Energy Matters - Issue 12

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ENERGY MATTERS

issuE 12 | 2023 retrofit updates Heat pumps: roadmap and market www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk EPCs ArE misundErsTood, noT mislEAding
The Elmhurst Almanac

Foreword

Since the turn of the year, I have been out and about meeting customers, attending exhibitions and talking at many conferences. The resounding message that I am hearing is that more businesses and people want to understand how to achieve better energy efficiency for their homes and buildings. The message we continue to push is that Elmhurst Members are the first point of

contact - to help them understand the energy efficiency of their building and to advise on what steps to take next. The key as always is that every building is different, and occupiers use these buildings differently too.

Whether people need energy assessments, retrofit, air testing, and more, we can connect the clients to Elmhurst Members. Energy Efficiency is not just a tick

Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023 2
Welcome to the latest edition of Energy matters. i hope that you can take a break from what is certainly a rapidly increasing business world and enjoy the articles inside.

box, but rather a combination of products and services. This means that as an industry, collaborative working needs to be embraced. The whole building approach is a mantra that keeps coming up and is always going to be the right approach.

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) have recently been front and centre of the news. And, although most articles are supportive, others seem to want to discredit EPCs. Rest assured that Elmhurst always responds to journalists and authors to discuss and counter what is nearly always just a misunderstanding. We will always stand up for good independent information and drive the positives of our sector, but we accept that improvement and innovation are paramount.

I was delighted to attend our National Conference in January. It was our biggest and best event ever, with record attendance and a fantastic lineup of industry experts and government representatives. We will also be rolling out regional conferences in Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, with our next taking place on 6th June in Edinburgh. As always it will be great to hear from an excellent array of speakers and catch up with as many of you as possible.

I am also pleased to see that the coming together of Stroma and Elmhurst is taking place across different strands. The teams here are working extremely hard to ensure business continuity and smooth transitions, but as we do it, we add more and more value to each strand. The support teams will be larger and more resilient, and we are taking the best of both worlds to ensure that members end up with better service and products. Please keep an eye out for any

communications that affect you. In terms of consultations, we continue to reply to all those that affect all our members, with amendments to PAS 2035 as a recent example. We are also aware that the government is close to issuing the consultation on the EPC Action Plan, with its aim to build upon and improve all aspects of EPCs. The Energy Bill is also progressing, which will ensure that the law, which was previously in line with EU law, is reset to UK legislation. Keep an eye out for a consultation on SAP 11, which is expected in ‘Spring’ and will indicate the next step on the transition to the Future Homes Standard in 2025. Disappointingly we still have no clear plan for the introduction of RdSAP 10 to upgrade this to the latest SAP 10 methodology; we continue to ask and push for this change, as we know it is urgently required.

I am also increasingly aware that banks and lenders are becoming more involved in the domestic sector with regard to EPCs in their lending books and with green financing, including loans and mortgages linked to energy efficiency. This was something Elmhurst members were doing in the mid-90s before EPCs became regulated, so the good news is that we all know how to help consumers understand their homes or buildings. The financial markets recognise that they need to operate more in this space; and with this comes the opportunity for quality and competent people. This is why we continue to push our ‘Find an Assessor’ tool on our website to easily connect consumers to Elmhurst members.

I hope that 2023 continues to be a very buoyant year for you all and that together we can keep

pushing for quality and competence, to help deliver the more energy efficient future that we all know is required.

us on

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FolloW soCiAl stuart Fairlie managing director
Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023 4 06 EPCs are misunderstood, not misleading 08 The Elmhurst Almanac: cost consumption carbonEPCs must change to measure all three 10 What is a life Cycle Assessment? 12 retrofit updates 14 Heat pumps: roadmap and market 16 market data 18 Training update FEATurE EPCs are misunderstood, not misleading Contents 10 12 06 14 18 08

EPCs are misunderstood, not misleading

However, it is inevitable that there will be instances where news may not be entirely fair or accurate. One recent case was when The Times newspaper reported that “EPCs were misleading”. We disagree and wrote to the paper outlining why EPCs are vital and that the article itself is not quite accurate. Equally as important we reached out to the authors of the research the article appeared to be based on.

Energy, climate change and fuel prices are never far from the current headlines and it is great to see positive news stories surrounding the importance of energy efficiency in the built environment.

