Been a while

Well its been a long while since I wrote in this and there has been a bit going on........

The competition for Draw an ECO House is underway, and you can vote on the drawings by the children (follow this link.....http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=125357600814357&aid=69402 ) you have to click like on the drawing you want to vote for - you can vote once for key stage 1 and once for key stage 2.
The drawings are fantastic and you can see how much effort the children have put into this competition.

Work has been steady, could always do with it being busier but its given me time to add a new service! So along with EPCs (domestic and commercial), floorplans, photos, descriptions and inventories I now offer an end of tenancy cleaning service. Its definately becoming more of a one stop shop for letting and estate agents! But it saves time if you can get the EPC, floorplan, inventory and cleaning organised with just one phone call and know that it is done to a very high standard.

I am hoping with the news of help for first time buyers we are going to start to see the housing market pick up and start to get busier. I am also waiting to see if the petition that was organised is going to work and the "Life" span of an EPC will be brought into line with that of the gas safety certificates. Given how much can change over 10 years it would make a lot of sense if the EPC was only valid for 1 year.

Got to hope.

Reading through the news this morning all I could find was doom and gloom in regards to the housing market - housing market remaining slow, pessimism affecting housing market and highly uncertain, being the main headlines online today.

But click on to them and read through and there is a glimmer of hope! So I have "swiped" the positive comments out for everyone to see below:

"“However, there is a very clear regional pattern emerging, with London seeing a greater level of price resilience, while in much of the North and Midlands the market remains under greater pressure.” http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Housing-market-gets-off-to-a-bad-start-says-RICS

"Atlantic Canadians may feel they can afford to scrimp and save to pay off debt built up during a holiday buying spree, as the bank suggests, but those same people may feel that purchasing a new home is just too far out of their reach for now. But there is a touch of irony that a simple decision by individuals to hold off on making major purchases, such as a new home, ultimately affects the broader economy"
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Business/1226718.html
It seems that the Canadians are experiencing what we in the UK are. There is little confidence in the market and therefore people aren't buying - but if there was the confidence then we would see higher prices, more properties on the market and more work and better for the economy. Unfortunately (yes, I am on that "soapbox" again) until the Government puts pressure on the banks to make it easier to get a mortgage again we aren't going to see the influx of first time buyers on the market that we need.

check, check and check again

I cannot believe it is only ten past 7! All 3 children are washed, fed and dressed and we don't have to leave for school until just after 8, the cleaning is done and my invoicing for my work today is already done. Am in super organised mode today.

I was outside a moment ago (letting the dogs down the garden) and its trying to snow?! I love the snow normally but after Decembers efforts - 3 inches of snow one day the entire country grinds to a stop, followed by no snow just ice and slush then a little bit more snow, I would prefer it to not snow at the moment.

A family friend rang me the other night to talk about renewable energy - and I admit it I learned something new. He works for a solar panel company and he wanted to see if my house was south facing, due to the Governments feed in tarriff the company he works for will install the solar panels on your roof for free. Being the cynical person I can be I wanted to know what the catch was. Apparently to get the solar panels for free your house (this applys to commercial buildings as well) needs to be south facing and must be able to accommodate at least a 3.5Kw system and must be willing to sign a lease agreement for the company to lease their roof for the next 25 years. The benefits of this is that although the company gets the feed in tarrif from the Government for all the energy going back into the grid the homeowner gets the rest of the free energy and therefore lowers their own personal heating bills. I am going to look into it further and see if my house is suitable - as far as I am concerned it would be a selling point for my property (if and when I sell) as who wouldn't want cheaper heating bills for their home!

Last night I was proved right in my obsession in double checking. I did a "tricky" property the other week, beautiful house but there were numerous improvements that the rdsap would not be able to calculate properly. So to make sure that my EPC was produced correctly and as accurately as possible I rang my accreditation company. This is my 4th year of being a DEA but I would rather ring and double, triple check than produce an incorrect EPC. After quite a bit of back and forth calls we came to a conclusion that would produce the most accurate EPC for the client. Last night made me very glad that I had done that as the client queried the result on the EPC - I managed to explain everything and because I had checked thoroughly I was confident and happy in my answers.

