If you have experience in owning or occupying a building, you probably have had to get an EPC, DEC (if it is a public sector building) or an Air Conditioning Inspection (TM44) for it.
The UK Government has announced they have opened a Consultation on the Energy Performance of Building reforms (EPB). This consultation is due to close on 26 February 2025.
What will this consultation mean?
According to the government’s most recent statistics, buildings in the UK account for around 20% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. In order to meet the Government’s 2050 net zero commitment, action needs to be taken to reduce this statistic and ensure buildings across the UK are more energy efficient and sustainable.
One of the biggest barriers the UK faces in its net zero journey, is making homes and buildings more energy efficient and sustainable. This consultation will reform the current Energy Performance of Buildings regime to provide an improved system. Currently this system:
- Provides building owners and tenants with accurate information about the energy performance of their buildings to allow them to make informed investment and purchase decisions
- Provides accurate information to determine eligibility for schemes and measure progress against government targets
- Acts as an information tool to support a range of actions including reducing carbon emissions
- Reflects the needs of wider users of EPCs beyond building owners and tenants, such as suppliers of energy efficiency products and services, as well as lenders.
The consultation is seeking views on the Energy Performance of Buildings framework, including clarifying regulations and focusing on improving the applicability, quality, and data usage of energy certificates in domestic and non-domestic buildings, updating Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) metrics, and refining the requirements for EPCs and Display Energy Certificates (DECs). As well as improving data management protocols, strengthening quality control and revising air conditioning inspection reports to ensure compliance.
Why is it important for the Government to revise this framework?
These energy certifications play a vital role in understanding the energy efficiency of a building and enabling energy performance improvement. By using the information collected from these certifications and reports, they can serve as a foundation for reducing a building’s carbon emissions and creating more sustainable structures. By improving the management of the data collected and strengthening the quality control of these assessments, the information that is collected can be used to support the way the UK approaches energy efficiency and sustainability.
There are numerous benefits to energy certification and reports, including enabling buyers and tenants to compare the assessment of energy costs and carbon emissions of different properties before purchasing/renting. The certificates also provide information on the current performance of different elements of buildings, including recommendations for cost-effective and energy efficient improvements.
What could change for EPCs and DECs?
The consultation is considering if using a range of metrics to mark the overall energy performance on an EPC could be beneficial. This could include energy cost, carbon emissions, energy use, heating system, fabric performance and smart readiness. This could support the improvement of building energy performance. This change would be significant given the current system of a single metric rating between A-G. However, it is expected that this will only be used for domestic EPCs, for now Commercial EPCs will remain with a single metric rating as organisations are already aware of their carbon emissions and are aligned with net zero objectives.
The consultation also poses the question as to what the validity period for EPCs should be, presenting six different options, ranging from less than 2 years to 10 years. Currently the validity of an EPC is 10 years, and a building is required to have an EPC upon sale or let.
Buildings which are regularly used by the public with a floor area over 250m² are required to have a DEC and a DEC Recommendation Report. In the consultation, the Government is looking to understand if DECs have raised public awareness of energy usage in public buildings and if the Recommendation Report are supporting energy performance improvements.
They are also proposing to reduce the validity period of DECs and Recommendation Reports, from 10 years to 7 years for buildings between 250-1,000m², and from 7 years to 5 years for buildings over 1,000m². To encourage more buildings visited by the public to have DECs, the Government is also recommending doubling the fine for non-compliance to £2,000.
What could change for Air Conditioning Inspections?
Air Conditioning inspection reports (TM44) must be carried out by an accredited air conditioning energy assessor every five years on systems that have an effective rated output of more than 12kW. These inspections provide information on operation efficiency of the systems and provides recommendations on improving performance which can save operating costs and emissions produced.
Implementing air conditioning report recommendations can achieve up to 30 – 40% in energy savings. However, the issue is that compliance with the regulations to complete these inspections is low and therefore energy efficiency and carbon reduction benefits are not being fully taken advantage of. Through this consultation, the Government is proposing an increase in penalty charges for not complying. The consultation is also looking to redesign air conditioning inspections to include more relevant and a fit for purpose structure. This proposed redesign for an air conditioning inspection would include the following:
- The likely efficiency of the system and any suggestions for improvement of any faults identified during the inspection and suggested actions
- The adequacy of equipment maintenance and any suggestions for improvement
- The adequacy of the installed controls and control settings and any suggestions for improvement
- The current size of the installed system in relation to the cooling load and any suggestions for improvement
- Consideration of the capabilities of the system to optimise its performance under typical operating conditions
- A summary of the findings and key recommendations.
The aim of these changes is to encourage system operators to implement recommendations for improvement to develop the energy efficiency of their air conditioning systems and reduce their emissions output.
Overall
The Government is putting their commitment to net zero at the heart of this consultation. With buildings contributing to such a large amount of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions, changes must be made to the way we manage and monitor them and how the data is used to make informed decisions when creating more energy efficient and sustainable buildings.