The article highlighted the potential inaccuracies of domestic EPCs, citing new research conducted by Carbon Laces, an innovative startup that is helping to build financial tools for energy decarbonisation and regeneration of finance.

As always, Elmhurst welcomes all involvement and scrutiny of EPCs and the energy efficiency industry, which is why we met with Carbon Laces to discuss. Both parties agree that the headline was misleading.

EPCs have a purpose and a place -and are a modelled asset cost profile of a property, while smart meters cover actual energy use. EPCs have grown to cover actual building performance for various applications, like regulatory compliance to lending. Currently,

these two outputs are fundamentally different, and comparing them is like comparing apples with pears. That is also what the research highlights.

It is vital to understand that an energy assessment and the EPC are based on standard occupancy e.g. an average family living in the property operating the home on set temperatures and running times. The EPC predicts the heating, hot water and lighting for the home based on average use patterns and average weather conditions.

They continue to serve their original purpose by enabling homebuyers or renters to compare the energy efficiency of properties and make informed decisions prior to renting or purchasing a home.

One of the key findings within the study is that occupants of properties with EPC ratings of F and G consume less energy than the standardised occupancy expects. This highlights the importance of accurately measuring and understanding occupant behaviour.

As fuel costs continue to rise, many people are likely to have significantly changed their energy consumption habits at home. However, the most inefficient homes, which are also the most expensive to run, require additional information to fully understand the outcomes observed in this context.

Were the occupants reducing their heating usage, adjusting the timing of heating schedules, or using alternative heat sources that are not metered? It is important to note that metered data also includes non-regulated energy such as cooking

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FEATurE www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023

appliances, which the EPC does not account for.

Interestingly, homes rated EPC A and B, which are more energy efficient, appear to have higher energy consumption than predicted by the EPC. This may be due to improved insulation, which makes occupants feel comfortable keeping the heating on for longer periods compared to older, less efficient homes.

Both Elmhurst and Carbon Laces agree that in order to understand and measure a home’s energy efficiency, we need to help homeowners understand their energy consumption and make good decisions. This starts with baseline EPC (the asset), overlaying this with details of the

occupant’s lifestyle, refining the predictions of energy use (the occupancy), and then finally using the metered data to check progress against the goals (the meter).

All three pieces of data, i.e. the energy cost, energy use and energy consumption, are required in harmony, and using one in isolation only tells part of the story.

One key takeaway is that the large increase in fuel prices has made it challenging for individuals living in the coldest homes and with low disposable income to afford heating, resulting in reduced usage. As experts in this sector, we all continue to push for homes to be

as efficient as possible, and by employing all three metrics, we can help families to understand what to do to make warmer, cheaper-to-run, lower-carbon homes.

Elmhurst and Carbon Laces will maintain an ongoing dialogue to enable research that can help us to understand how people use energy in their homes. We at Elmhurst will also defend energy assessment and its professional members, whilst equally acknowledging that we must ensure that the methodologies and outputs (EPCs) keep improving, with more up-to-date research, innovation, fuel prices, carbon factors, and more.

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Against a backdrop of rising fuel poverty, environmental pressures and energy security concerns, EPCs are coming in for a lot of scrutiny and criticism.

Elmhurst Almanac:

At Elmhurst Energy, we believe that Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) need to be updated in order to better support the journey to net zero, address fuel poverty, and enhance the quality of our buildings. This call to action has been raised within our new 2023 Almanac that was recently published.

At Elmhurst Energy, we believe that Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) need to be updated in order to better support the journey to net zero, address fuel poverty, and enhance the quality of our buildings. This call to action has been raised within our new 2023 Almanac that was recently published.

Our Almanac, ‘Turning the Dial’, calls on the UK Government to adopt what we refer to as the ‘Three Cs’ approach to EPCs. This approach would ensure that equal focus is placed on energy cost, energy consumption, and carbon emissions in EPCs.

This change is needed as part of the EPC Action Plan, first published in 2020 and still to be implemented fully. Elmhurst Energy’s Managing Director, Stuart Fairlie says:

“Against a backdrop of rising fuel poverty, environmental pressures and energy security

Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023 8
The
cost, consumption, carbon - EPCs must change to measure all three

concerns, EPCs are coming in for a lot of scrutiny and criticism. This is understandable, as the EPC as it exists now is over 15 years old. it was designed then simply as a cost metric, showing how expensive or cheap a home is to run.