Off to get myself up and dressed ready for the walk to school (saving petrol and energy and hopefully working off a bit of the Christmas stodge!)

Nothing of interest

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20101122/tsc-uk-climate-costs-011ccfa.html - worth reading. Its interesting to know that it will cost money if we don't work together to save energy and money!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Work is picking up quiet a bit at the minute (fingers crossed and touch wood) so hopefully it will continue for a while. The evil creatures I live with (my children) have finally been sleeping through the night so I have been playing catch up on my sleep while I can.

Am eagerly awaiting the Cancun fortnight and whatever (hopefully lots) of decisions are made during that time, I haven't been writing as much lately as I think you will all get very bored with me during that fortnight as I get on my soapbox and rant about whatever is released in the press.

I am sad to say that there seems to be still alot of problems for some DEAs getting their money out of an EPC company - it is a shame and there are always two sides to every story but at the end of the day if you have done the work you deserve to be paid and in this current climate it is essential that you are paid and paid on time! There was another story about it today - follow this link http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=3738&type=news_features

Anyone can do an EPC?

"Now everyone can do an 'EPC' thanks to new phone app

Friday 27th August 2010
In what sounds like bad news for the already beleaguered energy assessor industry, a new phone app is being launched which will give everyone the ability to audit and generate an A to G rating on any home.
A London firm called Qreative Medias is behind the application ‘Home Energy Performance’ which is available on the iPhone and iPad in the Apple Stores.It is thought users will be home owners, buyers, estate agents, letting agents and builders.The app not only delivers an energy rating but also recommendations and advice, with a pdf report.The report indicates the EPC score, including the A to G graph required under the EU directive. The app is available worldwide and in several different languages.
However, a spokesman for Qreative Media said that whilst the app generates an EPC, exactly as a survey would do and in conformity with guidelines, it would not count as the 'real' thing in terms of requirements for selling or renting a property, as it is generated by the iPhone user and not by a registered and accredited Domestic Energy Assessor.

http://home-energy-performance.mobi"

The above story comes from http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/News/Story/?storyid=3468&title=Now_everyone_can_do_an_'EPC'_thanks_to_new_phone_app&type=news_features.

It may seem like an absolutely awful idea and the final death blow to all those people who spent their life savings/remortgaged their houses to become a fully trained accredited Domestic Energy Assessor but even the creaters of the software Qreative Media said that the app generates an EPC it DOES NOT count as the real thing. Plus in my mind unless the person who is using the app understands exactly what a DEA looks for and assesses then there is a large possibility of the data being collected incorrectly, entered incorrectly etc so it can never be a substitute for a real EPC. There is of course the possibility that the app may be used by some people to try and get away with not having a correctly done EPC by an accredited and trained DEA.

On the plus side if it gets people interested in EPCs and the fact that they can save money and energy that has to be counted as a positive.

A learning experience

I am very glad that I started this blog as it has made me more interested in what is going on around me in the Global community with regards to energy saving. Up until last week I had no idea what Australia had already done and had never heard of Christine Milne (she is now a heroine of mine), I didn't know that the US were looking into measuring the energy efficency of properties and it is being promoted even in the planning stage as something that will increase or decrease the marketability of a property.

I have gotten frustrated though with the seeming lack of communication between the countries. Why aren't they all working together - seeing what the others have already tried and what the problems have been (training providers, setting a fee, too many assessors etc)?

I am passionate about energy saving, I believe in practising what I preach (am fully double glazed, good combi condensing boiler and lots of insulation) and am always open to new ideas.

Scotland have started looking at how they need to adapt the rdSAP that currently produces the EPC as it doesn't apply fully to their housing stock and the weather conditions. Its a good way of doing things - take something that already works and adapt it to correctly fit the country. Its a flexible approach that saves time.

I have looked at the other websites, some are very client friendly such as Sweden with an easy to understand site that encourages you to look further, others such as France are filled with details that are encouraging but require a little more time to read through.

It is very promising and a great start - just think if all houses that were assessed were required/strongly encouraged (ie makes the property more saleable) how much difference it would make to the world.

