Professional Property Presentation

Energy Performance Certificate Wales

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2002/91/EC) was made to encourage the reduction of Carbon Emissions through increasing the efficient use of energy in order to satisfy commitments made in the Kyoto Protocol. An Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is required for all homes whenever built, rented or sold.

If you are buying or selling a home it is now law to have a certificate. They are also required on construction of new homes and have been required upon letting of a property since October 2008.

Energy Performance Certificates (EPC's) are now required for all Non-Domestic buildings whenever built, rented or sold. There are a few exceptions as to when a Certificate is not required (religious use buildings, stand-alone buildings less than 50m2) however it is rare for the exemption conditions to apply so it is always safer to assume that the subject building does require a certificate until confirmed otherwise.

The certificate records how energy efficient a property is as a building and provides A-G ratings. These are similar to the labels now provided with domestic appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines. Unlike the Domestic Certificates there is just the one graph for commercial properties, with the lower the Carbon emissions the higher the rating.

The process for creating an EPC for non-domestic buildings, as mentioned, is much more involved. the method used is the Government Approved UK National Calculation Methodology. And this data is modelled in SBEM (Simplified Building Energy Model) to perform all the necessary calculations to assimilate what the expected Carbon emissions should be. The data required to model the actual building is the area of every thermal element walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, windows and doors, the lighting systems in place types of lamps, sensors, fittings etc. the Heating, Ventilation and Cooling (HVAC) systems in place including their controls, the hot water delivery systems and their controls. The building is divided into zones with the individual measurements of each element recorded for each zone.