“This is now too basic a measuring stick for the challenges we face today. People care about cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions. The time is now right to update the EPC so that it can more easily communicate vital information about the predicted and actual energy use and carbon emissions of a building.”

As well as detailing energy efficiency legislative and regulatory developments over the last year, the almanac features a list of future policy recommendations, including:

1. redesign the EPCChange the EPC to include the ‘Three Cs’: energy consumption, energy cost and carbon emissions.

2. use the ‘golden Triangle’ for EPCs - Provide the building’s asset ratingthe predicted energy cost and consumption of a building based on average occupancy, its occupancy rating - the predicted energy consumption of a building based on the people using it - and its energy consumption (the energy the building actually uses to run).

3. Ensure EPCs reflect the current state of a building - reassess and reissue an

EPC every time a building undergoes changes that would impact energy performance. no EPC should be older than three years.

4. make energy efficiency education a priorityContinue to prioritise consumer education around energy efficient living, using energy assessors to support this.

5. Keep updating assessment methodologiesContinue to invest in updating sAP, sBEm and rdsAP methodologies to reflect the introduction of new technologies and innovation.

In addition, we are calling for the increased use of qualified energy assessors to help advise homeowners and businesses to

boost the uptake of available renewable technologies; rebalance the tax applied to fuels to favour low emission fuels instead of fossil fuels; use available technology to measure real-time building energy consumption and heat loss; and create a national standard for Net Zero buildings, including introducing an independent certification or competent persons scheme.

Stuart Fairlie added:

“This year Elmhurst turns 30 and we have already seen the announcement of a new department for Energy security and net Zero, and the launch of the new task force for energy efficiency just this week. We hope the new department, faced with so many calls to update EPCs, will take heed and help us deliver the energy efficiency improvements so desperately needed.”

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THE ELMHURST ALMANAC Turning the dial

What is Life Cycle Assessment?

life Cycle Assessment (lCA) is becoming a more important factor across the built environment as the focus remains on carbon emissions and their impact on the planet. lCA provides both the big picture and the fine details needed to understand a building’s lifetime impact on the environment and take the necessary steps to reduce it.

Before understanding lCA, it’s vital to understand the stages of greenhouse gas (gHg) emissions examined.

What is Whole life Carbon?

Whole Life Carbon is the sum of greenhouse gas emissions from the full life-cycle stages of a building and the relevant materials. This covers raw material extraction, transportation, manufacturing, construction, maintenance, renovation, and end-oflife/demolition.

A Whole Life Carbon assessment provides the broadest and most complete picture of a building’s total emissions across its lifespan and includes two subsets:

n Embodied Carbon: the amount of GHG emissions emitted during the production of materials and during construction, as well as during operation (such as retrofit work) and end of life.

n Operational Carbon: the amount of GHG emissions emitted once a building is in use. This includes the energy needed to heat, cool and power the building.

Assessing the amount of carbon produced throughout a building’s lifetime identifies ways to reduce the embodied carbon in the building’s specification as well as once the building is occupied. There is also scope to identify the potential circular economy benefits, such as by keeping materials in circulation and avoiding waste through reuse.

What is Embodied Carbon?

The measurement of embodied carbon is done by multiplying the estimated quantity of each material by a carbon factor (this is

Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023
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FEATurE www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk
“We need to be able to create a process that can deliver assessments at scale. With approximately 250,000 homes being built every year...”

normally measured in kgCO2 per kg of material). With this information, decisions can be made on which materials to use throughout a project to reduce its environmental impact.

Due to increased awareness and innovation, our buildings’ operational costs and emissions have decreased over the last decade. The embodied emissions, however, have remained relatively constant since 2010. As a consequence, embodied carbon is becoming a greater proportion of a building’s Whole Life Carbon emissions – expected to be over half by 2035.

What is involved in a life Cycle Assessment?

A Life Cycle Assessment assesses the potential environmental impacts of a building and its

materials. The assessment covers all stages of a building’s lifespan, including the raw extraction of materials, manufacturing, and end-of-life/demolition.

An LCA is usually conducted in four stages. These are goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. The assessment considers all relevant environmental inputs and outputs, including oil, water and land use, as well as emissions into the air, water and soil. From this, factors such as the building’s Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification and Eutrophication (overfertilization) can be understood.

An LCA report allows for a greater understanding of a building’s impact on the environment and can lead to more informed

decisions on the materials used. This includes which raw materials are involved, how they are produced, where they come from, and how they are transported. The goal of an LCA is not only to collate the necessary data but to facilitate decisions and lead to more sustainable and carbon-neutral buildings.

