within the building, and their dimensions (either as verified from plans or as measured). This information is most readily provided by building plans
- the activities conducted within the zones. Examples of zones include retail space, office space, kitchens, storage etc
- the heating and ventilation services for each zone (including type of system, metering, controls, fuel used etc.)
- the lighting and controls used for each zone
- the construction of the fabric of the building and thermal efficiency of the materials used: roof, floors, walls and glazing.
If there are no plans for a building, the energy assessor will need to survey the building and gather the appropriate information. If you have up-to-date information and plans for your building this process will be less time-consuming. Our energy assessors are responsible for ensuring the information used in the energy calculations is accurate and, even where detailed plans are available, we shall need to validate this information by making a site inspection.
Recommendations with an Energy Performance Certificate
The recommendation report that is included with an EPC will help to improve the energy rating of a building. The recommendations only include those improvements that are appropriate for the building that has been assessed. For each recommendation indicative paybacks are noted. The recommendations are provided in four categories those:
- with a short term payback – less than three years
- with a medium term payback – between three and seven years
- with a long term payback – greater than seven years; and
- other recommendations (based on our energy assessor’s knowledge).
Why Terry Holmes Consultants?
Our Assessors are fully accredited to carry out Level 3 and Level 4 assessments.
Our staff would welcome the opportunity of discussing your requirements with you.
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