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Stay Legal - Display Energy Certificate (DEC); Organisations in the Public & Private sector, large and small are now taking on board the issues surrounding the Credit Crunch and financial crisis the banks have put us in and are making the most of these unsettled times to finally investigate the real oppotunities to save money and reduce costs.  Fortunately, when it comes to energy savings, this works hand-in-glove with reducing carbon emissons.

In the same way that a business employs a building manager, an accountant or a company secretary, an energy/sustainability manager is just the person now needed to "take up the reins" and make a concerted effort to drive down costs.

Agreed, it is possible to contact uSwitch or any number of online energy brokers who will give you a quote on potential energy savings and my recommendation is to change provider at the earliest oppotunity. Savings in the region of 10% to 30% can be achieved.

However, there is one MAJOR factor that eludes most businesses.  As you know, in the same way the telephone bill gets paid every quarter or every month for that matter pretty much without question (as its after the event) the energy bills are even more vague.

How often are your bills queried?  If you're like most other organisations or businesses, probably not very often. And the reason being; the information is normally too minimal to even try and decipher.  So, three bills turn up once a quarter, with very little information and they get paid every time, pretty much without question.

The Answer: Constant, Realtime, Remote Monitoring of Energy Usage and Metering, dispalyed via the Internet, providing alarms due to spikes and anomalies.  Simple "probe" installation  Click Here for more information.

As from 1st October 2008, the govenment has introduced new legislation that requires buildings to Display an Energy Certificate (DEC) in the same way as a fridge or freezer, see below:


Do I need a DEC?

As from 1st October 2008 all pubic buildings over 1000sq metres will require a DEC

A Public building includes the following:

• A Public Authority
• Government
• NHS Trust
• Police
• Courts
• Prisons
• Schools & Higher education authorities including Universities
• MOD
• Army
• Executive Agencies
• Statutory Regulatory Bodies

A Public Service

• Schools
• Leisure Centres
• Hospitals
• Public golf club houses
• Libraries
• Museums and art galleries sponsered by public authorities
• Building frequently visited by large numbers of the public

To find out how to have your DEC displayed in realtime via the web Click Here

The DEC will be valid for 1 year and must be displayed in a public area in clear view

The Advisory Certificate is valid for 7 years and must be made available to the public if requested

Faliure to comply

You can be fined for not having a DEC, not displaying a DEC and not having an advisory certificate available:

Faliure to attain a valid DEC can result in a fine of £1000
Faliure to display a valid DEC can result in a fine of £500

Information requirements for preparing a Display Energy Certificate

Communities and Local Government (CLG) have published guidance that will help you identify whether you need to produce and display a Display Energy Certificate (DEC) and obtain an Advisory Report (AR) for your building.

This guidance is available at www.communities.gov.uk/epbd. The guidance here indicates what information occupiers will need to provide in order to obtain a DEC and AR once it has been ascertained the building(s) occupied qualify under the regulations.

More explanation is given in the accompanying document (“detailed guidance for occupiers”), which you may wish to work through with your accredited Display Energy Certificate (DEC) energy assessor. The basic information you will need, though, is summarised briefly below:

	Check whether you have correctly interpreted the CLG guidance and identified the building or buildings for which you will need to display a DEC. You may need to confirm this with an accredited energy assessor.
	Locate and identify your incoming energy meters and any other (sub-) meters that separately meter energy being produced from On-Site Renewables (OSR) and Low and Zero Carbon (LZC) technologies, or energy used in your building for specific purposes different to your normal activity.
	Find and collate any actual energy consumption data you have from your energy meters and any sub-meters covering the (approximately) one-year period to the current date. Include in this information any records of delivery of liquid fuels, and of solid fuel, together with records of stock or tank levels over the same period.
	Contact your energy suppliers to get estimates if you have no meter readings available. Where relevant this may include your supplier of district heating or cooling.
	If you do obtain energy from a district heating or cooling system, contact the supplier to obtain a statement of the carbon dioxide burden of the energy supplied to your building (e.g. kg CO2 emitted per kWh of energy delivered).
	Obtain or calculate your building areas, bearing in mind that the assessment will use the Total Usable Floor Area (TUFA). You may be able to use an alternative metric but measuring TUFA directly will provide a more accurate result.
	Find and collate any readily usable plans of your building that would help the assessor to confirm or to measure any unknown floor areas, and any simple plans and schematic drawings that would enable the assessor to locate and identify significant features of the building, its occupancy and use, and the energy consuming services provided.
	Find and collate previous energy survey work that has been carried out on your building, as this can help advise in the generation of the Advisory Report.

Note that, if your building is recent then you may have been provided with, and may have continuously updated the information in, a building log book. If so, most of the information needed for the assessment of DEC's should be contained in the log-book.

For further information please contact Clearvoice Consulting.{/reg}