What can we learn from other countries?

I have been reading some of my favourite blogs this morning and looking for new information about what other countries are doing to reduce the energy usage of their privately owned properties. Whilst I was looking I found this: -http://www.energy-performance-certificates.org/blog/think-domestic-energy-assessors-have-it-bad. Its from Mike C's blog and is dated back in March of this year, Mike has tirelessly provided good, up to date information for DEAs and the general public with regards to the energy assessors industry within this country and is one of the people I admire.

"Australia’s Housing Sustainability Assessment Scheme (HSAS) launched in July 2009 to provide 360,000 homes with free energy assessments, allowing homeowners to qualify for an interest-free loan of up to AU$10,000 to pay for energy-efficiency improvements under its Green Loans Program, repayable over four years. " Mike goes on to explain that it was thought that this scheme would take over 4 years to complete and provide work for the assessors in Australia.

Fortunately the Australians did alot of things right such as:
1. Setting a fee (no undercutting or rogue traders over there)
2. Giving lots of promotion.
3. Only one accreditaton scheme.
4. Interest free loan to make the improvements (great idea and a good way to get people to carry out the improvements in my opinion)

Although there were also the problems with the fact that the accreditation scheme suspended new assessor registration and late payments by the government to the assessors. And once again those nasty training providers were at it again, the Australian government did not cap the amount of assessors needed leaving the assessors in much the same position as the ones here in the UK with too many assessors and not enough work - the only people to benefit from that have been (once again) the training providers.
What was nice to see though was this quote from the ASBA - "While it was not our role under the Federal Government protocol to limit the number of registrations, we became sufficiently concerned with the increased number of assessors seeking accreditation. Therefore we took the decision to limit the number of registrations pending while at the same time putting our concerns directly to DEWHA. "

Apparently though the assessors in Australia have a champion, who believe in speaking her mind clearly - Christine Milne, who is a Green Party MP. Its nice to see that they have some one fighting their corner.

In 2011 Australia is legislating for homes sold to have a certificate of environmental performance - I can only hope that they look at what has happened already with their assessors and limit the number accredited and continue to keep the fees fixed so that the assessors do not suffer the same fate as the DEAs in the UK.

There are many things that both countries can learn from one another and this is what I feel would help in both countries:
1. Set the fee
2. Watch the training providers
3. One overall governing body
4. Incentives to encourage energy saving
5. Promotion to encourage greater understanding of the certificate
6. An EPC should only be valid for 12 months - not 3 years for selling and 10 years for rental. It causes confusion.
7. Cap the amount of assessors.

EPC - explained

What is an Energy Performance Certificate?

The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is one of many new measures that are being applied across the EU member countries to improve energy efficiency. An EPC provides two key pieces of information.

• The energy efficiency of a property on a scale from A – G ( The most efficient being A and G the least efficient)
• The environmental impact of a property.

It also provides recommendations and cost effective ways to improve the energy efficiency of a property. The benefit is that, if acted upon, this can mean lower energy bills due to the lower energy consumption and in turn lower carbon emissions.

When is an EPC required?

By 2009 as part of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive ( EPBD ) all buildings in the UK that are constructed, sold, or rented out will be required to have an EPC.

• An EPC is required when you sell or let your property and is valid for 10 years.
• Landlords must provide an EPC to prospective tenants, the first time the property is let. The EPC is valid for ten years.

Why is an EPC important?

All EPC’s on existing homes are produced using the same methodology. This means that all home owners and occupiers can compare the energy efficiency of different properties – in a similar way to comparing the fuel consumption of different cars.
Part of the EPC is a recommendation report which will list the potential rating that your house would achieve, if the changes were made. This information can be used to –

• Cut fuel bills.
• Improve energy performance in the home.
• Help cut carbon emissions.

How is an EPC produced?

An EPC can only be produced by either a Domestic Energy Assessor or a Home Inspector who must be approved by either a Government accreditation or certification scheme. The assessor will visit the property to assess the energy related features. These are then entered into a computer programme which is a calculation model, developed by the Government, known as RdSap (Reduced Data Standard assessment procedure).
This is a cost based rating system using predetermined assumptions and therefore rates the house on its “built in” energy efficiency rather than the actual energy consumed.