Since 2018, a Life Cycle Assessment report has been mandatory for all projects requiring a BREEAM rating. As a recommendation, from December 2023, an LCA should be mandatory for all projects over 1,000 m2 or more than 10 dwellings. However, early adoption is encouraged.

We need to be able to create a process that can deliver assessments at scale. With approximately 250,000 homes being built every year, LCA needs to understand the needs of this market and develop a process that is practical and utilises the skills of the country’s accredited new build energy assessors. Furthermore, we should build upon what has been successfulwhen the market for LCA increases from a few hundred each year to hundreds of thousands, we will need a process that can operate at scale using readily available practical tools. SAP and SBEM are our National Calculation Methodologies and are being used day in and day out by thousands of assessors operating under an established quality assurance framework at a reasonable cost. The methodologies are currently under significant review, which Elmhurst would be the first to say is overdue. We feel utilising 20 years of progress will accelerate this excellent initiative.

t: 01455 883 250 • www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk
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retrofit updates

A great deal has happened in the world of retrofit in recent months, with new funding streams confirmed, more money announced for existing schemes, and proposed changes to the guidance document that underpins all the current funding.

Starting with ECO 4, there is now evidence to support an increase in lodgements and more engagement from the installer industry. In addition, there is a confirmation that the number of measures being installed in each improved property is between four and five. This places greater emphasis on a good quality retrofit assessment and a robust coordination process to ensure

there are no unintended consequences.

This scheme is live for another three years so clearly there is a significant amount of funding available. We can only hope that the levels of interest continue to grow to enable as many homes as possible to benefit.

TrustMark is working hard to provide a better level of

information to accreditation

schemes which means we will soon be able to analyse activity across all funding strands and provide an enhanced level of data.

great British insulation scheme

Prior to Christmas, we were invited to offer comments to a government consultation on a

Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023 12 FEATurE www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk

new proposed funding strand called ECO +. The results of this consultation have recently been published and the first thing to confirm is a name change. It now has the catchy title of ‘The Great British Insulation Scheme’ and is due to go live in late spring or early summer.

The scheme, which is worth £1 billion over a three-year time period, aims to provide

improvements to 410,000 properties. The qualification criteria have largely remained unchanged from the consultation with the focus being on single insulation measures and not the ‘whole house’ approach adopted by ECO 4. The target properties are identified by an EPC rating of D to G and by the lower council tax bandings.

The most significant change from the proposal first published late last year is that, like the other current funding options, this scheme will also require full PAS 2035 compliance and not simply an EPC. Clearly, this will place a significant cost burden on the scheme, and considering the proposal is for only one measure per property, it has to be hoped that this does not deter the industry from fully engaging.

social Housing decarbonisation Fund (sHdF)

Whilst we are talking about funding, on the 22nd March 2023 we saw the confirmation of the latest wave of SHDF funding being published. This is effectively pots of money, bid for and now awarded to a variety of local councils and authorities for them to spend on projects aimed at improving their housing stock. The scheme is to run over the next two years and has awarded a total of £778 million to 107 different projects with successful bids ranging from £300,000 to over £49 million. As with Wave 1 it requires full PAS 2035 compliance so offers great opportunities for Retrofit Assessors and Coordinators to use their skills and knowledge to improve the quality of the housing stock and reduce fuel bills for the respective tenants.

PAs 2035

Finally comes news of a consultation on the document that sits at the heart of all of these schemes - PAS 2035.

April saw the publication of this consultation document that has proposed a number of changes to the way PAS 2035 is implemented. Whilst we are still working on our response to these proposals, they include a change to the definition of Traditional buildings and the qualification required before you can act as a Retrofit Assessor or Coordinator on this type of property.

There are other suggested changes that would mean different Risk Paths being introduced and requiring Retrofit Coordinators to visit each site at least twice during the retrofit process. These are only proposals at this stage. Clearly, any significant changes have to be well thought out and their consequences fully understood before they are introduced. The purpose of this consultation is to allow all interested parties time to express their views so that change, when it is made, is considered and appropriate for all.

