Energy performance certificates—ignored or disregarded? asks Malcolm Dowden
Since October 2008, Energy performance certificates (EPCs) have been required whenever a commercial building is built, sold or rented out. For houses and flats, the EPC regime took effect in 2007. A building needs an EPC if it has a roof and walls and uses energy (heating, air conditioning or mechanical ventilation) to “condition an indoor climate”.
Compliance and enforcement
A monthly index, run by National Energy Services (NES) and Building.co.uk monitors how many commercial buildings currently being marketed have a valid EPC. The sample for February 2010 covered 1,084 buildings in Cumbria, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex and Leicester with a floor area in excess of 50m2 and included buildings which had been on the market for at least six months. Only 39% of the properties investigated were compliant.
The index provides empirical support for concerns raised in the House of Lords by Lord Dixon-Smith who, in July 2009, referred to “almost total ignorance or disregard of the need for energy performance certificates in the commercial sector”.
Having lamented the lack of compliance, Lord Dixon-Smith described EPCs