EPC Format

The EPC shows information relevant to the individual property in the form of tables and a graph similar to that seen on domestic appliances. The EPC is split into the following sections –

• Asset Rating.
• Estimated Energy Use.
• Summary of energy performance features.
• Recommendations.

Asset Rating

The Asset Rating section displays the Energy Efficiency Rating and Environmental Impact Rating.

The performance of the property is rated in terms of the energy used per square metre of floor area, energy efficiency based on fuel costs and environmental impact based on carbon (CO2) emissions.
The numbered arrows in the Asset rating display shows the current rating based on the existing energy performance of the property and a potential rating based on the suggested improvements being implemented.

Estimated Energy Usage

The Estimated Energy section shows the estimated energy use, carbon dioxide (C02) emissions and fuel costs of the dwelling. The figures are based on standardised assumptions about occupancy, heating patterns and geographical location. This means that the figures displayed will be different to the actual fuel cost. The reasons for this are:

• RDSAP uses a standard heating pattern within the calculation, of 9 hours each weekday and 16 hours a day at the weekend, and assumes that the main living area is heated at 21o C and the remainder of the dwelling at 18 o C. This may be different to the actual heating pattern of the person living there, but it enables the property to be compared on a like for like basis.
• The model also assumes that the number of occupants is proportional to the floor area of the dwelling and hot water usage is calculated using the same proportions. Therefore if a single person is living in a 5 bedroom house, the energy used for hot water in the model and, displayed on the EPC, will be higher than the actual usage. Again this procedure allows all properties to be compared on an equal basis.
• In addition the model assumes that all properties are based in the middle of England, and uses the average outside temperature of that region for the heating calculations. However, a property in the Southwest of England is likely to require less energy for heating than a comparable property in the Northwest – which would be reflected in the actual bills.
• If the property has 2 heating systems present, a primary or ‘main’ heating system; perhaps a gas boiler with radiators and a secondary or ‘top-up’ heating system; maybe an open coal fire, the model assumes that up to 15% of the space heating is provided by the secondary system. The efficiency of the secondary system is likely to be much lower than that of the primary system and will therefore push the energy costs up. It may be that the secondary system is rarely used and would not contribute to 15% of the space heating, but again so as to compare properties fairly these are the standard assumptions made in the model.
• The energy use displayed in the EPC also includes the energy consumed in producing and delivering the fuel to the dwelling, and thus will be greater than the energy actually used in the dwelling.

Summary of Energy Performance related features

The summary of energy performance related features section of the EPC shows the most crucial energy related elements of the property. The table is broken down into different elements of the property and displays its current energy efficiency and environmental performance. The descriptions are based on the data that has been collected specific to the property’s thermal and heating elements, these are Very Poor, Poor, Average, Good and Very Good.
In some cases, due to the RDSAP calculation methodology, some of the elements have to be assumed. Floors are a prime example of this as it is not possible for a DEA to identify whether any additional floor insulation is present as the survey is non invasive ie a DEA cannot use a drill to lift floorboards or pull back carpeting.
Some of the descriptions could lead to concern from the homeowner and it is necessary to explain the reasoning behind these. For example, if the energy efficiency of hot water is given as ‘poor’, this could be due to the cost of electricity compared to the cost of gas. The environmental impact could also be rated as ‘poor’ due to the carbon emissions associated with electricity generation.

Recommendations

The recommendations section list measures that can improve the SAP rating of the property. These are separated into;

• Lower cost measures – below £500 installation costs.
• Higher cost measures – above £500 installation costs.

The measures are assessed cumulatively in a predetermined order, and are only included if they make a measurable change to the energy efficiency of the building.
This section also displays typical savings per year, and shows the Energy Efficiency and Environmental Impact rating as a result of these improvements.
The Asset rating displays the potential ratings for lower and higher measures only.
Finally, there is a description of each recommendation, as well as how it can be used to improve energy efficiency of the home. It also gives advice as to the application / installation of the recommendation.  For more information visit  epc.direct.gov.co.uk
(source – NHER Factsheet).