As part of our Display Energy Certificate (DEC) service, we are required to issue a Recommendation Report alongside the DEC if one is not currently in place or the existing one has expired.
A Recommendation Report contains specific energy-saving measures that were identified as part of a site survey. They are valid for seven years and do not need to be displayed.
Because of this, Recommendation Reports are often filed away and overlooked rather than taken advantage of. Which is a shame because they contain great tips that can be a huge benefit to your buildings and therefore your business.
Many of these recommendations will be very low cost to implement or free just by simply changing the behaviour of how you use energy in the building.
Some very common examples are:
- Ensuring all computers are turned off at the end of the day and not left on overnight and at weekends
- Regulating the use of Air Conditioning and ensuring it is only used where appropriate. For example, if the heating systems and air conditioning are independently operated, make sure that heating and cooling is not taking place at the same time. Also, be mindful that rooms are not unnecessarily overheated and cooled.
- A useful tip for a catering facility would be to avoid placing refrigeration equipment near cooking appliances.
- Make building occupiers more aware of their energy usage. Think about how to engage them to help them contribute to your energy reduction strategy.
- Review the heating and zone controls. Make sure that they complement the building’s occupancy and orientation. For example, does the building get used in different areas at different times of day; assess how many rooms are south facing, these are less likely to need the same levels of heating or cooling to ones that are north facing. Heating and cooling is not a one size fits all!
- Get skylight windows cleaned to let in natural light.
The DEC site survey also makes higher level suggestions on how energy can be saved; building managers should consider looking into these suggestions for longer-term investment. While this will never replace a fully detailed energy audit of a building, it could be useful as a business case by building managers to seek funding from senior management to investigate these options further.
These recommendations depend on the building but could include:
- Improving lighting in a building and upgrading to LED
- Installing solar thermal hot water and photovoltaic generation
- Installing new energy efficient boiler
- Moving to a different energy source for heating
- Upgrading glazing
- Where appropriate looking into different technologies like Combined Heat and Power.
While many of these latter recommendations do require considerable investment and take some time to receive payback, careful consideration should be given, and expert advice sought. Our Energy Consultants are ideally placed to provide further in in-depth advice on customised solutions, providing details of specifications to consider, costs for installation and payback times.
If you have any questions about implementing cost-effective energy saving projects, would like to improve your DEC rating or need to renew your Display Energy Certificate and reports, learn more or contact us today.
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