Display EPC Guide

Display Energy Certificates
Larger public buildings must have Display Energy Certificates (DECs) on show. They may also require Energy Performance Certificates if they have been recently constructed, modified, sold or leased. Air conditioning checks must also be carried out.

DECs show the public how much energy a building uses and how energy efficient it is compared with other similar buildings. They are accompanied by advisory reports that list cost-effective measures to improve energy ratings.

This guide informs energy assessors about carrying out assessments and producing DECs and advisory reports. It explains the role of assessors in producing DECs, and how to get and keep accreditation. You can also find out about collecting the information needed for a DEC and assessing the operational rating of a building.

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When a Display Energy Certificate is required
Occupiers of larger public buildings must have a Display Energy Certificate (DEC) - together with an associated advisory report.

DECs are valid for one year. They are needed whether or not the building has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) and in addition to any requirement for air conditioning checks. The advisory report is valid for up to seven years.

What counts as a larger public building?
'Larger public buildings' are those with a total useful floor area over 1,000 square metres which are occupied - or part-occupied - by a public authority or institution that provides public services to a large number of people and is visited by the public.

They also include site-based premises - eg campuses and land containing more than one public building. However, not all buildings on a campus may require a DEC - only those that are visited by the public and are over 1,000 square metres, including halls of residence, and those that are readily accessible to the public and visited frequently - eg for meetings.

Affected public organisations must display a DEC at all times. Where a public organisation has occupied a building for less than 15 months on 4 January 2009, and does not have an EPC - or 12 months' fuel meter readings - the energy assessor may calculate the operational rating for the building over the period of its occupation by the organisation. See the page in this guide on assessing the operational rating of a building.

Premises that do not need a DEC
The following types of premises do not need a DEC: premises of private organisations that share a building with a public authority or institution that needs a DEC, irrespective how much of the building they occupy premises operated by businesses - although this may change in the future restricted access buildings - such as research labs on campuses

Provided that you use the same procedure and a suitably accredited energy assessor, you may produce a DEC on a voluntary basis for premises that are not legally required to have one.

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Assessor accreditation for Display Energy Certificates
To produce Display Energy Certificate (DECs), you must be an operational ratings assessor (ORA) and a member of an accreditation scheme approved by the Secretary of State.

To become accredited as an ORA, you need to meet the relevant national occupational standards (NOSs). There are two routes to accreditation as an ORA: Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning - for those already experienced in energy management or energy assessment. You need to provide evidence of how you meet the NOS in full, including proven ability to use operational rating software and a portfolio of sample DECs and advisory reports. You may also need some top-up training. Qualification - for those new to energy assessment. To gain the level three diploma in display energy assessment, you will need to attend a specific course. Assessment is by a multiple choice exam and a portfolio of sample DECs and advisory reports. You can find out more about ORA accreditation schemes and NOS on the Asset Skills website

You can call the Asset Skills Helpline on Tel 0800 056 7160.

For further details, you can contact the following organisations, which all award the diploma in display energy assessment: Awarding Body for the Built Environment - Opens in a new window National Federation of Property Professionals - Opens in a new window City & Guilds - Opens in a new window Organisations authorised to operate ORA accreditation schemesWhen you have gained the diploma in display energy assessment, you can apply to an accreditation scheme for accreditation. See our guide on energy assessor accreditation.

Maintaining your membership of an accreditation scheme
Once you have been accredited, you will need to: maintain appropriate professional indemnity cover update your skills and knowledge regularly take part in the accreditation body's quality assurance procedures abide by the scheme's advice and guidance For more details see our guide on being an energy assessor or home inspector.

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Collecting information for a Display Energy Certificate
Before issuing a Display Energy Certificate (DEC), you must get reliable information on the building. You will need to gather data on the annual consumption of each fuel - electric, fossil, biofuel, district heating, etc - and also details of what measurement period is used for each of these.

You will need to find out: the type of building and what it is used for the internal area of the building energy consumption data for the previous 12 months - actual meter readings or consignment notes for all fuels used in the building(s) that you're assessing details of the building's assets that affect energy consumption - eg insulation, building services details of the occupier's management of the building - eg how the services in the building are maintained and used, and whether staff are encouraged to use the facilities efficiently

The client should be able to give you this information. Otherwise you will need to find it from other sources, such as: the building landlord or representative the utility supplier the district heating or cooling provider Buildings that are on a site or campusSome organisations have multiple buildings on a site - eg hospitals, schools and university campuses.

A site-based DEC is a single DEC that covers all the qualifying buildings on a site, and captures the carbon footprint of the whole site. You can work out the total site energy consumption for each fuel by converting it into carbon dioxide emissions. You can only perform a site-based DEC where a number of buildings share meters. If a qualifying building has its own meter, it should have its own DEC and advisory report.

You will need access to earlier DECs and accompanying advisory reports, and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and recommendation reports, if they exist. As long as you have the unique reference numbers for these certificates and reports, you can access EPCs, DECs and reports on the commercial EPC Register on the Landmark Information Group website -

To help them comply with the regulations, special transitional DEC arrangements were in place until November 2009.

Organisations who produced a site-based DEC under the transitional arrangements must now display a DEC specific to the building they occupy.

There is nothing preventing the continued use of site-based DECs on a voluntary basis, but this must be in addition to, and not in place of, the preparation of individual building specific DECs.

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Assessing the operational rating of a building
A Display Energy Certificate (DEC) gives an operational rating for a large public building. An operational rating indicates the carbon dioxide emissions that result from the energy a building consumes over a period of 12 months, as recorded by gas, electricity and other meters.

You can calculate it by measuring how much carbon dioxide a building emits annually per unit of area, then comparing this to the benchmark, which is the typical quantity of carbon emissions for that particular type of building.

Different performance benchmarks are needed for each type of building function. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers has produced operational benchmarks for 29 main categories of building, and listed the different types of building and use for each category.

To enable the performance of one building to be compared with another, the government uses set rules to calculate operational ratings. The calculation takes into account several adjustable factors, such as: the location of a building how many hours a building is occupied whether a building has mixed use

Source www.businesslink.gov.uk