In the end, what we should all be working towards is improving our housing stock, reducing the emissions from that housing stock, and lowering the energy bills for the occupants of those homes.

t: 01455 883 250 • www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk 13

Heat Pumps: roadmap and market

Elmhurst’s existing dwellings support team has noticed a recent shift in the types of queries received from members and consumers. in line with the government’s Heat and Buildings strategy and the Boiler upgrade scheme, the focus is now on heat pumps.

What is a heat pump?

Heat pumps come in various types, and all operate on a similar concept to a refrigerator. They extract heat from a lowtemperature source, such as the air, and transfer it through a compressor. This process increases the pressure of the energy and thus increases the heat. The heat is then circulated around the home through a heat exchanger.

Heat pumps are highly efficient, with a greater quantity of heat delivered through the home when compared to the equivalent electricity generated. The fact that they are low-carbon heating systems is why the government and industry are pushing to raise

awareness and implement measures to encourage people to install them.

The government has created a plan to grow the heat pump market, with the aim of installing 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028 and introducing a new scheme from 2024. The LowCarbon Heat Scheme will place an obligation on heating system manufacturers to ensure that a proportion of their total appliance sales are heat pumps. One challenge, however, is the cost of installation, as in some cases a heat pump can cost 10 times more than a gas boiler. To counter this, the ambition is to reduce the cost of installing a heat pump by 25-50% by 2025 and for cost parity by 2030.

How does a heat pump currently reflect on an EPC?

Although EPCs do report carbon emissions, the headline rating is a cost-based metric.

The methodology for EPCs (SAP) works well at predicting the energy costs of a home fitted with a heat pump compared with, for example, a condensing boiler. Where an assessor selects the make and model of a heat pump, the assumed efficiency will be over 300%. Despite this, under the current fuel prices a shift to a heat pump is likely to cost slightly more and therefore the EPC score will be slightly worse.

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FEATurE www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk Energy Matters | Issue 12 | 2023

The government has referenced this in the Heat and Buildings Strategy, stating that once the current spike in gas prices subsides, the price difference between mains gas and electricity will be addressed by shifting levies from electricity. When the price of gas and electricity is rebalanced, that will be reflected in the SAP methodology, and the EPC rating for a home with a heat pump will improve to demonstrate both the reduction in cost and carbon.

The EPC does not currently recommend any type of heat pump to be installed as an improvement measure, as the methodology has not been kept up to date. The good news is that the assessment process is effective and well-established and

that the physics on which the methodology is based has stood the test of time. The government recognises that some of the variables and the logic in how the recommendations are presented are now out-of-date. This is why they are working on an update.

With the methodology likely to change in 2023, we are pushing for changes to the current list of improvement measures (Appendix T) that are applicable to recognise heat pumps. This would mean that a stakeholder looking at an EPC in the future would see a heat pump as a recommendation.

This leads to what we are doing now to help our domestic energy assessors deliver valuable energy advice. We are working on new

training material for heating systems that will focus on heat pumps, providing more technical details on how they work and the impact on the EPC. We aim to release this very soon. Additionally, we are running an ABBE Level 3 qualification in the Calculation of Building Heat Loss. This course is designed to provide energy assessors with the knowledge to specify the requirements of a heat pump to be fitted within a property, ultimately helping installers and moving away from fossil fuel heating systems.

As a tool for our members to use for providing advice, we have now released our new ‘Improvement Evaluator’ software to DEAs. This allows members to create improvement scenarios for their customers. Whilst this is not a replacement for the EPC, it can be used in addition and can be shown to customers to reflect how efficient their home will be by installing a heat pump.

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Market data

Existing dwellings

Existing Dwellings Volume of EPC lodgements and residential house sales on a rolling 12 month basis (by quarter).

Here at Elmhurst we collect and analyse data from many sources in the belief that it helps us make better business decisions.

Turning this data into a digestible form takes time and requires a detailed understanding of context. In each edition of Energy Matters we provide you with a snapshot of this data, with a brief commentary, which we hope you find of interest, and can help you prepare for the future.

COVID-19 has obviously had a major impact on the construction, housing and energy assessment markets which is reflected in each of the charts. Some of the data related to new build homes within the devolved authorities has not been updated since December 2020 and estimates have been used.

Commentary

Over the last five years, house sales have been relatively consistent at around 1.19 million per year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the market fell away in March 2020 but recovered by July and continued to grow dramatically, with volumes only starting to fall again from December 2021. Volumes in the 12 months before September 2021 peaked - hitting 1.55 million (17% higher than the previous peak in March 2016 and 30% up on the standard). Volumes have been declining for the last 12 months, before March 2023. However, at 1.22 million, they are still up from the 1.19 million figure.

