It is important for consumers and the general public to know and understand the energy performance of buildings. For public buildings, the idea was to have Display Energy Certificates (DECs) that would allow the public know the performance of buildings that were deemed part of the public space. The UK, together with many EU member states implemented the DECs back in 2008. Today, Andrew Warren writes in the June issue of Energy in Buildlings & Industry why those DECs are disappearing from public view. He questions whether are are no longer considered of value. He argues that it is time for the UK government to make its intentions clear.
For those who want to better understand the history of Display Energy Certificates, in 2015 EiD published a post by Robert Cohen and Bill Bordass that reviews its history before Brexit. EiD would also like to know what is happening with the DECs in the rest of Europe.
Energy certificates not on display
The official Government website is unequivocal. Public authorities must display each building’s Display Energy Certificate (DEC) “in a prominent place clearly visible to the public e.g. near the building’s entrance. Failure to comply can result in a £500 fine.” Members of the public are invited to “contact the occupier of the building if you can’t find the DEC”.
Originally introduced with considerable fanfare by the Brown Government in 2008, the DEC initiative was taken specifically to enable taxpayers to see just how efficiently, or indeed inefficiently, the money provided to run each building was being managed. The objective was simple: to act as a driver and tool to reduce energy consumption in buildings, hence to provide better value for taxpayers.
DECs for buildings over 1000m2 have a validity of 1 year, and are reckoned to be required annually in around 58,000 buildings. The certificate provides a rating running from A to G, together with numerical Standard Assessment Procedure differentiations. The display must also provide the same evidence for the past three years, to enable progress (or lack of it) to be easily monitored.
Ten years ago, every smaller public building between 250 and 1,000m2 in size also had to have a similar DEC rating of the actual operational energy performance of the building. These only have to be repeated once a decade. Again, the DEC is measured against established benchmarks and takes into consideration the ways in which occupants use the building.
There seems to be no public information compiled available as to precisely how many buildings this extension should be covering. Nor what all the actual ratings are. Nor for that matter are the specific ratings for each of the 58,000 larger buildings accessible- except in Scotland, where the y can be found (after diligent searching) on the Energy Saving Trust’s website.
But all the original ratings done for these smaller buildings back in 2015 are now due for reassessment during the next 12 months. Making these results easily publicly visible would reveal whether the scheme is still being effective.
Above all, the operational rating on a DEC illustrates how efficiently the building is actually using energy. That is very different from the Energy Performance Certificate ratings used for homes and private non-residential buildings; these concentrate upon theoretical rather than the actual energy usage.
Calculating ratings
To calculate a DEC rating a qualified Assessor requires information on the type of building under assessment. total floor area of the building. They also need the annual energy use of the building (gas and electricity) and methods used to provide heating and cooling.
To ensure that the accompanying Advisory Report will provide relevant guidance, to assist in improving future Operational Ratings in subsequent years, any assessor requires the following additional information: how the heating and cooling is controlled, the use and method for heating/cooling water in the building, the type of lighting used in the building, and any onsite energy generation.
Some newer buildings will have this information to hand, especially if facilities managers have been maintaining a log book or operations and maintenance manuals. But often this information still needs to be collected from a variety of documents held with separate departments within the organisation.
In the initial year after DECs introduction, there were regular public statements made providing case histories of significant progress in specific public buildings. It was always difficult to state categorically how much the influence of a DEC per se had influenced reductions in wasteful energy usage.
The best evidence was an influential and definitive study of all DECs lodged during their first three years of operations, by Hong and Steadman of University College London. This concluded that, where DEC compliance was taken seriously and renewed without fail every year, the buildings in question collectively achieved substantial savings that completely outweighed the relatively trivial costs of each energy survey.
The original Explanatory Memorandum justified their annual renewal (as against any ten-year renewal) as adding £457m in net present value – and that was at 2008 prices!
Public consultation
There is a key reason why DECs have fallen out of the headlines.
Back in 2015 the then Communities Secretary Eric Pickles also announced his intention to abolish all Display Energy Certificates. He ran a public consultation, which elicited many hostile responses, none of which have ever been published. Unbelievably, according to the Government website, officials are still “analysing your feedback”.’
So, whilst no further formal announcements have ever been made one way or the other about the future of DECs, the unfortunate consequence is that too many Trading Standards Offices – officially charged with ensuring compliance across the public sector- may have tacitly assumed that the 2015 consultation ‘s proposals have become tacitly government policy.
There is no question that there has been little or no subsequent drive to ensure not just compliance in terms of annual surveys, but that any results are displayed in a prominent place . Certainly no £500 fines have been levied.
.A visit to many public buildings will frequently find either no certificate, or the certificate tucked away in some obscure place : the House of Commons one is now attached high up onto a cupboard in the far corner of the public entrance at Cromwell Green – and is out of date. The HQ of the energy department had no DEC visible when I last visited.
And even the sole example of a DEC ,displayed in all its glory on the official Government website, which covers Number 10 Downing Street, is now over four years out of date.
The sheer stupidity of this selection is that I do know that subsequentlythe Prime Minister’s offices have been upgraded remarkably. Moving from a poor F grade DEC to an impressive C grade DEC now. But that is not what the DEC government website publicises.
There is obviously a positive story to tell about improving energy , indeed general, efficiency at the top of government ,for which DECs can help provide outward and visible evidence . So why is nobody bothering to tell it? Last year the Communities department ran another public consultation on the future of DECs. Let us hope this time the response will be published, and we shall see some genuine positivity again.
Energy in Demand - Sustainable Energy - Rod Janssen 