The volume of EPCs peaked in the 12 months before May 2014, largely driven by ECO. This fell back sharply to a low of 1.2 million in March 2018. After two years of recovery, they peaked again in February 2020 with year-on-year growth of 11%, largely due to Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) in the Private Rental Sector. From March 2020 (1.63 million), the volumes dropped significantly. However, they are now back above pre-covid times of 1.71 million. There are many other reasons for an EPC to be completed, such as those for social housing as well as ECO4. The Local Authority Delivery Scheme and work funded by the decarbonisation fund will likely boost demand. Government initiatives, such as MEES, should also continue to drive up the demand for EPCs. Typically when we see EPCs on the increase, this would indicate that house sales will also increase. This does not seem to be the case and shows that there are other factors driving up demand.

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n Volume of EPC lodgements on a 12 month rolling basis n Volume of residential housesales on a 12 month rolling basis of Commercial

new Build / on Construction

New Build / On Construction Volume of residential house starts and completions on a rolling 12 month basis (by quarter).

non domestic

Non-Domestic/Commercial buildings Non-residential (commercial) property sales in the UK on a 12 month rolling basis. Volume of commercial property EPCs in the UK on a rolling 12 month basis.

n Volume of residential house starts on a rolling 12 month basis

n Volume of residential house completion on a rolling 12 month basis

Data for Scotland and Wales is estimated since December 2020. Volume of On Construction (new build residential) EPCs in the UK issued on a rolling 12 month basis.

n Volume of Commercial property EPCs in the uK on a rolling 12 month basis

n non residential (commercial) property sales in the uK on a 12 month rolling basis

Commentary

More recently, we can see that the non-domestic sales have been falling, with a slight increase in March 2023. Commercial sales have recovered well and are now 24% above the lows of January 2021 and 6% down from the peak of October 2017. Whilst EPCs are issued for reasons other than property sales, they have continued to grow massively and are now 84% above the lows of March 2021. The market has recovered exceptionally well, with the blue line showing a strong upward trend for Non Domestic EPCs. We can see that the sales for non-domestic properties is steady and therefore very likely that the demand is mainly driven by other reasons such as MEES regulations.

Commentary

Since COVID-19, house starts have recovered quickly and hit a new peak in June 2021 of 217,000. They have since fallen by 3% to 210,000. The volume of EPCs in the last twelve months has recovered to 293,000 from its low of 246,000 (up 19%). Volumes peaked in Feb 2020 at 302,000 and are currently only 3% down from the peak figure, showing some growth.

non-domestic/Commercial buildings

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n Volume of on-construction (new build residential) EPCs in the uK issued on a rolling 12 month basis

Training update

As a training department, we had our busiest year in 2022 and there are no signs of slowing down. With the introduction of new courses and practical days, we are working hard on developing new courses for our existing members, as well as securing extra funding from BEis. There has never been a better time to join our industry or up-skill in a different area.

Introducing our new website allowed us to offer a huge 50% off our pre-recorded webinars earlier in the year, giving assessors the opportunity to learn something new, top up their knowledge, and gain CPD. I am planning more new pre-recorded courses over the next few months, so please keep an eye out.

As I'm sure you know by now, Stroma Certification and Elmhurst Energy Systems have begun the merger process. This really is a really exciting time as we bring new opportunities, resources, and talent to the table. However, this has also brought challenges, with the need to assess the current state of both training departments, understand where we are starting from, and take stock of the current training programs and resources available.

Now that we have a clear understanding of the current state of training, we can develop a plan for how we will integrate the two programs. This will include

identifying areas where training will need to be expanded or updated, as well as determining how to best leverage the strengths of each company's current programs.

As you can see, we are going from strength to strength and soon, we will offer a dynamic, streamlined, and up-to-date way of learning. We are spending lots of money on our Learning Management System as well as our OneFile online portfolio system. In the background, we are also working on streamlining the portfolio systems and processes as well as bringing in more trainers to meet demand and ensure we are always offering the best possible training to you.

For those of you interested in classroom training, we are looking at putting on another Roadshow in the south of England and possibly Scotland towards the end of the year. I hope you have a busy year ahead, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

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For further information about the services that Elmhurst Energy provides please visit: www.elmhurstenergy.co.uk or call: 01455 883 250

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